Mickey Saso's Wingsetter Calls

25 Time Pacific Flyway Champion Duck Caller

The Wingsetter Eight-in-One Game Call

This unique call is designed and produced by famed caller Mickey Saso.  Its unique 8-in-1 combination includes calls for Pintail, Teal, Widgeon, Wood duck, Mountain Quail, Bobwhite Quail, Gamble Quail, and Valley Quail.

The Eight in One Game call features an easily adjustable slide to allow for quick tuning adjustments.

The Wingsetter EZ Flutter Duck Call

Tired of struggling with tongue fluttering?

The EZ Flutter will call whistling waterfowl such as Pintail, Teal, and Widgeon by simply blowing in the call and adjusting the slide.

 

About Mickey Saso

Mickey Saso enjoys watching the channels of water flow onto his Wingsetter Ranch, even though he can see little below the rippling surface.

"It's usually brown, because of all the topsoil it's collected before it reaches my land," said Saso, whose ranch is below thousands of acres of farmland. "No way to tell what else is in it." What has changed, however, is the quality of the water as it leaves Saso's land and flows toward the San Joaquin River.  It's clear, with insects skimming over the surface and tiny fish swimming underneath. Birds flutter above, alternately drinking and eating water bugs.  "The water undergoes an incredible transformation while moving across Mickey's land," said Michael McElhiney, a conservationist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Wingsetter Ranch is a piece of an extensive effort to cleanse the San Joaquin River, which runs heavy with a polluted potion of topsoil, pesticides and minerals.  It's also an often-cited example of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which offers funding and technical expertise to projects that provide significant environmental benefits.  "Wingsetter Ranch and other wetlands are the basis of the food chain," said Atwater's Dennis Baker, a state and national board member for Ducks Unlimited. "Wetlands are homes to huge numbers of not just birds, but mammals and reptiles, too."  The same environmental practices that produce homes for animals can clean the water. "A lot of people underestimate the cleaning power of wetlands, perhaps because they don't realize the ability of plants to pull pollutants from the water," Baker said. "It's amazing what nature can do with a little help."  Saso said his project has consumed more than $500,000 -- EQIP funded a fraction of it, with the remainder coming from his pocket and partnerships with private and public groups -- but he's quick to say he's an exception.
"I'd hate to scare people into thinking they're all this big," Saso said. "I put together a lot of small projects to make a big one. Smaller steps can be implemented at a reasonable cost."

The key to Saso's system is that he slows the water flow as it reaches his property.  Much of the chocolate-colored water is runoff from farms growing tomatoes, peppers and other crops. As gravity pulls the water down furrows, it collects fine topsoil and pesticide particles.  Small creeks and decades-old culverts direct some water Saso's way, though much of it is routed to his ranch through a 3,000-foot pipe system.  "Irrigation water was draining right into the river, so we put in a switch box to direct it to us," said Saso, who was in the convenience and gasoline business before settling on his ranch. "Now it's clean when it hits the river."

That's because Saso has carved meandering streams, dug shallow ponds and developed silt traps -- part of a water system that has a large lake as its centerpiece -- to slow the flow.  As the water slows, sediment and other particles tumble to the bottom. Silt is removed once a year and used to reinforce levees and bolster the topsoil, the foundation for native grasses and shrubs that support animals in the water, on land and in the air.

Many of those plants also suck nitrogen, salts and other material from the water, using the nutrients to assist in their growth.

There is also a blending of safflower, barley and other grains to provide food for quail, ducks and other birds that fly over or live in dozens of nesting boxes.  "One of the wonderful things about cleaning up the river, beyond improving the quality of our drinking water, is that it cleans up other parts of the ecosystem," Sharp noted. "Fish, small animals and even soil microorganisms can rebound. People are often surprised when they realize how much of an impact water-quality projects can have on wildlife."

Saso said the land was used to grow vegetables and graze cattle before his arrival, and the ag runoff looked the same when it departed as when it arrived.  "The water comes from 3,000 to 4,000 acres of farmland, and gravity brings it through us on the way to the river," Saso said. "I had two choices. I could leave it alone and condone the environmental damage, or I could clean it up and improve the environment. Since I live here and enjoy having my friends out to visit, it was a pretty simple decision."

Excerpts from the Modesto Bee
February 15, 2004
NATURE’S FILTER - FARM WATER RUNOFF CLEANED IN LONG TREK TO RIVER PROGRAM OFFERS FUNDING, ASSISTANCE FOR PROJECTS THAT BOOST ENVIRONMENT
Contact the Bee staff writer Richard T. Estrada, 578-2316 or restrada@modbee.com. for the complete article.