Ducks Unlimited Celebrates 65 Years of Conservation

Ducks Unlimited
Tuesday, 29 January 2002

Ducks Unlimited, the world's largest wetlands and waterfowl conservation group, celebrated its 65th anniversary today.

The organization was founded by a group of concerned waterfowl hunters in 1937 in the midst of the Dust Bowl drought. That drought was taking a toll on North America's waterfowl populations, which need wetlands to survive. Unprecedented development was also destroying much of the continent's most valuable wildlife habitat.

To battle this crisis of disappearing habitat, Ducks Unlimited was organized and adopted the following mission: To fulfill the annual life cycle needs of North American waterfowl by protecting, enhancing, restoring, and managing important wetlands and associated uplands.

For 65 years, DU has stayed true to that mission, and today has restored and protected nearly 10 million acres of wetlands and other important wildlife habitats across North America. Central to this conservation success story are nearly one million DU members and tens of thousands of volunteers who raise the funds necessary for such large-scale conservation work. To date, those members and volunteers have raised more than $1.5 billion for DU's conservation work, and the DU organization has spread to Canada, Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, and even to Australia and New Zealand.

"Ducks Unlimited is one of North America's great conservation success stories," says Don Young, Executive Vice President of Ducks Unlimited. "Thanks to our continued support from waterfowl hunters and other conservationists, we have been able to make a real difference on the landscape. But, unfortunately, the battle is far from over. For all the good that we have done, we are still losing hundreds of thousands of acres of wetlands and other habitats every year in North America. The Ducks Unlimited mission is more important and more urgent now than ever."

For more information, or to contact Ducks Unlimited, see their website at: www.ducks.org