Insights-Happy 70th Birthday!
By Don Young, Executive Vice President
This year, Ducks Unlimited celebrates its 70th anniversary, an extraordinary achievement in the annals of wildlife conservation. Fueled by a shared passion for waterfowl and conservation, DU has not only endured but also flourished in those seven decades. Much of our success can be attributed to a remarkable assemblage of dedicated volunteers, who generously give of their time, talent, and wealth to organize fund-raising events in support of DU’s conservation mission. I experienced this personally almost three decades ago as a first-time volunteer committee member. One of the lasting impressions was fellow committee members from all walks of life rallying around a common cause of making a difference for this continent’s waterfowl, wetlands, and waterfowling traditions. That same passion and commitment are reflected in today’s generation of emerging DU leaders.
And what a track record we can take pride in. Since 1937, DU’s membership has grown from 6,720 members to a current total of 800,000 throughout North America. DU has nearly 60,000 volunteers and 3,665 chapters in the United States and Canada. During the past year, these men and women provided the leadership to host more than 4,600 DU events. And DU is continuing to grow and strengthen its volunteer ranks, recruiting 9,500 new volunteers and holding events associated with 355 new chapters during the past year alone.
The passion and generosity of countless DU supporters have helped make DU the global leader in wetlands and waterfowl conservation and waterfowl hunting. DU’s first project was completed on Manitoba’s Big Grass Marsh in 1938. During its first year of operations, DU completed five projects in Prairie Canada, totaling 150,000 acres. My own career with DU began halfway through our 70-year history, and at the time, I thought DU had accomplished a great deal. Now some 35 years later, DU has led conservation on some 68,000 projects across North America, encompassing almost 12 million acres of waterfowl habitat. Of this total, DU has conserved roughly 6.4 million acres in Canada, 3.5 million acres in the United States, and 1.7 million acres in Mexico. DU has also contributed to the conservation of millions of additional acres of waterfowl habitat through our public policy work; this includes advocacy for the Conservation Reserve Program and the Wetlands Reserve Program in the United States and the conservation components of Canada’s Agricultural Policy Framework.
DU’s success has also been achieved through countless partnerships with private landowners, government agencies, corporations, foundations, and numerous conservation organizations. A breakthrough occurred in 1986, when DU played a vital role in drafting the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, an international partnership dedicated to restoring continental waterfowl populations to levels of the 1970s. But such an ambitious objective requires significant financial resources, and DU rolled up its sleeves to find new sources for that funding. That work culminated in new federal legislation under the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) that provides a matching federal dollar for each nonfederal dollar for wetlands conservation. NAWCA has contributed almost $800 million federal dollars, which in turn have been combined with partner funds for a total in excess of $3 billion for waterfowl and wetlands conservation in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
Despite all our accomplishments, there is still much more work to do to secure the future for North America’s waterfowl and wetlands. It’s imperative that all of us who care about waterfowl join together to meet the challenges that lie ahead. With your continued support, we can build on DU’s remarkable past and create a brighter future for the ducks and our waterfowling traditions. For now, I’m delighted to join you in extending a hearty congratulations for an extraordinary first 70 years! I can hardly imagine what DU will accomplish in our next 70 years.