Major Gifts and Gift Planning

First Horizon/First Tennessee and Richard and April Rice Announce Gifts

On March 3, attendees of the annual Wolf River Sponsor Dinner were treated to quite a surprise when two $250,000 Legacy gifts were announced that evening. A corporate pledge from First Horizon/First Tennessee and an individual pledge from Memphians Richard and April Rice capped off a successful night for the DU National Headquarters Chapter event.

First Horizon/First Tennessee, DU’s operational financial institution, has been a generous benefactor to Ducks Unlimited since 1993. In that year, the company committed $100,000 toward the construction of DU’s International Center for Wetlands and Waterfowl Conservation located in Memphis, Tennessee. Their new $250,000 commitment will be directed to the Lower Mississippi River Conservation Initiative. Spanning from southern Illinois to southern Louisiana, the Lower Mississippi River Valley is a critical wintering area for migrating waterfowl and year-round home to other wildlife species such as white-tailed deer and wild turkeys. Gifts designated to this initiative will be leveraged through partnerships with various corporations, individuals, foundations, other conservation organizations, and federal and state agencies to protect and restore forested wetlands along the Mississippi River. 

First Horizon President and CEO Ken Glass is enthusiastic about DU’s efforts. “Everyone who cares about the outdoors and conservation should be supportive of Ducks Unlimited,” Glass said. “They are doing great things for conservation. The organization is staffed by exceptional people who are outstanding citizens in our community—all reasons why we at First Horizon and First Tennessee are excited about giving our support to their efforts.”

Richard Rice and his family are involved in a wide variety of business ventures in the southern United States that include health care and real estate. Their generous $250,000 commitment to DU was motivated by recent visits to the prairies and seeing firsthand DU’s impact on these broad landscapes. Covering millions of acres in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana in the United States and Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba in Canada, these grasslands are the most productive waterfowl-breeding grounds in the world. A mix of small, shallow wetlands surrounded by native grasses, this habitat is under imminent threat of conversion to cropland. As one of DU’s top conservation priorities, the North American Grasslands Conservation Initiative seeks to protect and restore 2 million acres of wetlands and grasslands in this region.

Through partnerships with corpor-ations like First Horizon/First Tennessee and individuals like Richard and April Rice, DU is securing the future of North America’s wetlands and, in turn, bettering the lives of the waterfowl, other wildlife, and people who rely on them.

Higel Family Protects 854 Acres and Receives 2006 National Wetland Award

Ducks Unlimited recently completed the first of two conservation easements on the Higel family ranch along the Rio Grande River in San Luis Valley, Colorado. Father and son, James and Greg Higel, own the 854-acre “Centennial Ranch” that shares its entire northern property boundary with the 1,100-acre Higel State Wildlife Area. The working ranch hosts a number of waterfowl species including Canada geese, mallards, northern pintails, redheads, canvasbacks, ring-necked ducks, and American wigeon.

Thanks to a $137,000 lottery grant from the Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) Trust, Ducks Unlimited completed the first phase of the Higel Ranch protection in December 2005 with a 299-acre easement. This grant was leveraged using funds from a $50,000 North American Waterfowl Conservation (NAWCA) grant. Additional funding for both phases was generously provided by the El Pomar Foundation of Colorado. Protection of the entire ranch will be complete in 2006 with a second 555-acre easement.

DU works with ranchers and other private landowners along the 16-mile stretch of the Rio Grande River between Monte Vista and Alamosa to protect this critical property that is under imminent threat of subdivision and development. To date, Ducks Unlimited has permanently protected 2,273 acres of wetlands and associated uplands in the Rio Grande River Corridor and plans to finalize the protection of another 1,000 acres in 2006.

For the family’s continued conservation efforts, the Higels were recently announced as recipients of one of six 2006 National Wetlands Awards. On May 10, 2006, they were honored as Landowner Stewardship Award winners. This award is presented to a private landowner, who, while utilizing his or her private land for farming, forestry activities, ranching, or development, voluntarily helps restore, protect, or minimize impacts on wetlands.