A Solid Foundation for Waterfowl

Ducks Unlimited’s Wetlands America Trust continues to grow while nearing the 25th anniversary of its founding

By Gary Koehler

While its name has changed on a couple of occasions since its inception, Ducks Unlimited’s Wetlands America Trust (WAT) continues to upgrade a standard of performance excellence in the waterfowl and wetlands conservation community. Extraordinary leadership has thrust WAT into the forefront of this organization’s battle to preserve the wild places critical to waterfowl.

“DU was once called the best-kept secret in conservation,” says Ducks Unlimited Executive Vice President Don Young, who also serves as WAT’s chief operating officer. “Perhaps that moniker is now worn by WAT. Our objective now is to continue to enhance its profile.

“WAT’s sole purpose of supporting Ducks Unlimited’s conservation mission has been unwavering,” Young explains. “Its principal roles include raising significant philanthropic gifts and fiduciary responsibilities for managing Ducks Unlimited’s endowments and its land holdings including conservation easements. That has been consistent from the outset, but this has really accelerated, especially during the Wetlands for Tomorrow Campaign.”

A loyal contingent of upper-level volunteers has been at the forefront of WAT’s vigorous growth. “Jim Kennedy demonstrated extraordinary leadership throughout his 15-year tenure as WAT’s first president,” Young said. “He was instrumental in attracting other community leaders, provided significant cash resources in support of our conservation mission, and demonstrated his personal commitment to the conservation easement program by setting aside in perpetuity a number of wonderful properties from Montana to Mississippi. Because of Jim’s leadership and that of the trustees, WAT has grown, both in terms of size and its stature.”

In May, John W. Childs of Vero Beach, Florida, was named WAT president. He succeeds Kennedy in that position as only its second president.

“I firmly believe that one of the key roles of a good leader is to find a good successor, and we feel we have done just that in John Childs,” Kennedy said.

Childs is chairman and CEO of J.W. Childs and Associates, L.P., a force in the private equity business. He brings to the position decades of experience as a business executive and a passion for wetlands and waterfowl. 

“John is a guy who cut his teeth duck hunting on Back Bay in Virginia, which coincidentally, is near where Joseph Knapp, the founder and ‘father of Ducks Unlimited,’ hunted as well,” Kennedy said. “Like Knapp, John’s commitment to conservation and passion for Ducks Unlimited are second to none.”

Upon accepting his new leadership role, Childs set several objectives as president of Wetlands America Trust and chairman of the Wetlands for Tomorrow (WFT) Campaign. “One is to complete the WFT campaign and raise the $1.7 billion,” Childs said. “The other is much more immediate. There are 300,000 acres of available grassland easements in the heart of the Prairie Pothole Region—the Duck Factory—that we can protect permanently if we can raise $40 million now. That seems like a drop in the bucket relative to the overall campaign objectives, but we’re looking for cash right now to solve this urgent problem. Fortunately, DU’s hallmarks include its application of good science to make smart conservation investment decisions and then effectively leverage matching dollars. This is a tremendous resource for DU and for all who care about effective conservation.”

Childs also knows that having fun is a key objective when you’re working hard. “I’ve always liked DU’s ability to blend the two, whether it’s at DU events or while spending time in a duck blind,” Childs said.

Childs is now responsible for leading the Wetlands for Tomorrow Campaign, the largest wetlands and waterfowl conservation fund-raising campaign in history. The goal is $1.7 billion, of which $1.3 billion has already been raised. These funds will be used to support nine conservation initiatives that will help DU restore and manage millions of wetland acres. Because these initiatives are specific to certain areas of North America, donors are able to direct their gifts toward regions and projects in which they have a special interest or about which they are particularly concerned.

Currently, WAT has 26 trustees, all of whom are recognized leaders in business and industry, have displayed extraordinary philanthropic generosity in support of wetlands conservation, and remain passionate waterfowl hunters. Appointed trustees include several elected DU officials, including the president, chairman of the board, treasurer, chairman of the Conservation Programs Committee, chairman of the Development Committee, and immediate past chairman of the board. The DU executive vice president (now Don Young) serves as WAT chief operating officer.

“Over the years, we have looked for WAT board members from all walks of life, but Jim (Kennedy) and John (Childs) and I have clearly come to the conclusion that the most passionate conservation leaders and philanthropists on the WAT board are those with a passion for waterfowl hunting,” Young said. “That thought is consistent with the American wildlife model, where hunters and anglers have always led with their wallets in terms of protecting the places and activities they love.”

Conservation easements are extremely effective conservation tools to achieve this, and holding and managing conservation easements are among WAT’s key functions. A conservation easement is a legal agreement made by a property owner to restrict the type and amount of development that may take place on his or her property in order to protect existing wetlands and wildlife habitat. WAT works with conservation-minded landowners in priority areas to secure conservation easements and has the responsibility to monitor all easement properties on a regular basis to ensure the terms of the easements are followed. More than 341,000 acres are now under conservation easement with WAT.

“Conservation easements have really taken off due to a combination of factors,” Young says. “The baby-boomer generation has grown in terms of its interest in recreational property, its commitment toward its love of the land, and its commitment to leaving a legacy of wild places. That conservation easements provide an opportunity for achieving a conservation objective while benefiting from a charitable deduction has made them attractive to Americans.

“Here is a classic example of the private landowner taking a personal responsibility to protect wild places without Ducks Unlimited or the federal government having to buy and manage land. When these private lands are protected, they provide incredible locations for wildlife to flourish. Our entire society benefits from this.”

Examples of WAT’s conservation easement involvement are many. They include the sprawling 3,612-acre easement at Arcadia Plantation, where some of the most historic and environmentally important South Carolina Lowcountry habitat is now under permanent protection. This property along the Waccamaw River once hosted President George Washington.

WAT also administers DU’s land acquisition efforts. Here, monies provided through major gifts are used to purchase properties with high waterfowl habitat value. Land acquisitions provide DU with an effective tool to secure waterfowl habitats that are at imminent risk of loss. Once these lands are protected with conservation easements, they are typically sold to a recreational buyer, cattle rancher, or to other conservation entities, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or a state conservation agency, that will manage and protect wildlife habitat on the property in perpetuity. Proceeds from these sales are then returned to the land acquisition fund to secure and protect more key waterfowl habitats. 

For example, a highly successful DU fund-raising event in memory of the late Chip Allen—an Atlanta attorney and former Georgia DU state chairman—provided much of the capital DU used to purchase more than 2,100 acres of prime waterfowl breeding habitat in Miner County, South Dakota. After acquiring the property from several private landowners, DU restored 22 wetland basins and 230 acres of grassland on former cropland to provide improved habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife. Wetland and grassland easements purchased by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were also secured to permanently protect waterfowl habitat. The land was then purchased by the South Dakota Game and Fish Department (SDGFD). Managed by the SDGFD as the Chip Allen Wildlife Management Area, this amazing tract of wetland-rich grassland supports large numbers of breeding and migrating waterfowl and is open to the public for hunting and a variety of other outdoor recreation.

These types of projects align with the original purposes of establishing the forerunner to WAT nearly 25 years ago. Among its goals was to provide Ducks Unlimited’s U.S. conservation programs specialized financial and fund-raising support. According to the original articles of incorporation, the “corporation shall have perpetual existence and is organized and is to be operated exclusively for charitable, educational, scientific and conservation purposes,” and “shall be operated exclusively for the benefit of Ducks Unlimited, Inc.”

This was accomplished in anticipation of expanding Ducks Unlimited’s conservation programs to include waterfowl habitat work in the continental United States. Ducks Unlimited leaders in 1984 signed articles of incorporation for what was then known as the Ducks Unlimited Charitable Fund Inc. A little more than one year later, the corporation’s name was changed to the Ducks Unlimited Foundation. That moniker eventually changed again and became Wetlands America Trust.