Prairie Pothole Region
The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of the United States and Canada is the most important breeding area for ducks in North America. In 2011, 29 million breeding ducks were surveyed in the PPR—nearly two-thirds of the birds in the traditional survey area. The PPR is also the most important breeding area for several individual duck species, including mallards, northern pintails, blue-winged teal, northern shovelers, gadwalls, canvasbacks and redheads.
Unfortunately, widespread conversion of grasslands and wetlands has diminished this region's productivity for breeding waterfowl. Despite these losses, the PPR continues to produce impressive numbers of waterfowl when environmental conditions are favorable. To ensure healthy waterfowl populations now and in the future, DU has determined that at least 6 million acres of wetlands and 25 million acres of adjacent upland nesting cover must be conserved in the PPR.
Across much of this continent, waterfowl must share the landscape with agriculture and this is especially true in the PPR. As a result, DU works closely with the ranching community to protect large tracts of native prairie with conservation easements and directly acquires properties of high waterfowl habitat value that are threatened with imminent development. In addition, DU helps prairie landowners restore wetlands and grasslands on former croplands through agricultural conservation programs, such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) and by partnering with agribusiness providers. DU also offers agricultural extension assistance to help farmers grow winter wheat on intensively cultivated prairie landscapes, which provides more secure nesting cover for pintails and other dabbling ducks. In the public policy arena, DU is working to secure sufficient funding for Farm Bill conservation programs in the United States and to strengthen state, provincial and federal wetland protections in the United States and Canada to prevent further losses of high-quality waterfowl breeding habitat on the prairies. —Dr. Johann Walker and Dr. Karla Guyn
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