Ducks Unlimited honors Duke partnership with diamond legacy award

CINCINNATI, Ohio, Nov. 6, 2007 – Ducks Unlimited conservation staff met with representatives from Duke Energy in on Tuesday morning in Cincinnati to honor the completion of Duke’s $1 million commitment to wetlands restoration in Indiana. Duke received DU’s Diamond Legacy award and a bronze sculpture for their contribution.

Duke (formerly Cinergy Corp.) joined forces with DU in 1998 and a program was established cooperatively between the two companies to protect and restore bottomland hardwood forests in southern Indiana – specifically along the Lower Wabash, White, Muscatatuck and Patoka River watersheds.

“Duke’s partnership has been and continues to be integral to DU’s conservation efforts in these crucial wetland habitats of southern Indiana,” said Dr. Robert Hoffman, director of DU’s Great Lakes/Atlantic Regional Office. “Our sincere thanks go out to Duke Energy for its long-time dedication to the waterfowl, other wildlife and residents of southern Indiana through the area’s wetlands.”

Over the last nine years, Duke’s dollars have led to a total of 1,898 wetland acres conserved in Indiana. Current projects involve the protection of 70 acres of wetlands and the restoration of 43. In addition, more than 550,000 seedlings have been planted on the Indiana project sites.

Every year, $10,000 of the Duke contribution has been used to purchase 100 decoy sculptures used for fund-raising purposes at DU chapter banquets and events throughout southern Indiana, providing an additional opportunity to raise awareness and support for restoration in the area.

Duke receives all of the carbon credits from reforestation efforts associated with these projects for the purpose of atmospheric carbon dioxide sequestration.

With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with almost 12 million acres conserved. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands - nature’s most productive ecosystem - and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres each year.

MEDIA RESEARCH ALERT:
Contact: Kristin Schrader
Public Affairs Coordinator
(734) 623-2000
kschrader@ducks.org

For more about DU’s work in Indiana, visit: http://www.ducks.org/states/41/index.html