Ducks Unlimited and Jackson County Community Foundation team up for restoration

JACKSON, Mich., November 12, 2007 – Ducks Unlimited recently received a grant in the amount of $10,000 from The Jackson County Community Foundation. This grant was awarded through the Robert A. Sr. and Annetta Martin Memorial Fund, which is a component fund of the Foundation.

The grant monies will be used by Ducks Unlimited (DU) to fund further restoration work in the Malan Waterfowl Production Area and to put the finishing touches on the Baldwin Flooding project, both located in Jackson County.

“This area of Jackson County supports some of the highest breeding densities of mallards and wood ducks in Michigan, and is important to migrating waterfowl,” said David Brakhage, DU’s director of conservation programs in the Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi River. “Our sincere thanks go to the Jackson County Community Foundation for making this critical restoration work possible.”

Jackson County is part of DU’s Southeast Lake Michigan priority area. DU has a goal of conserving an additional 13,000 acres in the next five years within the priority area, which spans 19 counties. Since 1997, DU has worked with a variety of conservation partners to conserve more than 7,300 acres in southeast Michigan. In addition to benefiting waterfowl and other wetland-dependent wildlife, restored wetlands and grasslands can also provide community benefits of improved water quality and reduced soil erosion. In preserving open space, these projects will help sustain a healthy community and improve the quality of life for Jackson County citizens.

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

Media contact: Kristin Schrader
Public Affairs Coordinator
Great Lakes/Atlantic Regional Office
(734) 623-2000 
kschrader@ducks.org

More information: Jackson County Community Foundation: www.jacksoncf.org
         DU in Michigan: www.ducks.org/states/24/index.html