As we focus in North Dakota on the linkage between Ducks Unlimited (DU) and waterfowl conservation, there is another connection that is becoming increasingly important – the “cow connection.” Ranchers in North Dakota, particularly those who live in the Prairie Pothole Region, own and manage some of the best duck-nesting habitat in the world. The same wetlands that provide for blue-winged teal pairs and mallard broods also supply water for cattle and hay during droughts. The native pasture used by a nesting gadwall also fattens Hereford calves. Ducks and cows need the same things. So do ranchers and waterfowl conservationists.

DU has worked with ranchers in the Dakotas for over two decades constructing stock dams, cost sharing fencing, and assisting with rotational grazing systems. These projects have enhanced the bottom line for both ducks and cattle. In the last few years, however, DU has taken our work with ranchers to the next level. We had to, because both our futures were at stake.

Despite record high cattle prices, too many ranchers are having a tough go of it. USDA crop subsidies, coupled with new varieties of soybeans and other crops, have had the unintended effect of fueling the conversion of native prairie to cropland. For cattlemen, this reduces the amount of available pasture and often drives land prices beyond levels that can be justified for cattle production.

DU’s solution to keeping the grass “right side up” is to work with ranchers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to purchase perpetual grassland easements. In essence, these easements attempt to level the economic playing field by paying ranchers the difference between the land’s value as pasture and its value as cropland. For ranchers that already own land, it is a way to resist the financial pressure to sell and to recapture equity in their land without putting it to the plow. For ducks, it means the grass and wetlands will always be there.

The 1990s duck boom underscores the potential of the Dakotas to produce ducks in abundance. Grasslands and intact wetland basins, the combination of which occurs on some 6.7 million acres of pastureland, fueled that boom. The fate of the ducks is tied to the future of that land and ranchers who own it. Now that you know about the cow connection, help DU to increase our work with ranchers through easements and other programs that will keep the grass “right side up.”