SACRAMENTO, Calif., March 27, 2007 – Ducks Unlimited (DU) was recently awarded a North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) grant to conserve wetlands in the Sacramento Valley. Project partners will acquire, restore, or enhance a total of 22,355 acres in the Butte and Colusa basins on 11 tracts of public and private lands.
The Sacramento Valley is one of the most important areas in the Pacific Flyway for migratory waterfowl. Up to 3 million ducks and 750,000 geese winter there. Most of the valley’s wetlands are gone. Approximately $4 million in matching funds from project partners and $1 million in NAWCA grant funds will restore, protect and enhance wetlands critical to waterfowl.
“NAWCA grants are crucial to DU’s ability to restore and protect wetlands. Partner contributions allow DU to leverage their funds to conserve even more habitat,” said DU’s Western Regional Office Director of Conservation Programs Mark Biddlecomb. “This grant highlights the importance of state and local partnerships. Without those funds, these projects would simply not be possible.”
Ducks Unlimited partnered with the Student and Landowner Education and Watershed Stewardship Program, California Wildlife Conservation Board, California Department of Conservation, California Bay Delta Authority, Parrot Investment Company, River Partners, Chico Country Day School, Behring Ranch, California Department of Fish and Game, Field and Tule Gun Club, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation.
Biddlecomb says the project will take two years to complete.
Multiple activities will occur on 1,465 of the project acres. Through acquired easements, 3,329 acres on Llano Seco Ranch will be permanently protected. Some 1,047 acres on Del Rio Wildland Preserve and Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) are slated for restoration. Another 17,979 acres will be enhanced at Sacramento River NWR-Rio Vista Unit, Llano Seco Ranch, Del Rio Wildland Preserve, Behring Ranch, Gray Lodge Wildlife Area, Upper Butte Sink, Lower Butte Sink, Field and Tule Gun Club, Delevan NWR, and Colusa NWR.
Numerous species of ducks and geese and 18 state and/or federally listed threatened or endangered species will benefit from the partners’ efforts in the valley.
In Washington, D.C., the DU Governmental Affairs staff works with Congress to support annual funding for NAWCA, to continue the act’s waterfowl conservation success. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, California's Senator Dianne Feinstein provides critical leadership in obtaining these federal funds.
For more information on NAWCA, go to www.ducks.org/nawca
Contact: Mark Biddlecomb
(916) 852-2000
mbiddlecomb@ducks.org
or
Mike Checkett
(901) 758-3793
mcheckett@ducks.org
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.