Ducks Unlimited recognizes that its mission to fill the skies with waterfowl is an international one. After all, most of North America’s waterfowl traverse the skies over more than one country as they complete their annual transcontinental migrations. They rely on habitats in multiple countries as well. That’s why impacting waterfowl populations on a continental scale has been Ducks Unlimited’s objective from the beginning.
DU’s story began with the founding of two sister organizations committed to cross-border cooperation. DU Inc. and DU Canada (DUC) were founded in 1937 and 1938, respectively. Pioneering waterfowl surveys conducted by DU’s founders revealed that habitats in Canada supported the majority of the continent’s breeding waterfowl, which were struggling after years of drought. In response, DU’s first order of business in the United States was to raise funds for inaugural projects north of the border—in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.
That model would guide DU’s conservation efforts for decades before the organization began expanding its delivery even further. In 1974, Ducks Unlimited de México (DUMAC) was established to address the need to conserve vital wintering habitats for waterfowl in that nation. In 1984, projects began rolling out in the United States, the first of which focused on breeding habitats in the Prairie Pothole Region. By the mid-1980s, DU had established itself as an international leader in wetlands and waterfowl conservation. In 1986, DU staff helped draft the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP), a bold strategy to benefit waterfowl and their habitats by setting habitat objectives on a continental scale that would be implemented through regional Joint Venture partnerships.
Today, DU continues to set new milestones each year for acres impacted through its work across the continent. In 2025, DU delivered a record 1.2 million acres of habitat conservation in the United States, while DUC conserved more than 147,000 acres and DUMAC conserved 24,642 acres. Much of that success stems from partnerships with government agencies, other nonprofit organizations, private landowners, and corporate supporters—most notably under the auspices of NAWMP. DU staff serve on virtually every NAWMP Joint Venture as well as its various committees and working groups. DU is also heavily involved in leveraging matching funds for North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) challenge grants, which fund NAWMP projects across North America.
DUC Research Scientist Dr. Vanessa Harriman says NAWMP is especially important to DU’s work in Canada. “I can’t imagine what our work would be like without it. Seventy percent of the NAWCA money we receive goes to the prairies, and each of those dollars is matched by four dollars from partners,” Harriman notes. “It helps us leverage other money for conservation and waterfowl science, making us more efficient and effective in our habitat delivery.” She adds that DUC staff work closely with other Joint Venture and NAWMP science coordinators and support teams on updates and reporting.
That level of engagement happens in Mexico, too, says DUMAC Assistant Director Gabriela de la Fuente. “DUMAC has always maintained a very active role within NAWMP, in many cases acting as the Mexican plan counterpart or supporting the government of Mexico with the best technical and scientific information available,” she explains.
Pursuing landscape-scale conservation requires plenty of coordination across the DU universe, adds DU Chief Scientist Dr. Steve Adair. “There’s a lot of teamwork around NAWCA, for example. We work together closely on how to seek that funding and how to lobby for it,” he says. “We also have an international partnership group that meets monthly to talk about how we’re doing and to collaborate on things like fundraising, policies, and programs. And we collaborate across borders on shared landscapes such as the Great Lakes or the Prairie Pothole Region.”
To optimize cross-border cooperation, DU has developed its own International Conservation Plan (ICP). This document is heavily informed by NAWMP and outlines how to most effectively deliver conservation on landscapes that NAWMP has given the greatest priority. The ICP is also used to standardize strategy and business plans across all three organizations. Adair, Harriman, and de la Fuente are leading the latest revision of the ICP, a process that began two years ago and is due to be completed this fall. A first draft was presented to staff and volunteers for feedback this summer. An external peer review of the plan is also being conducted with academic and agency partners. The final document will go to all three DU boards of directors for approval.
In terms of content, the updated ICP gives greater emphasis to strategies for broadening support and for quantifying the value of DU’s work as it relates to ecosystem services. “We’re identifying landscape conservation priority areas where DU programs are providing ecosystem services that address local resource concerns such as water stress or biodiversity, and we’re considering how to better quantify those impacts to improve ecosystem services–driven funding opportunities,” Harriman explains.
In terms of accessibility, the latest ICP captures a wider perspective, notes de la Fuente. “A large number of people representing all three countries, from different positions and working units within the organizations, were invited to participate in this revision,” she says. “We hope that more people will see themselves reflected in the document, better understand it, and actively use it as a guide for their work.”
Toward that same end, the ICP will be adapted for external use. “In the past this has been an internal document, but as we talked to different groups within DU, we heard that this information should be shared with a broader audience of our supporters,” Adair says.
The ICP demonstrates DU’s commitment to ensuring that its ability to deliver conservation is not limited by borders, and that all three DU organizations have the resources needed to be successful on their respective landscapes. “Our strength is our ability to address waterfowl populations at the scale at which they exist,” Adair attests. “We can direct efforts and resources to those landscapes that are most important to positively impact waterfowl populations. It’s powerful for large funding partners, whether individuals or corporations or foundations, to see us working in such a strategic way across borders.”
States Support Conservation in Canada
In the mid-1960s, a handful of state agency partners from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies began working with Ducks Unlimited to fund habitat conservation north of the border. These state partners recognized that about 70 percent of North America’s waterfowl are raised in Canada. They committed to raising funds to help conserve and restore breeding habitat for waterfowl that migrate through or winter in their own states. Today, this program, known as Fall Flights, sets annual funding goals for 49 states. For its part, DU matches every dollar contributed by state agencies and works with DU Canada to match those dollars with North American Wetlands Conservation Act and Canadian partner funds. In 2025, 48 states participated in Fall Flights, investing a record $5.8 million for wetlands and waterfowl conservation.
