It’s mid-October on the North Dakota prairies. Snow geese sail overhead in long skeins, and rafts of redheads sit heavy on deep ponds, churning the water like tugboats. This is where the fall flight gathers itself, and everything and everyone is preparing for the winter ahead.
Two ranchers are among them. Charles “Chuck” Volk runs cattle on rolling native prairie stitched with small wetlands that hold water even in dry years. Volk is a fifth-generation North Dakota rancher. He and his neighbors are weaving together roughly 3,000 contiguous acres that are protected by conservation easements, with Volk’s share covering a little over 500 acres. Much of this easement work has been made possible by a historic gift from Cox Enterprises, which has enabled DU to dramatically accelerate its work in the Prairie Pothole Region, North America’s most important waterfowl breeding ground.
Volk lingers in his kitchen with DU Conservation Specialist Cody Jundt, enjoying a bowl of salsa made by Volk’s daughter. Jundt went to school with Volk’s son and is a close friend of the family, so the conversation comes easily. After chatting for about an hour, they hop in their vehicles and roll onto the gravel road for a tour of the property.
Gate by gate, they work their way through the places that carry the Volk ranch’s history. “The landowner we bought this land from turned that grass over 50 years ago,” Volk says, pointing to a noticeable line on the landscape. “It was put back in grass 10 years later, but it’s still 30 percent less productive than the native grass.”
As Volk talks about what the easement means to him, the conviction in his voice cuts through the stiff prairie wind. “It’s a long commitment—a generational commitment. I want the grass to still be grass when my grandkids talk about this place,” he says, “but it also helps me cover my rising input costs. It’s hard for many farmers and ranchers out here to keep up. It just made sense to me.”
Later that day, another multi‑generational North Dakota rancher, Brad Sand, walks through his unassuming home, where freshly harvested apples sit on the kitchen table and coyote pelts hang along the staircase. He tours his property in a side‑by‑side vehicle with Tanner Gue, DU manager of conservation programs in North Dakota, Sand’s red farm dog trotting close behind.
“I haven’t had to doctor a calf in 20 some years,” Sand says. “That’s good grass and clean water doing the work. The easement just makes sure we keep it that way forever.”
Sand spends a lot of time carefully observing the prairie habitat on his ranch. “When you let the grass rest, you start seeing all sorts of animals respond—grouse in the uplands, meadowlarks on fence posts, and burrowing owls back on the short ground,” he says.
Much of the large-scale conservation work delivered on the prairies starts out small. After high water blew out a small dam on a stock pond, Sand invited DU engineers to design and build a new one, adding a simple water-control structure to reestablish seasonal drawdowns and hold more water for cattle—and breeding ducks.
“You can have a perfect plan,” Gue says, “but if you don’t have trust at the farm gate, you don’t have a project.” Gue has known Sand and his family for almost 20 years, so when the funding from Cox Enterprises became available for conservation easements, Sand was one of his first calls.
These personal ties aren’t incidental. Progress in the region depends on trust and programs that fit real operations. DU’s prairie conservation delivery is built around that reality and provides voluntary, incentive-based options that match working-land economics while protecting the region’s vital wetlands and grasslands.
“More than 90 percent of the remaining prairie potholes are on private land,” Gue explains. “We accomplish our mission in cooperation with farmers and ranchers, not apart from them.”
The same DU staff who build relationships with landowners at kitchen tables must also deliver their work with speed and precision. They have to move quickly to help ranchers protect high-priority acres, as grazing lands continue to be sold and converted to cropland at an alarming rate across the region. That is why Cox Enterprises’ unprecedented commitment to prairie conservation has been a lifeline for waterfowl, other wildlife, and the producers who work hard to earn a living on the land.
A Game-Changing Gift
In May 2024, Cox Enterprises CEO Alex Taylor announced a $100 million gift—the largest in DU history—to Wetlands America Trust (WAT) to accelerate protection of vital habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region. Taylor made the gift in honor of his cousin and mentor Jim Kennedy, chairman emeritus of Cox Enterprises and chairman of the James M. Cox Foundation. The gift was earmarked to be spent within three years, and Ducks Unlimited immediately began working to meet that commitment. By February 2026, DU and willing private landowners had secured 55,230 acres across the US prairies on landscapes capable of supporting more than 80 pairs of breeding ducks per square mile. DU Canada (DUC) has also secured an additional 23,659 acres through DUC-held easements, bringing the collective total to nearly 80,000 acres across this vast landscape.
“The pace of progress on the prairies shows how individual landowners can make a real difference. Acre by acre, we’re protecting North America’s most important waterfowl breeding habitats, something Jim has always believed in,” Taylor says.
For more than five decades, Kennedy has been an integral part of DU’s success. Beginning as a DU volunteer in Atlanta, he went on to serve as the founding president of DU’s land trust arm, WAT, and has generously backed many of DU’s highest-priority conservation initiatives, distinguishing Kennedy as the organization’s largest major donor. The new gift from Cox Enterprises is a continuation of that legacy—the next chapter in a long history of visionary conservation leadership.
“What matters to me is knowing we’re protecting land that’s been valued for generations and making sure it’s here for the future. DU has long had the expertise to protect prairie habitats, and I’m grateful to see this work continue,” Kennedy says.
The Prairie Pothole Region is where DU’s mission took wing in 1937, and it remains DU’s highest conservation priority for a reason—in many years it supports more than half of North America’s breeding ducks. The most current science has confirmed that duck populations are driven largely by what happens on the breeding grounds, and there is no more important breeding area on the continent for waterfowl than the “Duck Factory,” as the region was aptly named during DU’s founding era.
Stretching Every Dollar
The Cox gift couldn’t have come at a more crucial time. Across the region, the number of prairie wetlands that have been lost or severely degraded ranges from 50 to 90 percent, while 60 to 90 percent of native grasslands have disappeared. Sadly, the loss of these habitats continues to outpace protection in many areas. To help turn the tide, DU is harnessing cutting-edge science to maximize every dollar it receives to help offset and reverse these losses.
The science behind the selection of Cox-funded easements is a prime example of these efforts. North of the border, Ducks Unlimited Canada has developed a return-on-investment tool that integrates ecology and economics to answer a fundamental question: Where will we get the most ducks for our dollars? The model was created with data collected over decades of fieldwork, including surveys of breeding-pair distribution, nest-success studies, and research on brood survival. Layers showing land protection costs and the impending risk of conversion are then added to identify the “right acres, in the right places, at the right price.” What are known as “red zone” acres rise to the top, and that’s where funding from the Cox gift is being put to work.
DUC was among the first organizations to use this cutting-edge approach to guide its conservation delivery on landscapes spanning tens of thousands of acres. “When we apply science to secure permanent protection where it matters most, we do more than conserve waterfowl habitat—we sustain working ranches, improve water quality, and strengthen the resilience of rural communities. The Cox investment arrives at a pivotal moment for the continental prairie landscape and allows us to deliver those benefits at scale,” says DUC Acting Chief Conservation Officer Paul Thoroughgood.
In the United States, DU is using a similar approach to target its easement work on prairie landscapes where nesting pair densities are highest and where the largest blocks of intact grassland remain. DU then ranks those acres by the cost of protection and risk of conversion. Those criteria—and the ability to act quickly thanks to the Cox gift—have allowed DU to expand and accelerate its easement work in the Dakotas. This data-driven process also helps ensure that each dollar DU invests will deliver the greatest possible benefit for breeding ducks over the long term.
A Growing Demand
Roughly 90 percent of the Prairie Pothole Region is privately owned and managed for cattle grazing and growing crops. Across the US and Canadian prairies, voluntary conservation easements like those purchased on the Volk and Sand ranches are among DU’s most effective tools for protecting wetlands and grasslands in perpetuity. Properly structured easements safeguard the habitat values that make these landscapes productive for breeding ducks and other prairie wildlife, while also helping ranchers maintain their way of life. Landowners have consistently shown interest in conservation easements because they provide much-needed extra capital, which can be used to pay down debt or reinvested to make their operations more efficient and resilient. And that interest continues to grow. In fact, the demand for conservation easements among prairie landowners still far exceeds available funding. In total, landowners have expressed interest in securing easements on more than 750,000 acres on high-priority landscapes.
On the US prairies, DU secures easements from private landowners in partnership with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The majority of the money the USFWS uses to purchase conservation easements comes from federal duck stamp sales. To date, more than 30,000 conservation easements have been purchased from private landowners, protecting 3,767,944 acres of wetlands and grasslands across the Dakotas, Montana, and Minnesota. Thanks to the Cox gift and other major donor contributions, DU and the USFWS have been able to expand these efforts to protect more crucial habitat. Over the past five years, DU has helped conserve 1,101,109 acres on the US prairies alone. Of those acres, 527,555 are permanently protected.
Great progress has also been made north of the border. Over the past five years, DUC has helped to conserve 638,728 acres of wetlands and grasslands in Prairie Canada alone; 229,021 of those acres are permanently protected. In total, DUC has perpetually protected over 3,100 properties on 875,365 acres on the prairies.
While there have been recent calls to weaken the protections provided by conservation easements and change the rules governing them, DU and its partners are steadfast in defending the investments made by generations of waterfowlers and other conservationists. Lands protected via conservation easements are like a 401(k) that spins off returns every year, and the waterfowl conservation community is not about to give away the principal.
“The prairies are one landscape and one system,” says Dr. Johann Walker, DU’s director of operations for the Great Plains Region. “Every acre we protect strengthens that system. When we target the right places at the right time, we’re not just adding acres; we’re securing long‑term resilience for ducks, ranchers, and communities across the prairies.”
Prairie Policy
Public policy plays a key role in protecting the Prairie Pothole Region’s wetlands and grasslands. Central to these efforts is the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), a competitive matching-grant program administered by the USFWS to conserve wetlands and benefit migratory bird populations. NAWCA requires a match of at least one dollar for every federal dollar allocated, making the program an excellent investment for taxpayers. Since 1991, NAWCA has conserved 32.9 million acres of wetlands and associated uplands across the United States and Canada. DU is committed to ensuring that this vital program remains strong and continues to deliver the wetland and migratory bird habitat benefits that the act prioritized when the legislation was signed in 1989.
Along with NAWCA, DU promotes and helps deliver a suite of complementary programs across the United States and Canada. This long list includes the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which supports multi-partner working lands projects that improve water quality and enhance wildlife habitat; Wetland Reserve Easements, which restore and protect high-value wetlands on private lands; and state funds that fill key gaps in federal programs, including North Dakota’s Outdoor Heritage Fund and state waterfowl stamp funds. These programs are a mix of shorter-term conservation options and some longer-term agreements that are focused on maintaining functional habitats while also benefiting producers’ bottom lines.
As DU’s public policy director for the Great Plains Region and fourth-generation rancher Ryan Taylor sums up: “Good policy is the bridge between a handshake and acres on the ground. Out here, you match working-lands reality with solid conservation practices, and that gives families a reason to say yes.”
The Future of the Prairies
That evening, as Brad Sand stood on his front porch, darkness began to settle over the landscape. A huge flock of green-winged teal came ripping low from the far edge of his property and settled into a shallow pothole, shattering the stillness. The rattling calls of sandhill cranes overhead echoed across the landscape. The prairies may not be able to speak for themselves, but they have their own way of talking to those who know and love them. Fortunately, there are many who listen, and because of that, there is hope for the future.
Saving waterfowl habitats on the prairies was the reason DU was founded almost 90 years ago, and to this day, conserving the Duck Factory remains DU’s highest priority. The prairies continue to call to people like Jim Kennedy and Alex Taylor, whose transformational gift is accelerating permanent protection of crucial habitat at a pivotal time. The prairies speak to the ranching families who commit to protecting their land at the kitchen table; to policymakers who keep fighting for incentives and funding to support that work; and to DU staff and their many partners who work together to stretch every dollar as far as possible to achieve shared conservation goals.
History shows that every period of drought is followed by a period of ample precipitation, and the prairies must be ready, replete with functional wetlands and healthy grasslands where hens can nest and raise their broods. If the state of the prairies matters to you, it’s time to join the fight, because their future depends on us.
Partner Spotlight: North Dakota Wildlife Federation
For more than 90 years, the North Dakota Wildlife Federation (NDWF) has been a steadfast advocate for the state’s wildlife, habitat, and outdoor heritage. As one of Ducks Unlimited’s key philanthropic partners in the Prairie Pothole Region, NDWF is helping to ensure that North Dakota’s grasslands and wetlands remain productive for waterfowl, other wildlife, and future generations.
Since 2020, NDWF has pledged and invested more than $500,000 in habitat conservation efforts across North Dakota, supporting voluntary, landowner-focused solutions that protect prairie ecosystems while sustaining working lands. This investment has played an important role in advancing DU’s grassland and wetland protection priorities and in leveraging large-scale funding opportunities, including recent investments by Cox Enterprises that are accelerating conservation delivery in the region.
By pairing grassroots leadership with strategic philanthropy, NDWF exemplifies how strong partnerships can safeguard the heart of North America’s Duck Factory—today and for decades to come.
Nathan Ratchford is a senior editor for Ducks Unlimited magazine, and Dr. Scott Stephens is DU’s senior director of conservation strategy.
