ABOUT DUCKS UNLIMITED

Mission of Ducks Unlimited

Ducks Unlimited conserves, restores, and manages wetlands and associated habitats for North America's waterfowl. These habitats also benefit other wildlife and people. Waterfowl conservation is facing important challenges as wetlands and other habitats are being degraded and destroyed across the continent. Ducks Unlimited has a vision to reverse this trend. The vision of Ducks Unlimited is wetlands sufficient to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever. DU will achieve its vision through diverse public and private partnerships to address the full range of factors that continue to erode waterfowl habitat across North America.

Vision of Ducks Unlimited

The vision of Ducks Unlimited is wetlands sufficient to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever. Ducks Unlimited will achieve our vision through diverse public and private partnerships to address the full range of factors that continue to erode waterfowl habitat across North America.

Wetlands are Disappearing Daily - Ducks Unlimited Works to Protect Them

Wetlands, waterfowl, and wildlife across North America are threatened by wetland drainage, coastal wetland loss and impacts of climate change. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: 

  • 95% of wetlands are freshwater 

  • Wetlands cover less than 6% of the lower 48 states 

  • Wetlands cover half the area they originally covered in the 1780s

  • Loss rates have increased by 50% since 2009 

  • Without additional conservation actions taken to protect these ecosystems, wetland loss will likely continue, reducing ecosystem benefits for people and habitat for fish, wildlife and plants

History of Ducks Unlimited

Ducks Unlimited was founded at a fishing camp on the banks of a trout stream, the Beaverkill River, by Joseph Palmer Knapp, John C. Huntington, Arthur M. Bartley, and Ray E. Benson. The year was 1936, seven years after the Wall Street Crash of October 1929, and the world was then in the midst of the Great Depression. It was also seven years after the beginning of a devastating drought across the midwestern United States and Canada which yet had to relinquish its grip – the “Dust Bowl” drought which devastated the lives of so many in those years. The ducks were suffering their own depression, and many hunters believed they were about to see the end of waterfowling. The men at that fish camp came up with what was then a revolutionary idea. Their idea was that waterfowl of North America needed more habitat, through programs which do not take into account state or international boundaries. Prior to the founding of Ducks Unlimited, wild game conservation efforts focused almost exclusively on regulation (limiting numbers of individuals taken from hunting) and also on attempts to replace wildlife with captive-raised versions of game species.

The Ducks Unlimited founders initially elected to focus on habitat restoration in the Prairie Pothole Region in midwestern Canada. In order to do operate in Canada, they were required to incorporate in Canada. In selecting a name, Mr. Knapp’s preference was simply “Ducks.” When advised that corporations in Canada are legally designated as “Limited,” which would mean that the new organization would be “Ducks, Limited,” Knapp expressed his disapproval at the idea of limited ducks! His co-founder suggested instead that the organization be named “Ducks Unlimited” and that name stuck.

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You can learn more about what this great organization is doing here: Home | Ducks Unlimited.