DUCKS UNLIMITED IS A SCIENCE-BASED NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO CONSERVING, RESTORING AND MANAGING WETLANDS AND ASSOCIATED HABITATS FOR NORTH AMERICA’S WATERFOWL, OTHER WILDLIFE AND PEOPLE.
For more than 80 years, Ducks Unlimited’s mission of waterfowl habitat conservation has resulted in work across the continent to restore and protect the habitats that make possible the abundance of wildlife. Waterfowl, other migratory birds, hundreds of species of wildlife and even people benefit from DU’s habitat work.
Ducks Unlimited conserves, restores and manages wetlands and associated habitats for North America’s waterfowl. These habitats also benefit other wildlife and people.
Wetlands improve the overall health of our environment by recharging and purifying groundwater, moderating floods and reducing soil erosion. Wetlands are North America’s most diverse and productive ecosystems, providing habitat to more than 900 species of wildlife, clean water for our communities and invaluable recreation for all people to enjoy.
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DU’s wetlands conservation mission remains as relevant and critical today as it was at their founding in 1937. In the past 50 years alone, the United States has lost more than 17 million acres of wetlands.
Thanks to decades of abiding by that single mission, DU is now the world’s largest and most effective private waterfowl and wetlands conservation organization. DU multilaterally delivers their work through a series of partnerships with private individuals, landowners, agencies, scientific communities and other entities which has allowed DU to conserve more than 14.5 million acres of habitat across North America.
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D.U. Timeline
1934
FDR signed the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act (aka the Duck Stamp Act)
1937
DU was established for the purpose of studying declining waterfowl populations in North America
1964
Land and Water Conservation Fund was established
1985
President Ronald Reagan signed into law the Conservation Reserve Program
1984
DU launches its first conservation project in North Dakota
1986
North American Waterfowl Management Plan was signed into law – the foundation for NAWCA
1989
North American Wetlands Conservation Act was enacted
1990
Wetlands Reserve Program is established in the Farm Bill
2014
President Obama signs into law the first price increase for the Duck Stamp in 20 years, bringing the cost from $15 to $25 to support conservation
