Ducks Unlimited Celebrates Anniversary

BirdNote^®

Ducks Unlimited: Conserving Wildlife Habitat for 75 Years
January, 2012

Written by Todd Peterson

This is BirdNote.
 [Rich and varied sounds of a marsh in spring, Red-winged Blackbirds, Marsh Wren, Northern Pintail quacking]
This January marks the 75th anniversary of Ducks Unlimited.  [Northern Pintails calling] Founded in the dark and desperate days of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, Ducks Unlimited has grown to become by many measures the most effective wetland conservation organization in the world.  [Northern Pintails calling] To date, Ducks Unlimited, often called DU, has conserved more than 12 million acres of waterfowl and wildlife habitat in North America. 
[Call of American Bittern]
In the “Dirty Thirties” with the land drying out and waterfowl numbers plummeting, DU’s founders responded by creating ways to conserve the wetlands that all waterbirds need.  Today DU has more than 600,000 members who annually raise millions of dollars for wetland and waterfowl conservation. Recently, for example, they pledged 50 million to protect grasslands and wetlands in the Prairie Pothole region of North and South Dakota, in their words, “the best of the best waterfowl breeding habitat in the world.”*
[Sounds of American Widgeon calling]
So for hunter and birder alike, for all those who care about ducks, geese, swans – and shorebirds, rails and many others – Ducks Unlimited plays a vital role.
[Male mallards gabbling and a female calling]
BirdNote salutes Ducks Unlimited on 75 years of achievement.
I’m Michael Stein. 
[Rich and varied sounds of a marsh in spring: mallards and Northern Pintail quacking, Red-winged Blackbirds calling.]
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Bird sounds and marsh habitat sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Malheur National Wildlife Refuge recorded by G. Budney; Northern Pintail recorded by W.W.H. Gunn; American Bittern recorded by S.R. Pantel; Green-winged Teal 3405 by G.B. Reynard; American Widgeon by 2491; 3424 Mallards recorded by A.A. Allen.
Producer: John Kessler
Executive Producer: Chris Peterson
© 2012 Tune In to Nature.org          January 2012     Narrator: Michael Stein

ID#              ducksunlimited-01-2012-01-27  * Ducks Unlimited Website: http://www.ducks.org/