RIDGELAND, Miss. (Feb. 14, 2006) — The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission will increase its annual contribution to Ducks Unlimited (DU) in support of wetland and waterfowl conservation in the Maritime provinces of eastern Canada.
The Commission agreed to increase its contribution to $50,000 annually in 2006, a 250 percent increase from 2004. The contribution is significant and exemplifies the Commission’s longtime support of DU’s waterfowl and wetland conservation activities in Canada.
These funds will be matched at least fourfold by DU, Ducks Unlimited Canada and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through the North American Wetlands Conservation Act to support the Agricultural Wetland Restoration Program (AWRP) in eastern Canada. The goal of this partnership is to protect, enhance, and restore important breeding and staging habitat in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
This area is intensively farmed and wetlands and riparian areas, threatened by agricultural and urban expansion, need to be protected. The AWRP aims to work with farmers, and encourages them to use farming practices that conserve wetlands, promote biodiversity, improve soil and water quality and protect riparian areas. Other habitat improvement activities conducted through the AWRP include maintenance of beaver ponds, and monitoring productivity of existing wetland projects.
“Many of the waterfowl that winter in or migrate through North Carolina originate in the Maritime provinces of Canada, and to maintain populations, we need to provide habitat that supports their entire life-cycle needs,” said Ross Melinchuk, director of public policy for DU’s Southern Region office. “Wetland and associated upland enhancement in this part of Canada will benefit black ducks, mallards, green-winged teal, ring-necked ducks, wood ducks and Canada geese.”
“It is critical that the Commission do its part to conserve waterfowl for future generations, whether it’s on the wintering grounds in North Carolina or the breeding grounds in Canada,” said John Pechmann, chairman of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.
The Commission has supported wetland and waterfowl habitat protection in Canada since 1969. Over the past 37 years, the agency has contributed more than $370,000 toward Canadian projects in Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. By adopting a landscape approach to waterfowl and wetlands conservation, thousands of acres of quality waterfowl habitat can be impacted.
“I’m confident DU and its partners will leverage the Commission’s contribution to the maximum extent possible, enabling them to positively impact additional wetland acres in Canada,” said Pechmann.
The partnership with DU falls under the umbrella of the Sound CARE (Conservation of Agriculture, Resources, and the Environment) conservation initiative. Through this initiative, DU has created partnerships to help restore, enhance and protect wetland habitat that benefits waterfowl, other wildlife and people in North Carolina. Sound CARE’s goal is to protect and restore 64,000 acres in North Carolina and on the breeding grounds over the next five years. This work will cost $22 million.
With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands — nature’s most productive ecosystem — and continues to lose more than 100,000 wetland acres each year.
This release was a collaboration between Ducks Unlimited and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission
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