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February 13, 2012. From the Junior Historian Assoc.
Wildlife in North Carolina October, 1987
BIRTHDAY PARTY AT MACKAY'S ISLAND

Ducks Unlimited was born 50 years ago, and Mackay's Island played a key role. Fittingly, this is the site of the state's first MARSH project to restore waterfowl habitat. By Curtis Wooten.

In the sultry morning heat on August 15, 1987, a group of conservationists from across the state, along with elected representatives, members of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and the US. Fish and Wildlife Service gathered on a dike in a salt marsh on Mackay’s Island National Wildlife Refuge. Their purpose: the dedication of the first of what is hoped to be many projects to preserve and enhance wetland habitats for waterfowl and other wildlife. These projects will be joint ventures between wildlife conservation agencies in North Carolina and Ducks Unlimited, Inc.

Fifty years earlier, in January 1937, it’s likely that another group of men gathered on that same marsh, shotguns in hand and eyes scanning low-slung, leaden skies for incoming mallards and teal. One of those men was, undoubtedly, Joseph Knapp, a New York publishing magnate, philanthropist and sportsman who owned the island and had a residence there.

Knapp had been introduced to the Currituck area in 1916 by friends who were members of duck clubs there. He subsequently purchased the island, erected a clubhouse and, for nearly 30 years, spent a portion of each winter there - intrigued by the closeness of waterfowl, the expansive marshes, and the pleasures of days afield in duck blinds with friends. It was Knapp who was the key figure in the development of the Ducks Unlimited organization 50 years ago, and many of the conservationists in the dedication crowd back in August were DU members, paying tribute, of sorts, to the organization’s founder.

In January 1937, the country was still recovering from the Depression and nearly 10 years of severe drought. In retrospect, it seems an odd time to launch an organization whose purpose was "to raise funds for the preservation, restoration and maintenance of wetland habitat on the North American continent." But hard times have a way of clarifying issues and goading men to action.

Though Ducks Unlimited was formally incorporated in January 1937, it had been in the making for a decade. As early as the mid-1920s Knapp knew that all was not right on the marshes. Waterfowl were no longer as numerous as they had been, and when the 1929 drought further decimated duck populations, he knew that something had to be done. In 1930, he and two associates incorporated in North Carolina the More Game Birds in America Foundation “for the purpose of receiving and maintaining a fund . . . for the purpose of increasing the number of game birds and other game, fish, or wildlife in America ....”

The Foundation was nothing short of evangelical in advancing its theories of game bird propagation and management. In its roughly eight years of existence, it published at least 12 booklets on game birds and game bird breeding, one of which, "More Waterfowl by Assisting Nature," was almost prophetic in its analysis of the problems facing waterfowl and its proposed solutions to those problems. Published in August 1931, the booklet stated ".... it is not what man does but what he does not do for migratory waterfowl which is chiefly responsible for diminishing numbers. What is urgently needed is a program which will take no account of international boundaries, but will bring neighbor nations of the North American continent into harmonious accord for the good of the game.”

Today we might dispute the notion that “it is not what man does” that has a detrimental effect on waterfowl, but the booklet’s identification of the need for international cooperation to benefit migratory waterfowl, and other wildlife, was right on target.

Ironically, it was its own ambitious survey of waterfowl-breeding populations on the U.S. and Canadian prairies in 1935 that brought about the demise of the More Game Birds Foundation. That survey, using advanced techniques of ground and aerial observations, revealed that 70 percent or more of the migratory ducks and geese that grace U.S. skies and marshes in the fall and winter are actually hatched and reared in Canada. With this new information, the directors of More Game Birds realized that to forestall successfully the decline in waterfowl numbers, conservation efforts had to be directed to where the majority of the birds were hatched- in Canada. It quickly became obvious that the problems would have to be addressed by private effort, for governmental dollars were scarce and governmental agencies were prohibited by law from expending tax monies outside the country.

In 1936, the directors of More Game Birds decided to form a new organization which would raise funds from U.S. sportsmen to preserve and restore waterfowl nesting habitats in Canada. The More Game Birds for America Foundation would be dissolved and all its assets transferred to the new organization.

It was initially proposed that the new organization be known simply as "Ducks," but during an early planning session in 1936, Arthur Bartley, who was to become the first executive director of the new organization, noted that it was customary for corporations in Canada to have their name followed by "Ltd.,” thus "Ducks" would become "Ducks, Limited,” It is reported that Joseph Knapp, who coined the "Ducks," exploded at the prospects of the variation, jumping to his feet and exclaiming "We don’t want limited ducks!" "All right, then "Ducks Unlimited," Bartley is said to have replied. "That’s it,” countered Knapp. And so it was!

In the early planning stages, the DU Executive Committee felt that the DU program could be completed within five years. It called for an expenditure in western Canada, the prime nesting grounds, of $600,000 per year, which became a national fund-raising goal in the United States.

Although fund-raising goals were seldom achieved in those early years, and it was 20 years before $600,000 was raised in a single year, significant strides were made. Shortly after incorporation, Ducks Unlimited, Inc., the parent organization, formed Ducks Unlimited Canada north of the border to carry out the actual earth moving and restoration of wetland projects across the provinces. Work on the restoration of the 100,000-acre Big Grass Marsh in Manitoba was under way by April 1938.

Since those early days, DU has built more than 3,000 wetland projects involving nearly 2 million acres in Canada, providing waterfowl and other wildlife with over 16,000 miles of protective shoreline for nesting and rearing of young. It holds another 2 million Canadian acres in reserve, protecting them from deterioration while they await improvements. "Improvements“ may include constructing dams, levies, dikes, or water control structures to protect against drought and flooding; constructing nesting islands to protect nesting birds against predators; and altering water levels to produce desirable food plants.

Though successful in its fund-raising, DU has resisted pressure to get involved in legislative battles, research, or education. Its directors have held steadfastly to its "singleness of purpose" - to put the resources it generates directly into habitat preservation and enhancement. If that battle were lost, they believe, all other arguments would be moot.

For the first 37 years of its existence, all of DU ’s efforts centered on Canadian wetlands, where 70 percent of the continent‘s waterfowl were reared. But in the 1970s, concern mounted over a new quarter – Mexico. This ancient wintering ground for millions of waterfowl was facing its own severe habitat problems. Realizing that winter habitat was as important as summer habitat, DU in 1974 began a program to preserve and enhance Mexican wetlands, giving rise to Ducks Unlimited de Mexico. Since that affiliate organization was formed, some 58 projects involving over 92,000 acres have been completed and over 400,000 acres are being held in reserve there.

For decades DU directors recognized that the "pothole" region of the north-central United States and Alaska was nearly as important to continental waterfowl production as were Canadian wetlands. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state conservation agencies, holders of vast acreages of wetlands, lacked funding to develop their holdings for maximum waterfowl production. In 1984 DU was asked to expand its Canadian and Mexican programs to assist with the enhancement of wetlands in North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, and Alaska, the five states where 90 percent of U.S. waterfowl production occurs. Thus, in 1984 the North American Waterfowl Management Program was born. In the past three years, since that program was initiated, some 95 projects involving over 136,000 acres have been completed.

At that same time, DU began a liaison with the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) to use data from the thematic mapper of the LANDSAT 5 satellite to inventory and classify 60 million wetland acres in the central U.S. and Canada. That effort is now providing biologists from DU and cooperating agencies with definitive data for the first time on the quantity and quality of remaining wetlands in the survey areas.

In 1985, further expanding its U.S. programs, DU began MARSH – Matching Aid to Restore States Habitat, This program provides financial support to state wildlife agencies for the preservation and enhancement of wetlands important as wintering habitat for migratory waterfowl and the production of local nesting species such as the wood duck.

Since 1985, DU has given to the state of North Carolina, through the Wildlife Resources Commission, $374,870 on a 2 to 1 matching basis for wetlands conservation efforts in our state. Some $15,000 of that is being used to help replace a structure used to control water levels on a 200 acre marsh on Mackay Island National Wildlife Refuge - the project dedicated back in August. Another $450,000 has been committed to the $2 million purchase price of a 3,000 acre tract of bottom land hardwood habitat known as Conine Island, located on the Roanoke River near Williamston. The purchase of that property to be turned over to the Wildlife Resources Commission for management, is a joint effort of Ducks Unlimited, the Nature Conservancy, and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Foundation.

Through its MARSH program, DU expects to return to North Carolina at least $140,000 every year to help offset the increasingly rapid loss of vital wetland habitats in North Carolina. Similar support is available to all 50 states.

Two hundred years ago, when our nation was undergoing the pangs of birth, it is estimated that there were some 400 million acres of wetland habitat on the North American Continent, and there was an annual fall flight of ducks and geese estimated at 400 million birds.

This fall, best estimates are that some 75 million ducks and geese will migrate south. And of the 400 million acres of wetlands we inherited from our forefathers, less than 200 million remain. Half of our wetland heritage, and all that thrived there, is already gone. And, in his pursuit of "progress," man is now destroying nearly half a million acres each year- 1,200 acres each and every day!

Ducks Unlimited has grown from a fledgling organization of sportsmen 50 years ago to the world‘s foremost wetland-conservation organization of today. Sportsmen still constitute a significant proportion of its 600,000 members, but increasingly they are being joined by conservationists from all walks of life who recognize the value of wetlands to wildlife.

Ducks Unlimited’s 4,005 volunteer committees have set a fund-raising goal of $66.7 million in this, their 50th year, and plan to complete nearly 400 additional projects.

The revenue and acreage figures would undoubtedly impress Joseph Knapp and other DU founders, but the task today is equally immense, and even more urgent than in 1937. If you’d like to help, join Ducks Unlimited!