Farming, ranching, hunting, and wildlife management go hand-in-hand at Daybreak Ranch in central South Dakota. Located north of Highmore, family-owned and operated Daybreak Ranch comprises 8,000 acres of private land consisting of native grassland, cropland, wetlands, food plots, and tree belt plantings. These diverse habitats support wildlife in abundance, especially ring-necked pheasants, white-tailed deer, pronghorn,

Deuel County, South Dakota, is home to some of the most productive breeding waterfowl habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region – reason enough for several partners to work with the Even family to restore 32.5 acres of wetlands on their farm. Add upland nesting bird habitat to the mix, and the project was a winner

ND Outdoor Heritage Fund grant will help farms integrate livestock, cover crops North Dakota agricultural producers can get help diversifying their operations and improving soil health. Ducks Unlimited and its partners worked with producers in southeastern North Dakota to build a simple, useful program called Cover Crop and Livestock Integration Project (CCLIP), which provides financial

Every year since 1987, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) personnel across the U.S. Prairie Pothole Region have visited approximately 6,000 wetlands to count waterfowl as part of the Four-Square-Mile Breeding Waterfowl Survey. Since the early days of the USFWS, it has been widely recognized that this region is extremely important in sustaining duck populations.

The North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) steering committee convened the Future of Waterfowl Workshop September 25-27 at the USFWS National Conservation and Training Center as a catalyst for the next iteration of the Plan. The PPJV was well represented with a large number of management board members and technical committee members in attendance. The

Looking back over a generation of accomplishments, one thing is certain: our strength lies in the diversity of partners who have come together around our common goals. The impressive numbers of grassland and wetland habitats that our joint efforts have protected are testament to this fact. These fruitful partnerships have inspired confidence with residents of

Soil health practices have become increasingly popular among producers across North and South Dakota, and Ducks Unlimited (DU) is seeking opportunities to develop associated wildlife benefit and provide financial assistance to interested farmers. By incorporating more diversified crop rotations, reducing tillage, and incorporating cover crops, producers can improve soil structure, improve water infiltration and storage,

Grassland bird populations have shown the most widespread and significant declines of any avifaunal group in North America. The Prairie Pothole Region supports the core breeding populations for four of the most rapidly declining species, specifically Sprague’s pipit (Anthus spragueii), chestnut-collared (Calcarius ornatus) and McCown’s longspur (Rhynchophanes mccownii), and Baird’s sparrow (Ammodramus bairdii). These four

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) of the 1985 Food Security Act (a.k.a. Farm Bill) provides substantial benefits to grassland birds. Populations of grassland birds are declining at a steeper rate than any other group of North American birds and the Northern Great Plains has the highest diversity of grassland bird species on the continent, therefore

In the fall of 2016, South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (SDGFP) Private Lands Habitat Program, along with Pheasants Forever, and private landowners completed 30 wetland restorations working across 3 project areas on public and private lands in northeastern South Dakota. These areas provide important habitat for waterfowl and other wetland and grassland dependent wildlife.

With so many distractions confronting the people of this country, it seems gaining attention for land conservation – and ultimately wildlife conservation – is a tall order indeed. We have all viewed efforts to promote the conservation of oceans, wetlands, and even forests. However, we hear little about “grasslands,” yet, from a global perspective, temperate

Ducks Unlimited (DU) has a vision to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever. DU is regarded among the scientific and conservation community as the world’s leader in wetlands and waterfowl conservation. DU is dedicated to conserving North America’s continually disappearing waterfowl habitats. Established in 1937, Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 13.6