Ducks Unlimited (DU) is asking Congress to support renewal of the proposed Emergency Wetlands Loan Act. DU Public Policy Director for the Great Plains Region, Joe Satrom, testified Wednesday before the House Resources Committee in favor of the proposed legislation.

The legislation could bolster public-private efforts that help private landowners conserve habitat that benefits waterfowl and other wildlife, particularly in the “duck factory” of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of the United States.

“More than 500 landowners in the Dakotas await the opportunity to work with DU and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conserve grassland and wetland habitats for waterfowl and other wildlife,” Satrom said.

The Emergency Wetlands Loan Act, introduced by Congressman Mark Kennedy (Minn.) and Congressman Mike Thompson (Calif.) and co-sponsored by nearly 100 other U.S. Representatives, is modeled after legislation first authorized in 1961. The new legislation seeks to authorize a $400 million advance of federal Duck Stamp revenue over a ten-year period. To repay the loan, the legislation calls for an incremental increase in the annual price of the Duck Stamp. The price of the stamp has lagged far behind the rate of inflation and land prices have increased exponentially since the price of the stamp was last increased in 1992.

DU Executive Vice President Don Young says the time is now to conserve land that is critical to ensuring abundant waterfowl populations in the future.

“The threats to critical wetlands and grasslands for waterfowl and other wildlife continues to grow,” Young said.

“Waterfowlers have a long history of supporting conservation through the purchase of federal ducks stamps,” he said. “An advance in these revenues would help pay for land conservation at today’s prices rather than waiting and paying higher prices in the future. We are in a race against time to protect these habitats now before it is too late, and they are lost forever.”

Duck Stamp dollars and other private-landowner friendly programs have played a key role in habitat protection, but accelerated efforts are needed to fund the long-term protection of existing wetlands and surrounding duck production habitat in the PPR and other areas across the United States. More than $700 million in Duck Stamp money has conserved more than 5 million acres of waterfowl habitat since 1934.

An increase in Duck Stamp revenue would greatly benefit the Prairie Pothole Region, which represents the “best-of-the-best” waterfowl-nesting habitat on the continent. Much of the region, including an area called the Missouri Coteau that is located in parts of South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana has a 100- to 125-year cattle ranching heritage. Cattle, waterfowl, grassland nesting birds and wildlife have all coexisted for more than a century there.

Satrom says it’s a critical time for conservation in the northern Great Plains and across the nation. He says cattle ranchers are willing to conserve their wetlands and grasslands now, but there’s not enough money available to meet the demand to conserve these lands.

“We continue to lose wetlands and grasslands in the United States each year due to increased threats from changing land use patterns across much of the nation,” he said. “Duck Stamp funds provide a critical tool, along with private funds and other local, state and federal dollars, to address these challenges and ensure effective conservation of these precious, threatened natural assets for future generations.”

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 80,000 wetland acres each year.