From: jester@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Jonathan Esterhazy)
Subject: Ducks Unlimited
Organization: Manitoba Animal Rights Coalition
Distribution: global
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 22:47:14 GMT


> js> If there were no DU would the ducks be better or worse off?  
> 
> I doubt that it would make much difference, just as I doubt that
> it would make much difference to the AR movement if PETA were to
> disappear.    Organizations like DU and PETA are the offshoot
> of fundamental concerns, not the cause of those concerns.
> 

As an active member of a coalition of environmental groups currently
fighting a Ducks Unlimited development project, I can tell you that
ducks, and more importantly wetlands, would definitely be better off
without Ducks Unlimited.

About 25 miles north of Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) is a place
called Oak Hammock Marsh. It is the largest prairie wetland in
Canada, and is near the northern end of the Mississipi flyway.
Hundreds of species of birds use the Marsh as either a seasonal
breeding ground, or permanent home. Many of these species do not
live anywhere else in Canada. There are also a number of very
rare plant species. Oak Hammock is one of approximately 520
wetlands recognised under the UN sponsored RAMSAR convention,
which is intended to identify wetland areas of critical
importance to bird populations and species diversity.

Ducks Unlimited Canada (80% of whose funding comes from Ducks
Unlimited USA) is in the process of building its national
corporate headquarters INSIDE THE MARSH. When completed, the
building is intended to be the workplace of over 100 full
time staff, and well over 200,000 tourists are expected to 
visit the site each year.

During the construction process, DU cleared 45 hectares of land
at water's edge using chemical herbicides and defoliants. (In the
public hearings required before the project was approved, they
stated that they were going to clear 9 hectares mechanically,
without the use of chemicals).

After the building is built, the sewage generated by the visitors
and staff will flow into open retention ponds. In periods of
heavy rain, or heavy tourist traffic, the sewage will overflow
into the Marsh.

Currently, the Marsh is left pretty much to itself in the winter.
With over 100 staff needing to drive out there each day, though,
the highway that runs alongside one edge of the marsh will need 
to be cleared, sanded and salted. Come springtime, this will
wash away into the marsh (DU successfully resisted demands that
they redesign the proposed road so that sand and salt would
run off away from the marsh). This will happen just at nesting
time for the shore birds, many species of which are endangered.
This could make the marsh useless to them as a nesting site.

There is much more that I could say about this proposed project,
all of it bad. Like the way DU lied about the square footage 
of the building in public hearings. Like the way the
provincial Wildlife Act had to be modified to protect the
project from court challenges (DU is renting the marsh for
one dollar per year from the Province. The Premier and three
of his cabinet ministers are DU members. Hmm).

DU's other wetlands restoration projects are also of dubious
merit. Oak Hammock is the only major restoration project of
DU's in which species diversity has not declined. Apparently,
when they reconstruct a marsh, they optimize it for duck
populations, and other species are crowded out.

DU is no friend of ducks or wetlands. Spend your money
somewhere else.

-----------------------
Jonathan Esterhazy
jester@ccu.umanitoba.ca
Newsgroups: talk.politics.animals