Press Release

Norton outlined a new program called The Cooperative Conservation Initiative (CCI) that would encourage private landowners to implement conservation projects with public land managers and local communities. She announced the proposal at Pennsylvania's John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, near Philadelphia, saying the Cooperative Conservation Initiative will "empower a new generation of citizen-conservationists," and "tap into the ingenuity of the American people and their passion for the beauty and health of our land."

In her remarks at the event, Secretary Norton cited a Ducks Unlimited wetlands restoration project, undertaken in partnership with a private land conservancy and the Fish and Wildlife Service, as an example of the projects the new CCI would facilitate. Scott Sutherland, DU's Director of Governmental Affairs, said that the partnership concept behind the Cooperative Conservation Initiative was one DU has fostered for decades. "In our 65 year history we have worked extensively with the Fish and Wildlife Service, other Interior Department Agencies, private land owners, and many other partners. The CCI program will help create new incentives to build partnerships for conservation and we are pleased with the Administration's support for and action to encourage these ideas," said Sutherland in brief comments to the audience gathered at the event.

One half of the $100 million budget would be distributed to states to fund cost-share grants for innovative conservation projects. The other $50 million would be used by the Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Parks Service to fund cost-share grants. In-kind contributions, such as supplies and labor, would count towards cost-contributions. The administration offered examples of such efforts, including a collaboration of 35 partners that has been working together to manage 500,000 acres of land in Wyoming. Another example discussed a possible future collaboration: "The Fish and Wildlife Service could work with partners including Ducks Unlimited to restore wetlands and bottomland hardwoods at refuges in the Southeast that are critical to waterfowl, shorebirds, and neotropical migrants," according to a Department of Interior briefing on the program.

"This is absolutely the right approach -- the administration is stressing private, voluntary efforts and making local communities the agents of change," said Dr. Alan Wentz, Group Manager of Conservation Programs at Ducks Unlimited, a wetlands and waterfowl conservation group founded in 1937. "From a wetlands point of view, this is precisely where we need to begin because the majority of wetlands are located on private lands," said Dr. Wentz, noting that many other natural resources, like prairie grasslands and hardwood forests, would benefit from the program.

With more than one million supporters, Ducks Unlimited (www.ducks.org) 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 ecosystems -- and continues to lose over 100,000 wetland acres every year.