Good habitat hunting

As far as preserving wetlands and promoting conservation, few organizations can claim more successes than Ducks Unlimited.
Often drained, tilled up or developed, wetlands serve as critical breeding grounds and habitat for wildlife, as well as incredibly effective sinks for greenhouse gas storage, recently released research has shown.
"Threatened by climate change, development and dehydration, wetlands throughout the world could release a 'carbon bomb' if they are destroyed, scientists reported ..." said an article posted on the Red Orbit website.
"These wetlands contain 771 billion tons of greenhouse gases, 20 percent of all the carbon on Earth and about the same amount of carbon as is now in the atmosphere, the ecologists told an international conference."
It stands to reason then that conservation of wetlands — and Ducks Unlimited's work — will help shape the planet's climate future and preserve biological diversity.
"Wetlands are among the most productive systems on the planet," sums up the DU website. "They are invaluable not only to waterfowl and scores of other wildlife species, but to the very quality of life on Earth."
The group has a raft of initiatives across the country to save and protect the wetlands and the grasslands that waterfowl use to breed and raise their young.
In fact, it's "Wetlands for Tomorrow campaign" has undertaken the ambitious goal to raise $1.7 billion for habitat conservation.
Part of the group's goal is to raise enough money to put hundreds of thousands of acres of prairie land in the Midwest and including areas of Canada known as the Duck Factory, for its importance in waterfowls' life cycle.
This follows up on what Ducks Unlimited says is 12 million acres of wetlands conserved and restored by the organization over the last 70 years.
Each acre of wetlands plays an important part in groundwater recharge, water quality and biodiversity, the website states.
"Although freshwater wetlands cover only 1 percent of the Earth's surface, they hold more than 40 percent of the world's species and 12 percent of all animal species."
About a sixth of the 900 species of birds that breed in North America depend on wetlands. 
Ducks Unlimited's conservation programs in Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic focus on the ailing environment of the Cheasapeake, along with other habitats in Pennsylvania and New York.
"Barrier beaches and dunes, submerged aquatic vegetation, intertidal sand and mudflats, salt marsh islands, fringing tidal marshes and maritime forest characterize these highly productive shallow water and adjacent upland habitats," Ducks Unlimited says on its website.  "Maintaining or improving water quality and waterfowl habitat in the Chesapeake Bay and other Mid-Atlantic estuaries will be challenging given the projected regional growth in human populations and climate change impacts."
The coast provides important wintering grounds for 70 percent of black ducks, a species which has declined by as much as 60 percent in population because of loss of habitat.
Continuing challenges to maintaining habitats include expect sea level rise decreasing suitable shallow fresh water areas and increasing salinity as well as major losses due to development.
While Ducks Unlimited gears itself toward hunters, preservation of wetlands has widespread impacts on the world's environmental health.
Ducks Unlimited has a rational, thorough and effective program that more people need to support.