Conservation group joins partners in important restoration
Annapolis, MD December 2, 2008 - Ducks Unlimited (DU) has broken ground on an important project to rehabilitate and expand Wetland Pool number 1 at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. Thanks to generous support from Maryland DNR, the Easton Waterfowl Festival, and the Friends of Blackwater, DU was able to survey, design, and coordinate this 50-acre project in one of Maryland’s most important areas for waterfowl and shorebirds.
Once completed, this project will allow the refuge staff to better control water levels in the unit, and also to provide wetland hydrology and waterfowl forage to an additional 10 acres that was previously too high to become saturated or flooded during the wet winter months. In addition to physical improvements, an educational kiosk is currently being designed, to be placed at the project site in spring 2009. The kiosk will illustrate the importance of wetlands to waterfowl and other wildlife, as well as to commemorate the efforts of Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, the project partners, particularly the life and passion of Dorchester native Gibby Roe, whose estate helped fund the project through the Friends of Blackwater.
With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with almost 12 million acres conserved. 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.
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Kristin Schrader 734.623.2000 kschrader@ducks.org