The amount of native prairie destroyed in the Prairie Pothole Region has skyrocketed by at least 40 percent in the last year. Ducks Unlimited  (DU) officals says this increase validates concerns that duck populations and the viability of ranching operations are threatened.

New statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture show the amount of grassland being converted to cropland in North Dakota and Montana is 6,000 acres higher this year than it was in 2006 according to DU officials. Landowners in the two states plowed up 30,000 acres of native prairie in 2007. More than 20,000 of those acres were in the Prairie Pothole Region.

Loss figures this high for these two states are not a good sign when we haven’t yet seen South Dakota’s data,” said Scott Stephens, DU’s director of conservation planning for the Great Plains Region. In recent years, South Dakota has shown the largest annual losses.

The Prairie Pothole Region includes the eastern Dakotas as well as portions of Montana, Minnesota and Iowa. Abundant with wetlands and grassland, the region is widely known as North America’s “duck factory.” Most ducks nest in grass so a significant loss of grass will mean fewer ducks produced in the spring. Converting grassland to cropland also threatens small wetlands on the land.

“Research shows for every one percent loss of grassland, we can expect 25,000 fewer ducks in the fall flight,” Stephens said. “If we lose just two percent a year, half of the grasslands will be gone in 35 years.”

According to DU Executive Vice President Don Young, this significant loss in nesting habitat is further evidence of the need for a strong Sodsaver provision in the 2007 Farm Bill. The Sodsaver provision will remove federal farm payments from converted native prairie where there is no previous cropping history.

“It’s clear native prairie loss is continuing. This is bad news for duck production,” Young said. “Some current farm programs, like crop insurance, only encourage more cultivation on land not well-suited for crops. Sodsaver will fix this problem and focus government incentives on our best farmland to help keep farming and ranching viable.  It will help us fulfill the idea of ‘Farm the best, conserve the rest’.”

Some might say DU is self-serving because their interest in ducks is based in hunting but the bottom line is without their efforts the amount of wetlands in the US would be down by millions more than it already is. Their efforts to conserve these areas benefits everything from shorebirds to amphibians.

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