Ducks Unlimited Podcast

Karen Waldrop: Hey everybody, welcome back. I am Dr. Mike Brasher and I'm your host on this episode and I am thrilled to be welcoming Dr. Karen Waldrop, our Chief Conservation Officer to the Ducks Unlimited podcast studio for a very exciting conversation. Karen, great to have you. Thank you so much for having me. And this may be the, is this the first time that you and I alone have kind of been on an episode? I think it is. It's possible. I mean, you've been here a few years now, right? A few. I don't even know if we've ever done a full introduction of you and your background.

Karen Waldrop: Have we? Yeah, absolutely. Okay.

Mike Brasher: All right. We'll skip over that. So we're here on June 11th and fresh off the conclusion of our 2024 National Convention. We do those annually and there's a lot of different things that happen there. There's some official business that gets taken care of. We celebrate our volunteers. We celebrate everyone that makes Ducks Unlimited. who we are and what we're able to accomplish. This year we had several very significant and exciting announcements, and that's what we want to focus on today. And so Karen, you as our Chief Conservation Officer, are very well positioned to talk about a couple of these that we had announced. And so we're going to keep this, you know, we're not going to do a whole lot of of sort of introductory material. We want to get right to the good news. Some people have probably already heard about, seen about this in other outlets, DU press releases and so forth. But the first significant announcement is a gift, was a gift to Ducks Unlimited. I believe, do you want to roll the tape first? So this was the announcement as it was actually made Wednesday evening on, this is the other cool part about it, on the deck of the USS Midway aircraft carrier, retired aircraft carrier, we had a special event there that evening, and man, what a highlight this announcement here was.

Mike Brasher: How exciting. You said a minute ago that the last time you heard it, it still gives you chills.

Karen Waldrop: It did me again there, but sorry to interrupt you, but I had to share that. No, it's incredible. It just makes me smile like ear to ear every time I hear that. That was actually Alex Taylor, who's the chairman and CEO of Cox Enterprises. And so he was making that announcement to us and you could tell in his voice how excited he was to be able to tell us that and how passionate he is for the prairies and for the work that we do at Ducks Unlimited.

Mike Brasher: So a hundred million dollars, so talk a little more about that because there's some more that kind of went into that. is a relationship that has been built over decades. So talk a little bit about how this came about and then the high-level parameters within which we understand this gift at this moment. Sure.

Karen Waldrop: So Jim Kennedy, he's the chairman emeritus of Cox Enterprises and he's the chairman of the James M. Cox Foundation. He has been a volunteer and involved a donor for Ducks Unlimited with Ducks Unlimited for I think over 50 years now. Yeah, so he has been involved in everything that we do and has been passionate about Ducks Unlimited and the conservation work. that we put into and on the ground. And so that's where Cox Enterprises were this gift. And he has been working with other people with Cox Enterprises and Alex Taylor being one of them. And he also has that fever and that passion for the prairies. And so this gift is going to be used specifically to fund conservation work in the prairies of US and Canada. This will be for lots of different activities, a lot of that being easement protection of critical prairie habitat as well.

Mike Brasher: I am thrilled to see how this unfolds. This is so new, and it's also really cool because None of our people knew exactly what was going to be announced. We knew there was a big announcement. We knew Jim and Cox Enterprises representatives and Alex were going to be there, and we knew there was going to be an announcement, but we didn't know the magnitude of this, and it blew away everyone that was there. It was truly a special moment. Because of that, as you said, what Cox Enterprises and Jim Kennedy and all those around him, his entire team, have meant to Ducks Unlimited, but because of where that money is going. Our number one priority since the day we were founded continues to be and talk about putting your money where your mouth is.

Karen Waldrop: No kidding. And as far as the excitement around that, it was one of the best held secrets in conservation that I've ever heard of in my life. I went to the North American Wetlands Conservation Council meeting just last week. Right after that. Right after. I went from San Diego to Maine. And everybody at the NOC Council was talking about this gift. And then the next thing we're about to talk about as well, which I won't steal the lead on that. But so there's a lot of excitement in the conservation world around this. That's how much of an impact that that gift and that trust that he and Cox Enterprises has and Ducks Unlimited and Wetlands America Trust. to be good stewards of those dollars and to ensure that it goes into the highest priorities for waterfowl into the prairies.

Mike Brasher: There were a few other very interesting and emotional threads that evening sort of tied to that conversation. I don't want to get into those right now because I don't think either one of us are the most knowledgeable of those significant kind of family relationships and the way that that evening unfolded where it was. Hopefully we'll have an opportunity in the future to talk maybe with some of the folks involved in this gift and have them tell some of that story. We'd certainly love for that to be the case. But also more importantly, as we learn more about the gift, the mechanisms by which it's going to be delivered, exactly what those parameters are and how it's laid out. We want to share more of that incredible news with everyone that cares about North American waterfowl conservation because it is a continental gift unlike any we've seen.

Karen Waldrop: Yeah, and the way we're going to be able to leverage those dollars with public funds as well to really make the biggest mark we can.

Mike Brasher: Speaking of making the biggest mark we can, it's a great segue. The other significant announcement, it was a milestone that we have never before seen in the history of this organization. But we, it was announced on stage, day one of the general business session at our national convention there in San Diego. And I think we have that announcement ready to go as well, Chris.

Karen Waldrop: There you have it. Gives me chills. A million acres of conservation in one year. When we set that goal several years ago in our strategic planning process, I remember the conservation delivery team was like, How in the world are we ever going to do that? And we were all saying, look, these are just aspirational goals. We don't expect to necessarily hit this in the next couple of years. But if we don't set our sights on something, if we don't have goals and objectives to push ourselves and try to get as much conservation on the ground as we can in this era of conservation, we're going to be missing a great opportunity. And so we've been planning. and growing and looking at different funding sources and trying lots of different ways of conservation and looking at problems to reach that million acres. Then all of a sudden we turned around one day and we're like, wow, we're gonna do it. And it's been incredible.

Mike Brasher: So on stage that morning making that announcement was Doug showing rock current chairman well actually he was chairman of the board at that moment a little bit later on don't remember if it was that morning or Saturday I think it was Friday morning when we actually had the transition. of our presidency and our chairman of the board. So Doug Schoenrock, chairman of the board, at that moment made the announcement he was on stage with Chuck Smith, who at that time was our president, and then Adam was there as well. And that was a special moment. A large cheer went up. And yeah, what an incredible opportunity to be in the crowd, to hear that. I mean, I kind of had heard that we were getting close, and I kind of had some insight on some of what might be announced, but still, to actually hear it, announced and presented the way it was, it was pretty special. Kind of going back to what you were saying, that whenever this first goal was set, can you remind me sort of what was our annual conservation delivery at that time?

Karen Waldrop: Neighborhood? Beth Dombkowski So at the time, between 400,000 or 500,000 acres a year. So we were talking about doubling it, and that seems very difficult.

Mike Brasher: But we did it. And there are a number of reasons for that. And I think there are a few other things that we want to use this discussion to help clarify. The wording that we say here is a million acres of conservation delivery. And the other number that a lot of people will hear, Ducks Unlimited, as our family of organization… Let me back up and say the million acres of conservation delivered this year, that's a Ducks Unlimited Incorporated metric, which is here in the States. A lot of folks that are DU members and that have paid any attention to DU messaging here recently will be familiar with some of the other numbers that we put out there. 16 million acres conserved, 17 million acres conserved, and now we're at 18 million acres conserved. So there is some difference between, let's say, those 18 million acres conserved and the one million acres of conservation delivery. You and I are trained scientists, so this idea of words matter. I mean, that's intuitive to us, right? We love that. But those acre numbers, the 18 million conserved and then 1 million acres of conservation delivery, there's an important distinction there. And we want to clarify some of that.

Karen Waldrop: Yeah, absolutely. So the million acres of conservation within that, some of those are going to be conserved acres that will add to that 18 million number. But just because we hit 1 million acres of conservation delivery in one single year, which is an amazing accomplishment, that doesn't mean we'll be at 19 million next year. But a portion of that, somewhere between, usually between 200, 250,000 to 350,000 acres, right, if we're talking the percentage of a million, will be, because that goes up as well, will be conserved acres that will add to that overall 18 million acre number that is shared with DU-Canada, DU-Ink, and DU-Mexico. Those are the acres that are in permanent protection, long-term protection. They have to be at least 10 years or more of protection to be considered a conserved acre.

Mike Brasher: And definitions are important and there's been a… And that's what a lot of this relates to is when we talk about conserved acres versus delivery, we need to know what it is we're talking about because we do a lot of different programmatic work. And as you said, it's all important. It all serves a purpose. The outcomes that maybe are associated with those different programs and those different deliveries are different, and that's fine. That's the way the landscape that waterfowl interact with naturally works. You know, I guess one of the things that I would, that's probably important to talk about is just briefly the 18 million acres conserved, that conserved label, was chosen because, well, what it does is it reflects an agreement on the way we talk about the conserved acres across our three organizations, right? We went through this deal here recently, acres harmonization, because you have three different organizations that have talked about for a number of years, have talked differently for a number of years about the way we're sort of keeping track of our accomplishments, but then it became apparent that we need to We need to take some steps to get on the same page with how it is that we're characterizing the work that we're doing.

Karen Waldrop: Beth Dombkowski Sure. And in a conserved acre, let's do an example because sometimes my brain works best. Hey, here's an example of what a conserved acre is. So if there's a piece of property that Ducks Unlimited acquires and then transfers to a national wildlife refuge or a wildlife management area, or we put into an easement with a landowner, then that becomes conserved because it's permanently protected. And then say it's a 500 acre tract of land that goes to a national wildlife refuge. And we were part of conserving and protecting that piece of property. Now, if we go back in a future year, because here's another distinction of conserved acres, it only counts the first time you touch it. First time it becomes conserved, it only counts that one time into that 18 million acre number. And then if we go back a couple years later and we do a wetland restoration or enhancement project or something on that property. and improve that for waterfowl, for public use, for hunting, whatever it might be, then it would go into our annual acres, annual accomplishments, whatever that impact was, but it would not then count as a conserved acre.

Mike Brasher: So we're not double counting those acres that we've gone back and done some enhancement. It's an important kind of governor that we're putting on ourselves to keep us from double counting those acres while still acknowledging the importance of that work to go in and periodically enhance that habitat because we all know in the world that we live in now, natural processes have been interrupted so dramatically by all of the things that are on the landscape. There are very few natural processes that are that are still in effect. And so, a lot of times, it requires that periodic management or enhancement or refurbishment of infrastructure and things of that nature that may, in some cases, be on a bit of a shorter timeframe. So, yeah, it's a way of holding ourselves accountable for some of the way we talk about and account for our accomplishments. So I think, Karen, we have a few other things that we want to talk about, but at this point we will take a break and then we will come back and we'll try to put some of this, but I think we'll talk about a few more examples and we'll discuss where across the country some of these million acres are and then also what the runway looks like for continuing. Can we continue to go higher? So stay with us folks, we'll be right back.

Mike Brasher: Hey everybody, welcome back. I am sitting here with Dr. Karen Waltrip, our Chief Conservation Officer, and we're reflecting on a million acres of conservation delivery for Ducks Unlimited's fiscal year 24, which is going to end June, the end of June this year. So, we talked about some of the different, like not all acres that we deliver, all conservation delivery is the same. Some of it goes to permanent protection in the prairies, our highest priority landscape to preserve those grasslands, to preserve those wetlands. Some of the other work that we're doing right now and a fair bit of of expansion in this area intersects our ranching and our farming communities. And we just had Ryan Taylor on to talk about the importance of those communities and working closely with those private landowners on mutually beneficial solutions. So, everything from soil health programs, some cover crops, which are part of the soil health initiatives, grazing management. Talk about, and then some of our traditional work with rice agriculture through the rice stewardship program. Talk about the diversity of programs, sort of at a high level that we're talking about.

Karen Waldrop: Sure, and you hit upon it really well. I mean, we have everything from some of our more traditional restoration of wetlands and a mixture of green and gray infrastructure to try to enhance those wetlands and make them work as properly as they can for waterfowl. Also, the benefits of clean water and flood attenuation, depending on your landscape and where you're talking. But then some of the other practices that we've been increasing, which is working with our farmers and ranchers, especially in our priority landscapes and our breeding landscapes, it's extremely important. It's funny, if you look at it, everyone's like, oh, why does Ducks Unlimited have an agricultural strategic plan? If you ever look at a map of where ag occurs in the United States and those areas that are important for waterfowl, it's like, They're the exact map.

Mike Brasher: I used that just yesterday.

Karen Waldrop: Did you really? That's too funny. But it's true. It's honestly the case and it's why it's so critical. It's why we've had relationships with farmers and ranchers for decades and why we will continue to. And because practices we're trying to work with now with different funding sources through NRCS, there's lots of opportunities to work with farmers and ranchers to improve not only for waterfowl, grasslands and wetlands, for waterfowl, for clean water, all of those things, but also for the farmers and ranchers. There's lots of opportunities. We can help with soil health practices that are beneficial from runoff standpoint. We can help with edge of field and putting in wetlands that will help with with nitrogen and phosphorus capture and keeping that, but it's also good for waterfowl. So there are tons of practices that we've been in expanding. We have grown the number of staff to do this. You can't put more acres on the ground with the same number of people that we've had. So we've looked at different funding sources and ways that we can add more staff, whether it's biologists or engineers, to help us with this work. And we're hiring people like soil specialists and other folks in the ag industry to help us create programs and work with landowners to have the best answers for them and for waterfowl and wildlife.

Mike Brasher: We've talked about diversity of programs, diversity of expertise required to deliver those programs. We've referenced generally, and I want to talk about it in a little bit more detail here, diversity in our landscapes where we do that delivery. We are a science-based organization and nowhere does that science intersect our decisions more than where we deliver the habitat. We have our landscape conservation priorities, our LCPs, right? And those are based on our understanding of waterfowl ecology and habitat needs of waterfowl throughout their annual cycle at a continental scale. And so we talk about prairies at the very top of that list. to other areas that may provide a supporting role to waterfowl, and we don't focus on those areas as much, you know, the ones that we might call supporting landscapes or whatever the term may be. In whatever conversation we're in, we oftentimes use a few different terms. So, talk about the goals that we set, sort of at a high level. How much of our delivery do we target for some of those higher priority landscapes?

Karen Waldrop: So absolutely, and we won't worry about whether we call them priority one too. But it's funny, we tell people, we do work in lots of areas across the United States, but they are very tied to these priority areas. And I love how you said it is one of the most important things we do from a science-based perspective. And it's so critical that if we do something outside, if we do a land protection, activity outside of one of our priority areas, it has a whole other avenue of people that have to sign off on and approve it because we want to stay focused in those and spending the dollars and the revenue from public revenue into these areas that are most important for waterfowl. So it keeps us focused on those types of things and those areas. So, the priority areas where we mostly work, of course, you said the breeding landscapes, as well as there are also high priority wintering landscapes as well. And we put about 90% of our activities, whether it's on the ground restoration, whether it's ag practices, whether it's land protection, 90% of that is going to be in our highest priority landscapes.

Mike Brasher: Yeah, we could talk a lot more about that. I do want to give a mention to some of those highest priority wintering landscapes. Just for reference, I never miss an opportunity to highlight these locations. The Central Valley of California, the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. And so those are- Absolutely. Those are our three highest priority wintering landscapes. And I want to talk now about kind of the what has made this accomplishment possible. Whenever we set this goal, you cited about 400,000, 500,000 was our delivery in a given year at that time. What has allowed us, I mean, because you can't add staff and just make money out of thin air, right? So there has to be something else. Now, there are some positions that we can add within the organization that are directly related to sort of philanthropic fundraising that can sort of achieve this. Not necessarily through thin air, but it's kind of the way we think about it. But there are other very important sources of funding that have enabled this and given us sort of the confidence or given us the recognition that we should be adding capacity to take advantage of this. I'm talking about our public sources of funding. So, take it from there, Karen. The importance of those, how we use those to leverage other dollars that we get.

Karen Waldrop: I want to back up just for a second when you said, how is all this possible? Well, where my mind first went was leadership and vision, whether it's leadership from staff leadership, and that's everything from our directors of operation at the regional level. all the way up to our CEO, Adam Putnam, but also our volunteer leadership and supporting the ability for us to grow in conservation delivery because you need to have that support to make it happen. And also our supporters, our funders, whether it's our event, people that attend events and our donors or Cox Enterprises, those types of both foundations and corporate sponsors as well, that's all important. But now getting to the public funding, we are in an era of funding for conservation that we've not seen in a very long time. And a lot of these dollars, we have what we consider our traditional dollars, like the North American Wetlands Conservation Act. That's our bread and butter. Those are dollars that specifically for wetlands. But there are a lot of other funding opportunities now, like through the Inflation Reduction Act and the JOBS Act and other things that are providing conservation dollars that we can apply for, whether it's through NRCS, whether it's through NOAA. There's lots of FEMA dollars. Transportation grants too, right? Transportation, Department of Transportation grant. And what it's taking, or the Climate Smart grants, and what it's taking is innovative staff to think outside the box and say, okay, this is important. I'm looking at a grant from U.S. Forest Service that's gonna be important. We can plant bottomland hardwood wetlands, forests, and get dollars from U.S. Forest Service to benefit waterfowl, wetlands, long-term sustainability in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley. Okay. And we swing for the fences and sometimes we're not successful. But oftentimes we are, so we just had some NOAA grants come through. I think we had three very successful grants we put in for six, we received three. But those three grants where we were successful are going to help us to do work all in the Chesapeake Bay. I mean, and it's millions of dollars, $30, $40 million to do work in the Chesapeake Bay because staff decided to take a chance.

Mike Brasher: You know, we're running out of time here, Karen. You and I both have another meeting that we need to go to here shortly. But the other thing that I will say on some of these new opportunities that we have that may have us delivering the type of conservation that we historically didn't because maybe it wasn't the highest priority activity for what a duck needs, that doesn't mean that those new opportunities and those new delivery programs and techniques aren't as valuable, it means they're valuable in a different way, and the other thing that it does, and this is a thing that we don't talk about much, the one thing we do say often is that… Conservation is as much about the relationships that we form with the people that we want to work with and we need to work with as it is about the actual work itself. I mean, if you don't have those relationships, you can't get on, you can't get on the ground, you can't deliver, you can't even envision the project, you can't have that initial discussion. The scale at which these new, non-traditional type of programs and projects that we're involved in now are being delivered allows us to interact with so many more people that we traditionally were not, to develop those relationships with people that we previously were not. It's contributing greatly to DU's brand awareness in different conservation circles, in different corporate circles, in different philanthropic circles. So, the projects themselves, from that standpoint, nontraditional in nature in terms of the delivery on the ground, are opening up entirely new doors for us to develop relationships with people that we previously were not.

Karen Waldrop: A hundred percent. I mean, it is relevance. It's all about relevance. And Ducks Unlimited has an increased relevance brand awareness each and every year. And we are becoming the go-to conservation delivery organization for lots of our partners because it is all about partnerships. It's all about those relationships, whether it's an individual relationship with a landowner sitting at the farm gate, or it's a partnership with a federal organization like NRCS and USDA. It's all about relevance and that ability for us to deliver and people recognize Ducks Unlimited is that conservation organization that gets stuff done on the ground and delivers it on the ground.

Mike Brasher: Are you optimistic about our ability to continue this in the future?

Karen Waldrop: I keep telling everybody. It doesn't mean we're going to hit a million acres every year, because there are ebbs and flow, and it depends on what types of… All the different projects, they take so much work to get them delivered on the ground. Just because we received the funding, they're still permitting, design, all sorts of work that has to go into. getting it on the ground. And some years might have more funding available than others, and we work really hard to be as recoverable as possible and to leverage those dollars that we receive through philanthropy and through our event system to make sure we're making the most out of those dollars. But yes, I'm an optimist at heart, so I'm just going to tell you, we're going to keep hitting it as hard as we can. We've got a great team.

Mike Brasher: Final words, final thanks, appreciation, I'll leave that to you.

Karen Waldrop: I do want to thank, first of all, every single person that is with Ducks Unlimited, whether you are a staff member, whether you are a volunteer, whether you are a donor, whether you attend events. Every single person associated with Ducks Unlimited make this happen, right? Made these 1 million acres possible because of their part. But I want to also give a special shout out to our conservation delivery team in the regions. We have four main regions and we have four directors of operation that are responsible for those. And the amount of work and hard, like never stopping, never sleeping, never giving up. and trying over and over again of how much we appreciate the work that they're doing. And finally, I would really like to make another special thanks to the Cox Enterprises, to the amazing gift, that $100 million of what that's going to be able to do for prairie conservation and protection in Canada and in the U.S. is, it's unimaginable. And we are going to be able to leverage those dollars and provide amazing conservation practices with that. And so special thanks to Cox Enterprises, Alex Taylor, and Jim Kennedy for that amazing gift.

Mike Brasher: Karen, thank you so much for being here to share this incredible news. This has been one of the cooler episodes that I have been part of and glad to have the opportunity to do it with you. A very special thanks to our guest on today's episode, Dr. Karen Waldrop. We appreciate her leadership, her vision, and all the inspiration that she provides to our entire staff. And we thank her for being here with us today. As always, we thank our producer, Chris Isaac, who does a great job of these episodes and getting them out to you. And to you, the listener, we thank you for your time. We thank you for your support of Wetlands and Waterfowl Conservation.