Ducks Unlimited

By the mid-1930s, North American duck and goose populations were in serious trouble. A combination of market hunting pressure in prior decades, widespread drainage of prairie wetlands for agriculture, and the catastrophic drought conditions of the Dust Bowl had collapsed waterfowl numbers to historic lows. Hunters who had watched flyways thin out over a generation weren't waiting for a government fix.

Cross-Border Innovation

In 1937, a group of American hunter-conservationists formally established Ducks Unlimited. The founding logic was straightforward: most North American waterfowl breed in Canada, and the breeding habitat — the wetland-rich Prairie Pothole Region stretching across the northern Great Plains and into the Canadian provinces — was being lost faster than anyone was acting to protect it. DU set out to raise money in the United States, then put it to work restoring and protecting breeding habitat north of the border.

DU's original cross-border conservation model: American funding for Canadian habitat

That cross-border model defined DU for decades. American hunters wrote checks; Canadian wetlands got restored. The arrangement was unconventional for a conservation organization at the time, but it worked. By the time the organization celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1987, it had already established a track record that made it the organizational template for private-sector conservation fundraising in North America.

The Ithaca Model 37 — one of DU's early Gun of the Year selections — shares an origin year with the organization itself. Ithaca introduced that pump in 1937, the same year DU was founded, a coincidence the gun world occasionally notes.

Idaho draws the line at January 1, 1975. Born before that? You're grandfathered in and can skip straight to buying your license.

Born before January 1, 1975? You're grandfathered in and can skip straight to buying your license.