Minnesota's Delong Waterfowl Production Area in west-central Minnesota gets a lot of duck use and recent Ducks Unlimited habitat work will further enhance the site.

This prairie pothole wetland was only holding about one foot of water because of a failed water-control structure. Ducks Unlimited replaced the equipment, returning water level management capabilities to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The 15-acre wetland project was completed June 3.

Delong is on the eastern edge of Towner Slough, a 162-acre state-designated wildlife lake that Ducks Unlimited enhanced in 2003 and dedicated to Living Lakes Initiative Major Sponsors as a 75th anniversary project in 2013. Towner Slough is in fantastic ecological shape, with lots of bird use by ducks and other waterbirds, including many nesting black terns.

During a recent visit to the project site, DU representatives counted 13 pairs of ducks including mallards, blue-winged teal, gadwall and redheads, and nine additional drake mallards in this wetland.