WASHINGTON, D.C. - August 7, 2017 - The North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) published The State of the Birds 2017 report, documenting the benefits of the Farm Bill. Serving as America&squo;s single largest source of conservation funding for private lands, the Farm Bill is vital not only for our nation&squo;s farmers and ranchers, but for our birds and their habitat.

"For more than 20 years, the Farm Bill has provided widespread conservation benefits for our nation&squo;s farmers, ranchers, sportsmen and all who enjoy clean drinking water, flood protection and healthy wildlife populations," said Ducks Unlimited Chief Scientist Tom Moorman. "Millions of acres of working lands are conserved through Farm Bill conservation programs that ensure long-term sustainability and productivity of the land that supports waterfowl and many other species of fish and wildlife."

As the 2018 Farm Bill reauthorization is debated in Congress, the report calls attention to the benefits of investing in conservation on private lands, which make up nearly 70 percent of the land in the contiguous United States.

Farm Bill conservation programs support many kinds of partnerships with private landowners. These partnerships help protect vital prairie, grasslands and wetlands, feed North American waterfowl populations and create eco-benefits for farmers, ranchers and landowners.

The State of the Birds 2017 report also identifies four top conservation priorities for the 2018 Farm Bill, representing the unified voice of NABCI&squo;s broad coalition:

1) Increase funding for the voluntary, incentive-based conservation programs that support farmers and ranchers financially while also supporting our natural infrastructure of grasslands and wetlands.
2) Improve the impact of Farm Bill conservation programs on priority wildlife species, drawing on input from individual states.
3) Enhance Farm Bill public-private partnerships. Partner biologists hold the key to matching landowners with conservation programs that best fit the landowners&squo; wildlife and land-use goals.
4) Support the use of science, including monitoring and evaluation of Farm Bill conservation programs over time, to maximize the bill&squo;s effectiveness and return on investment.

State of the Birds is a regular report published by NABCI&squo;s US Committee, a coalition of 28 state and federal agencies, nonprofit organizations, and bird-focused partnerships. Scientists, government agencies, and bird conservation groups use the State of the Birds as a resource in decision-making about conservation research, policies and programs.

Ducks Unlimited Inc. is the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving North America's continually disappearing waterfowl habitats. Established in 1937, Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 14 million acres thanks to contributions from more than a million supporters across the continent. Guided by science and dedicated to program efficiency, DU works toward the vision of wetlands sufficient to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow and forever. For more information on our work, visit www.ducks.org.

Media Contact:
Tucker Nelson
(202) 347-1530
tnelson@ducks.org