"Hey, whats happened to this gorgeous wetland? This is despicable!", he sputters in a new :30 second public service announcement recently distributed to 700 television stations in this country and Canada.
The animated PSA features an indignant Daffy Duck who discovers his favorite wetland vacation spots are vanising. His urgent call to action -- "Support Fowl Play" -- is supported by the combined forces of Warner Bros., the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, and Hollywood Promos.
The public awareness campaign, which will also include radio and print PSAs and an education brochure, supports the wildlife conservation efforts of the North American Waterfowl Plan and its partners in this country and the Canadian Wildlife Service and Wildlife Habitat Canada.
The eight states of the North Central Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service encompass several joint venture projects in support of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan. The Upper Mississippi and Great Lakes Joint Venture includes portions of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana and is administered in the Services Twin Cities, Minnesota Regional Office.
The Prairie Pothole Joint Venture includes portions of the North Central Region states of Minnesota and Iowa and is administered out of the Services Regional Office in Denver, Colorado. The Lower Mississipi Valley Joint Venture includes portions of Missouri, Illinois and Indiana and is administered out of the Services Vicksburg, Mississippi office. The Lower Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River Basin Joint Venture includes parts of Ohio and Michigan and is administered out of the Services Boston, Massachusetts Regional Office.
The North American Waterfowl Management Plan is an agreement, signed in 1986, between the United States and Canada, and expanded in 1988 to include Mexico, that brings together international teams of federal, provincial, territorial and state agencies and private conservation organizations and individuals in powerful partnerships call "joint ventures". The joint ventures work to protect, restore and enhance priority wetland habitat from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian Arctic in order to bring waterfowl and other migratory bird populations to the levels of the early 1970s -- 62 million breeding duckss producing a fall flight of 100 million birds.
As an agency of the Department of the Interior, the Service enhances, preserves, protects and restores fish and wildlife resources throughout the Nation. The North Central Region has responsibility for the states of Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin and Indiana.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses more than 530 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies. For further information about the programs and activities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Great Lakes-Big Rivers Region, please visit our home page at: http://midwest.fws.gov
