Prairie Pothole Region

Co-sponsors of the Senate bill are GOP Senators Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Tim Schahinger of, uh... and Steve Davis, both of Montana.

Fish and Wildlife Service plans to expand a pilot program reviewing recently drawn maps of wetlands projects by pre-nineteen seventy-six easements following concerns from farmers in the Prairie Pothole region about the map's accuracy.

Through a program meant to protect waterfowl habitat across the northern Great Plains, the agency purchases easements protecting wetlands in the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, and Montana.

However, many deeds signed before nineteen seventy-six contained neither maps nor sufficiently detailed descriptions of the protected wetlands, fueling disputes between the agency and landowners over which acres were subject to the easements, including several in North Dakota.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the agency, quote, "Heard clearly from North Dakota farmers and ranchers that they want greater certainty about how these older easements apply to their land.

Their concerns and firsthand knowledge are informing our approach," he said.

"We will continue working directly with landowners to address questions, respect private property rights, and uphold Interior's conservation commitments." Uh, keep in mind, farmers in the Prairie Pothole Region have also been calling for FWS to rescind a twenty twenty-four rule requiring they keep from installing drain tile within a certain distance from wetlands protected under easement contracts.

But sportsmen and wildlife advocates worry weaker protections could threaten waterfowl habitat in the region, which is one of North America's most important duck breeding areas.

Down 26% from the long-term average.

We've seen a, a multi-year decline associated with multi-year drought across that, that Prairie Pothole Region.

And with regard to the Prairie Pothole Region, total pond counts across the US and Canada came in at 4.76 million.

The good news, it was up from last year.

Last year was the driest year on the prairies since I think it was 2004, and this year we did see an improvement in those conditions, but still, still down 9% from the long-term average.

[laughs]

A shallow...

Yeah, shallow wetland across the prairie pothole region.

I've seen a lot of that.

I had the privilege to go to the North Dakota side of the Prairie Pothole region back in May and was around... super intelligent scientists and biologists to see the science behind it all.

And when you actually physically see your dollars at work, when you see just the history and just the intelligence of the studies that are going on,

it's

But our leader with DU is a Floridian.

I mean, he's great.

When you hear him talk, like we got to hear him talk at the the big gala here in in chicago this year and then down at ducks in memphis just recently he covers all those issues right he just doesn't talk about the big money events right he talks about what's going on in california and the the beach sink and uh everything that's like you know how that northern region of chico has thrived he talks about ducks in new jersey he talks about the prairie pothole region arkansas but he covers it all so that's always a good feeling when he's talking about the united states of america and ducks versus, you know, the rice capital of the world or the, the big, the big river region, Illinois, whatever that looks like.

And he's, he covers all the bases and it's really cool.