Ducks Unlimited, Inc.

grant award: $300,000; year awarded: 2022

Extreme weather—deluge and drought cycles—has led to water issues in the Great Plains, resulting in stream erosion, aquifer depletion, decreased forage quality/quantity, and lower quality wildlife habitat. In western states, landowners employ Low-Tech Process-Based (LTPB) structures such as Beaver Dam Analogs and Post-Assisted Log structures to address these issues by slowing flow and reducing incision. This project will transfer those lessons learned and demonstrate the effectiveness of LTPB in the Great Plains. Ducks Unlimited and partners will implement these practices across four sites and 2,000 acres of riparian area in Kansas and Nebraska. The four sites are representative of different landscape types where LTPB structures could be beneficial.