Local NRCS featured in DU magazine

Pictured from left to right: Jenny Templeton, Larry Houseman, Kayleen Meinen(back), Jane Latimer, Chase Colmorgen.

Accomac’s Natural Resources Conservation Service was featured in this months’ Ducks Unlimited Magazine for their partnership with the non-profit restoring black duck habitat in the mid-Atlantic region.

The new partnership to improve habitat is producing results, according to the article. Biologist Chase Colmorgen, has been meeting with land owners all across the mid-Atlantic, and in Accomack and Northampton Counties, to discuss strategies for landowners to conserve sections of their land for the migratory bird.

American black ducks in a conservation easement.

The partnership has helped landowners enroll in several Farm Bill conservation programs, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Wetland Reserve Easements and the Conservation Reserve Program. The Partnership’s Accomplishments to date include 25 new project sign-ups, two completed projects and many more in the survey, design or construction phases.

Often referred to as “the king of ducks,” black ducks hold a special place in the hearts of East Coast waterfowlers. Once the most abundant dabbling duck in the Atlantic Flyway, the black duck population suffered a 50 percent decline between the 1950s and the 1980s. Black duck numbers have stabilized in recent years, but the population remains below the North American Waterfowl Management Plan goal of 640,000 breeding birds. Habitat loss on key migration and wintering areas is believed to have contributed to the depressed black duck numbers in the Atlantic Flyway.

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