Working partnerships for conserving the nation's prairie pothole ecosystem--the U.S. Prairie Pothole Joint Venture / Steven J. Kresl, James T. Leach, Carol A. Lively and Ronald E. Reynolds.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 20-21).

In a wet spring such as this, there is almost as much sky on the ground as in the air. The county is dotted with sloughs, every depression is full of water, the roadside ditches are canals. In deep sloughs tules have rooted, and every such pond is dignified with mating mallards...(Stegner 1962). If Wallace Stegner had been traveling through parts of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) in the spring of 1994, he might have recalled these words. In 1994, wetland numbers in the north-central U.S.(which includes much of PPR) were the highest since comparable surveys began in 1974. Breeding duck numbers in the same area were 8.75 million,an increase of 104 percent over the previous year (Caithamer et al.1994). In July, 1994, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Director,Mollie Beattie said While this is just one year's results, we finally have some good news to cheer about. The dramatic improvement in duck breeding populations should be a rallying point to redouble our efforts to conser