Imagining Duckland : Postnationalism, waterfowl migration, and ecological commons / Matthew G. Hatvany.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 238-239).

Foreign place names reflecting the names of American hunter-conservationists and places mark the
geography of Western Canada. This exogenous place naming dates to the 1930s when one of Canada’s most
successful NGOs—Ducks Unlimited Canada—launched “The Lake that Waits” project. Emerging out of the
Dust Bowl and declining waterfowl populations, the project combined geographical imagination, foreign
toponyms, and ecological knowledge to incite American waterfowlers to invest in the rehabilitation of
Canadian wetlands. It is insinuated that this renaming re-colonized in the name of nature conservation.
When theorized within a postnational ecological and historical context, however, the use of foreign toponyms
may be interpreted as a means to positively influence perceptions of identity and sense of place. It was a
social construction of nature encouraging recognition of the shared ethical responsibilities of continental
waterfowlers who needed to re-envision waterfowl migration within an ecological common—Duckland.
Renaming was a means to effect both environmental and cultural change resulting in the conservation of
millions of acres of waterfowl habitat, leaving an enduring mark on North American geography.