Anyone have an opinion on involving Ducks Unlimited in a pond project?

They have returned my calls and are interested in evaluating my property for a project.

My understanding...

Positives:
- free consulting
- 50/50 cost sharing of construction
- help with plan, design, permitting

Negatives:
- conservation agreement
- signage / publication of pond
- access for planting grasses / etc
- access for research / monitoring

Hi How, my opinion would be to take whatever advise they will give,but don't accept anything or do anything that allows them access to your land. Nothing against DU, but these "open-ended" agreements don't usually turn out to be a pleasant situation for the landowner.
That just my opinion, and what I would do.

I sent an email to DU asking the same thing right before I read this.

I will let you know what they tell me.

One other thought -- DU is interested in ducks, of course. So, they typically want to cost share on shallow water bodies that will produce plenty of aquatic vegetation. They generally don't "go" for deeper, steeper-sided ponds that we might prefer for fish. Certainly talk with them, but keep in the back of your mind that you'll probably want deeper water than they want, and see if you can negotitate a good deal.

Keep in mind that any agreement wrt your land with a conservation commitment will reduce its potential sales price because it will reduce the # of potential buyers. Most land buyers are not interested in land with other peoples restrictions on it. You may also be assuming a potential liability for other people.

Also if they are providing half the money and the planning advice - then for who's purpose are they designing the pond. This comment is applicable to lands in the US. I can't comment on land ownership in Canada.

With my short conversations so far (we meet next week), my understanding is that they would help with all the design/planning without an agreement. If we were to do an agreement, they would then kick in actual dollars for the work.

The area that I have is 32 acres with 3 acres marked as wetlands. Since this portion cannot really ever be developed without a painful reclassification, the conservation agreement may not be that big of a deal. It was part of the understanding (thus far) that the end goal would be a ~1 acre 15' deep pond, with ~3 acres of 2' deep, island dotted, managed wetlands.

They have provided all the soils info, which was helpful. It shows a 10 acre vein of brick clay that runs thru the property in that area, which explains the wet conditions that caused the original wetlands zoning. I assume that is good news... I know as a kid we built sun baked pottery out of that clay, so it must hold water fairly well.

I will publish the text of the actual agreement if I get it in hand.

Thanks for your feedback thus far.

Howabouttheiris, you might try contacting ( Outdoorstom ) with a personal message, he's a pond boss member, and he was suppose to have pond work done by Ducks Unlimited.