Ducks Unlimited (DU) is an international (United States, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and Australia), membership organization founded during the depression years in the United States by a group of sportsmen interested in waterfowl conservation. DU was incorporated in early 1937, and DU (Canada) was established later that spring. The organization was established to preserve and maintain waterfowl populations through habitat protection and development, primarily to provide game for sport hunting. During the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, the founding members of DU recognized that most of the continental waterfowl populations were maintained by breeding habitat in the wetlands of Canada's southern prairies in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta. The organizers established DU Canada and used their resources to protect the Canadian prairie breeding grounds. Cross-border funding has since been a fundamental component of DU's operation, although in recent years funds also have been directed to the northern American...