May 24, 2011 -- Ducks Unlimited has agreed to pay New York Department of Environmental Conservation for damages resulting from a significant rain event and resulting erosion at a restoration site on the Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge. The penalty resolves issues related to a United States Fish and Wildlife Service project designed to return an abandoned airstrip to valuable grassland habitat.
The NYDEC accepted compensation of $37,500 in cash, and future projects worth $62,500 for a settlement of $100,000.
"Ducks Unlimited is proud of our restoration work throughout New York and across the nation," Rebecca Humphries, director of Ducks Unlimited's Great Lakes and Atlantic Regional Office, said. "We take our projects very seriously and were disheartened that this problem occurred. We look forward to completing the job at Shawangunk and continuing our work protecting and restoring our nation's wetlands."
Work at Shawangunk, scheduled to have been completed last fall, has been delayed by permitting issues and changes to original plans. The FWS will evaluate ongoing restoration efforts as fall seeding begins growing this spring.
Shawangunk facts:
- What is Ducks Unlimited doing at Shawangunk? Ducks Unlimited is working on federal land at the behest of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The FWS identified some abandoned airfields that they wanted to convert back to productive habitat, and engaged DU for design and fulfillment of that project.
- What was the issue with the permit? The FWS was responsible for obtaining permits, which they did. The permit stated that only 5 acres of disturbance could occur at a time. The project design, which has been approved by the FWS and ultimately the State of New York through the permitting process, included 160 acres of disturbance. While the state was notified through a notice of intent that DU intended to disturb more than 5 acres at a time, the permit itself read that only 5 acres was allowed, and that is why Ducks Unlimited is voluntarily compensating the state.
- What about the water? The Shawangunk project suffered a major rain event last summer. While there were erosion controls in place, they were insufficient to control the runoff generated by that amount of precipitation.
- Ducks Unlimited is compensating the state of New York voluntarily. Ducks Unlimited is the world's largest wetland protection organization. Successful projects provide excellent habitat, flood controls and clean drinking water that enhance the lives of wildlife and people across the continent. DU chose not to spend valuable resources that could be spent on conservation on exhaustive legal exercises defending the project at Shawangunk. The compensation is based on one day of Clean Water Act violation and additional wetland enhancement.
- Ducks Unlimited in New York. As of January 1, 2011 Ducks Unlimited has conserved 42,978 acres in New York, and has provided and additional 54,371 acres of technical assistance. Ducks Unlimited has spent $19,840,235 on projects in New York, and in 2010 alone, Ducks Unlimited volunteers raised almost $1.3 million in conservation dollars through 119 fund-raising events around the state.
Media contact:
Kristin Schrader
Phone: 734-623-2000
Mobile: 734-646-4594