The vast majority of our work has been with private landowners since our inception in 1938. The simple fact of the matter is that among the most valuable waterfowl habitat, much is in the settled landscapes of southern Canada, which is largely in private hands.
Typically the way we work is that we enter into a voluntary conservation agreement with a private landowner. The terms of the agreement would lay out what it is that we would do. In some cases it's a full-blown restoration of a lost or degraded wetland; in other instances it would be enhancement of the project.
In eastern Canada we tend to put up nesting boxes for cavity-nesting birds, primarily wood ducks, Occasionally we'll get goldeneyes that use them as well. We'll do that type of enhancement work while educating them, helping them understand the hydrological cycle that their wetland goes through every year.
As a result, we will raise money privately through our community fundraising program, through our major gift program. Then we will leverage the funding of other partners, including small business, corporations, and other levels of government. We will try to pool that money together, along with investments from the landowners themselves, to do the restoration work on the land.
Really, there are many stakeholders who are involved in the process. It's a very synergistic program, and it has been very successful. We have conserved about 6.2 million acres in Canada since our inception, a large portion of which is in working with private landowners.