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DU and the IWWR are committed and concerned about the quality of water resources for future generations.
Freshwater Initiative Raising Money and Awareness in 2001 
Fresh water is a strategic resource in a rapidly changing world. Freshwater systems are essential to provide drinking water and hydropower, for products like plants and minerals and for services such as recreation and waste treatment.
Degradation and depletion of North America's freshwater resources threatens human health and the biosphere's sustainability. Wetlands are vital components of the fresh water resources in North America, but despite extensive efforts from wildlife and waterfowl interest groups, they continue to be lost and degraded throughout the continent.
In 1998, the Institute for Wetland and Waterfowl Research (IWWR) and Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) started the Freshwater Initiative to identify and quantify the functions and values of wetlands relative to the supply and quality of fresh water in North America. IWWR staff work together with the best and brightest researchers from universities, governments and other nonprofit organizations across North America to identify and understand the critical links between wetlands and water quality.
DUC and the IWWR are committed and concerned about the quality of water resources for future generations. With three years of research completed in the prairie region of Canada and the United States, a capital campaign is planned to raise $10 million Cdn and $40 million US for the Freshwater Initiative, making it one of the organization's largest fund-raising initiatives.
IWWR researchers are now planning a 2001 workshop that will bring together water quality experts to discuss and identify the information gaps on wetlands, watershed and water quality in eastern Canada, particularly Ontario. A future freshwater initiative is planned for the Central Valley of California.
The bulk of the Freshwater Initiative's research will occur through graduate students, supervised by universities from throughout North America, who are funded through a series of Wetland Ecology and Research fellowships supported by the fund-raising campaign.
