Ducks Unlimited, Inc.

Ducks Unlimited, Inc. Southern Region Office Division, a tax-exempt nonprofit operating as the Southern Regional Office, receives federal funding as a prime grant recipient (94% of recent awards) to design, engineer, and deliver wetland restoration, habitat conservation, and coastal resilience projects across the South, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic. The organization is a division of the national Ducks Unlimited, Inc. parent entity headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, with administrative oversight at the Southern Regional Office in Ridgeland, Mississippi.

Customer concentration heavily favors Interior Department agencies. The Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service dominates both volume and value: FWS Region 9 Headquarters leads by count (115 awards), while FWS Region 4 delivers $71.6 million in combined potential value across 76 awards. The Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service accounts for 71 awards, primarily Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) cooperative agreements. The Department of the Army Corps of Engineers' Vicksburg district anchors the largest single-award value: a $98.5 million indefinite-delivery contract (IDIQ) awarded August 25, 2025, requiring mitigation credits representing up to 27,706 functional units in the Yazoo Basin to offset habitat losses from the Yazoo Backwater Water Management Project, with a delivery order for $15 million issued September 2, 2025, and ultimate completion set for September 1, 2030.

Capability work centers on nature-based coastal and wetland restoration using concrete engineering and conservation planning. Recent prime grant examples include a $9.998 million NOAA Habitat Conservation Cooperative Agreement (CFDA 11.463) awarded October 1, 2026, to implement nearshore rock breakwaters and estuarine marsh restoration across 4,000+ acres in the West Galveston Bay watershed with youth education outreach for 10,625 students in underserved communities; a $2.12 million Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Program Cooperative Agreement (CFDA 15.630) awarded October 1, 2025, to install 1.5 miles of rock riprap breakwater at Big Boggy National Wildlife Refuge in Texas, protecting 300-plus acres of wetland habitat; an $11.839 million USDA Forest Service Inflation Reduction Act Landscape Scale Restoration Cooperative Agreement (CFDA 10.731) awarded September 3, 2024, for climate mitigation and forest resilience on non-industrial private forest lands across the Gulf Coast and Mississippi River regions; and multiple North American Wetlands Conservation Fund (CFDA 15.623) Project Grants ranging from $3 million to $9 million to permanently protect and enhance thousands of acres through fee title acquisition, conservation easements, levee repair, earthen terrace construction, and water control structure installation.

Vehicle position reflects IDIQs as the primary delivery mechanism. Indefinite Delivery Contract INF14PC00014 carries 29 task orders worth $29.8 million combined potential value; INF11PC00061 holds 10 task orders worth $15.1 million; and INF08PC60299 holds 15 task orders worth $5.9 million. The newly awarded Yazoo Basin contract (W912EE25DA013) represents a single-award indefinite-delivery vehicle with an initial $15 million delivery order.

Activity has grown from 20 awards in 2022 to 29 in 2025, with 18 awards (ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months) facing recompete in the near term. Service Contract Inventory records show minimal federal service-contract invoicing — $5 million in FY2022 and $5.4 million in FY2023, with government-paid median hourly rates around $352/hr — indicating that SCI does not capture the bulk of the organization's grant-funded work, which is project-based habitat restoration rather than hourly service delivery. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subs perform an average 59% share of hours, with two named subcontractors reported.

Teaming footprint shows Ducks Unlimited primarily delivers through direct federal grants as a prime recipient rather than contracting as a subcontractor; the sub-award portfolio reflects receipt of funding from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and state wildlife agencies as prime grantees on NAWCA, Partners for Fish and Wildlife, and other conservation programs. Named sub-awardees include the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (repeated across multiple habitat restoration, water management, and engineering design sub-awards), the University of Illinois (fire effects research in coastal marshes), the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (water control structure design for Marsh Island Refuge), and state wildlife departments in Texas, South Carolina, and Louisiana.

Geographic footprint spans the southern United States from Florida and Louisiana through the Mississippi Alluvial Valley, coastal Texas, Chesapeake Bay tributaries, and Carolinas, with western extension into Arkansas and Minnesota. Federal grant programs driving the award portfolio include NAWCA (CFDA 15.623), Coastal Program (CFDA 15.630), Partners for Fish and Wildlife (CFDA 15.631), National Wildlife Refuge System Enhancements (CFDA 15.654), Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (CFDA 15.658), NRCS Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (CFDA 10.931), Forest Service Landscape Scale Restoration (CFDA 10.731), NOAA Habitat Conservation (CFDA 11.463), and EPA Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration (CFDA 66.130). The organization does not hold a federal contract vehicle or service-schedule position; all work is grant or delivery-order funded through parent IDIQs.