By ADAM P. BARR

Staff Writer

Conservationists and hunters will gather at 6 p.m. today in the Student Center, Main Floor for a Ducks Unlimited banquet to benefit the water fowl of North America.

Beaux Smith, the president of the campus chapter of D.U. and a senior architecture major, said the goal of D.U. is to conserve wetlands and create an area for ducks to breed and feed.

"The organization, for every dollar collected, spends 86 cents on conservation and only 14 cents on administrative cost," Smith said.

Jay Lambert, a freshman biology education major, said D.U. is a large organization that benefits ducks all across the country.

"D.U. is a lot like Delta Waterfowl [which is] an organization set up to help in land management for wildlife and especially ducks, but Delta is more regional to Louisiana," Lambert said.

Smith said the event will be catered by Aramark and will serve ham, brisket, green beans, corn, peach cobbler and pumpkin pie. Tickets are $40 and will include dinner, a D.U. poster and T-shirt.

Smith said door prizes will be given out to a lucky few who win, and others may bid in the silent or live auction.

John Shirley, D.U. president for Lincoln Parish, said raffle tickets ranging from $1 to $10 were sold prior to the banquet to win different prize packages and an "On Time" feeder.

"The packages include hunting apparel like camouflage chairs and other hunting products," Shirley said.

Tim Kane, the regional director for D.U., said the money raised from the banquet will benefit ducks and duck hunters.

Kane said that 7.5 per cent of the money raised will stay in Louisiana to improve the coastal wetlands and other duck habitats. D.U. improves and provides habitats for the ducks that fly south every year to breed and escape the cold.

"We use the funds raised by the banquet in land easement by making keeping these wetlands around for the ducks," Kane said.

Kane also said D.U. puts money raised for duck habitats into the prairie pot hole region of Canada, Alberta, Sascatchewan and Manitoba.

Kane said land easement, an agreement made between D.U. and a landowner to not improve their land, to provide a habitat for ducks, is a major part of conservation that D.U. participates in.

Kane said D.U. is a vital organization to provide a place for ducks to eat and breed.

"Ducks Unlimited is simple -- we get the money and put it into the habitat."