PHYSICAL DATABASE DESIGN - Fundamentals of Database Management Systems - page 201

8-A D UCKS U NLIMITED

CONCEPTS

IN ACTION

D ucks Unlimited (''DU'') is the
world's largest wetlands conservation organization. It
was founded in 1937 when sportsmen realized that they
were seeing fewer ducks on their migratory paths and the
cause was found to be the destruction of their wetlands
breeding areas. Today, with programs reaching from the
arctic tundra of Alaska to the tropical wetlands of Mexico,
DU is dedicated, in priority order, to preserving existing
wetlands, rebuilding former wetlands, and building new
wetlands. DU is a non-profit organization headquartered
in Memphis, TN, with regional offices located in the
four major North American duck ''flyways''. DU also
works with affiliated organizations in Canada and
Mexico to deliver their mutual conservation mission. DU
has 600 employees, over 70,000 volunteers, 756,000
paying members, and over one million total contributors.
Currently its annual income exceeds $140million.
In 1999, Ducks Unlimited introduced a major rela-
tional database application that it calls its Conservation
System, or ''Conserv'' for short. Located at its Mem-
phis headquarters, Conserv is a project-tracking system
that manages both the operational and financial aspects

of DU's wetlands conservation projects. In terms of
operations, Conserv tracks the phases of each project and
the subcontractors performing the work. As for finances,
Conserv coordinates the chargeback of subcontractor
fees to the ''cooperators'' (generally federal agencies,
landowners, or large contributors) who sponsor the

projects.
Conserv is based on the Oracle DBMS and runs
on COMPAQ servers. The database has several main
tables, including the Project table and the Agreement
(with cooperators) table, each of which has several
subtables. DU employees query the database with Oracle
Discoverer to check how much money has been spent
on a project and how much of the expenses have been
recovered from the cooperators, as two examples. Each
night, Conserv sends data to and receives data from a
separate relational database running on an IBM AS/400
system that handles membership data, donor history,
and accounting functions such as invoicing and accounts
payable. Conserv data can even be sent to a geographic
information system (GIS) that displays the projects on
maps.

Photo Courtesy of Ducks Unlimited