Playa Lakes Joint Venture

Joint ventures were once the sole demain on Wall Street. This year, however, a joint venture has risen out of the semi-arid plains of the Southwest with the sole purpose of protecting the domain of migrating waterfowl. Public and private sector partners recently launched the Playa Lakes Joint Venture, a $1.3 million, five-year initiative to protect and enhance the habitat of more than 15 million birds that migrate through the Playa Lakes region of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Cooperation propelled this joint venture project from idea to action, as essential resources were provided by each of the joint venture partners- Phillips Petroleum Company, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited Inc., the five state wildlife agencies, The Nature Conservancy, and the Texan Waterfowlers Association.