Inside one of America’s only waterfowl conservation centers

LITCHFIELD — The Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy (RWC) is quietly saving some of the world’s rarest birds — right here in Litchfield.

Tucked away on Duck Pond Road, the Conservancy protects 100 species and more than 500 birds. It is one of the few bird-specific conservation centers in the United States, and the only one operating in a northern climate.

The conservancy’s namesake, Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, led an exemplary life. In the 1920s, Ripley started collecting waterfowl in his backyard as a teenager.

He was a professor of ornithology at Yale University before becoming secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in 1964. Twenty years later, he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Upon retirement, he established his land as a nonprofit dedicated to waterfowl conservation and research, where the RWC operates today.

As humanity’s footprint tramples habitats worldwide, RWC’s local efforts have global effects. For example, Emperor geese from Alaska, which RWC protects, could lose 50% of their breeding habitat by 2070.

“You have to think about bird conservation as two pieces of a puzzle,” said Executive Director Ashleigh Fernandez. “You have to work to save the habitat, but you also have to work to save the genetic diversity of the species itself.”

RWC’s mission is to preserve genetic diversity through conservation breeding of these species. But caring for the birds is difficult, like running a hotel for fussy guests who can’t speak.

Some birds are particular about the size of their nesting boxes. “If the size of the hole is half an inch too big or half an inch too small, they’re like, forget it. We’re not using it,” said Fernandez.

Other species require special attention. Spectacled Elders, large sea ducks native to the Arctic, are clumsy parents who might step on their eggs or roll them out of their nest.

“Getting them to lay an egg is the ultimate sign that all their needs are met. It’s kind of a bonus thing birds will do,” said Breanne Ellis, an aviculturist at RWC.

Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy is located in Litchfield.Provided

Beyond caring for birds, RWC’s staff, numbering fewer than ten people, work with every major zoo in the country and universities worldwide. A few years ago, the endangered White-headed duck was not being successfully bred in captivity in the United States; they would lay eggs, but the ducklings would hatch and then not survive.

RWC Director of Aviculture Logan Connor worked to find a counterintuitive feeding protocol after hatching. After the adjustment, RWC went from raising one or two ducklings per year to more than twenty.

Another success story is the Trumpeter Swan, a species that RWC is actively breeding to release into the Pacific Flyway. After being hunted close to extinction, the population has rebounded, and work is underway to re-establish their numbers in their historic ranges around the country.

For humans, RWC provides a chance to see conservation in action. It is open to the public on weekends from May to November, running tours, summer camps, and internship programs.

“People can come here and see birds that you cannot always see in the wild, or when you go to zoos. You get distracted by the lions and the tigers, which might be bigger attractions,” said Ellis. “Here you get to see the birds.”