In the 1930s, James Ford Bell, sportsman and founder of General Mills, purchased 5,000 acres (20 km²) of the Delta Marsh in Manitoba, Canada. For several years, Bell hunted waterfowl on the marsh in the fall and raised and released birds in the spring and summer from a privately owned hatchery.
Delta Waterfowl Foundation has four mission pillars: duck production, habitat conservation, research, and hunteR3 (an initiative to encourage duck hunting).[5]
Delta Waterfowl supports graduate research on waterfowl and other programs that impact waterfowl populations and waterfowl hunting in North America. They engage in campus outreach to promote the roles that hunters play in environmental sciences, wildlife management, and conservation.[6][7]