WASHINGTON - As a lifelong hunter and graduate of UND, I love ducks and the prairie-pothole region so crucial to their future. The most important waterfowl production area on the North American continent, this glaciated area of mixed-grass prairie in the west and tallgrass prairie farther east hosts more than 100 pairs of breeding ducks per square mile in some areas.

For years, it has been a center of cooperative conservation - a place of partnerships among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, ranchers, farmers, local governments and groups such as the Nature Conservancy working together to protect these special places.

The Fish and Wildlife Service shares with other public and private conservationists a common goal of ensuring the effective, efficient protection of the prairie pothole region's wetlands and grasslands. The service annually obligates approximately $16 million for acquisitions and completes about 700 appraisals in the prairie pothole region to buy easements for up to 90 percent of the land's fee-simple value that, as both the Fish and Wildlife Service and others have noted, frequently do not diminish the land's value. Further, many of the region's Fish and Wildlife Service employees doing appraisals also regularly undertake realty work, a departure from standard professional practice.

At all of the Interior Department's land-managing agencies, appraisals are an integral part of undertaking land transactions that help fulfill our conservation mission. Going back as far as 1968 and beyond, Interior's inspector general and his predecessors have called for the consolidation of Interior's appraisal offices to resolve two fundamental conflicts of interest: appraisers' subordination to realty professionals and, perhaps more problematic, individuals who serve as both appraisers and negotiators, sometimes on the same transactions.

The General Accounting Office and the highly respected Appraisal Foundation expressed similar concerns with Interior's appraisal process. In response to the critiques of these institutions, third parties and the appraisers themselves, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton formed an internal working group to examine this issue in more detail.

Comprising senior departmental leaders including both myself and the assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, this group reviewed relevant history and data. Then, it unanimously recommended that Interior consolidate the bureaus' appraisal functions within a departmental administrative office.

Norton endorsed the group's recommendations in a June 19 announcement. Henri LeMoyne, past president of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, praised the reforms as "very good news to the appraisal profession and the American public." The American Society of Appraisers called the reforms "a real victory for appraisers" that would "ensure appraiser independence." Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility acknowledged the initiative as a "large first step toward reform."

To advance the reform, Norton formed an Appraisal Reform Implementation Team comprising career appraisal professionals, realty experts, human resource managers, and field management experts from the Interior Department, its component bureaus and the Department of Justice. Four senior personnel - including the chief of appraisals, chief of realty, a field supervisory appraiser and a senior human resources officer - represented the Fish and Wildlife Service on this team.

Coming together in the spirit of Norton's Four C's - conservation through cooperation, communication, and consultation - these professionals worked throughout the summer to ensure the integrity of appraisals, avoid disruption to Fish and Wildlife Service and other employees and provide even better customer service to the ranchers, farmers and landowners who are key partners in our nation's conservation efforts.

Appraisers will remain in the field. However, now they will report up the chain of command only to other appraisers, not to the realty specialists negotiating the transactions that have drawn so much scrutiny.

Yet, some have mischaracterized this appraisal reform effort. They have misinterpreted this reform effort as an attempt to do away with the conservation tools such as easements and other land transactions that have helped to preserve grasslands, wetlands, and prairie potholes across the northern United States. These tools remain intact, and we in the service will continue to use them in ensuring the future of this key program and providing even better service to local ranchers, farmers, and other landowners.

What is at issue is the appraisal process - and the need to ensure its integrity.

A team of career Fish and Wildlife Service staff is preparing alternatives to conducting full appraisals in the Small Wetlands Acquisition Program. Among other proposals, these alternatives include both payments for providing conservation services and administrative valuations of minimally restrictive wetland and grassland easements based upon an average percentage of local land values instead of formal appraisals.

These and other tools will augment conservation opportunities while maintaining a strong Small Wetlands Acquisition Program. Thus, the Fish and Wildlife Service will serve ranchers, farmers, and landowners even more effectively and efficiently while enhancing conservation values and protecting the region's wetlands and grasslands.

Most importantly, the reform will strengthen the integrity of our appraisal process without diminishing the services we provide to our conservation partners.

Williams is director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Further information on the appraisal reforms can be found at www.doi.gov/appraisalreform.