John Flores: Waterfowl survey raises alarm about populations

Most baby boomers can tell you exactly where they were when President Kennedy was shot and killed on Nov. 22, 1963. I was in the second grade at Garfield Elementary School in Flint, Michigan, when suddenly, all classes were dismissed, and we were sent home.

I remember going through the front door and seeing my mother glued to the television crying. Those were dark days for sure.

The next date people are likely to be asked “what were you doing that day?” is probably Sept. 11, 2001. I happened to be at work with dozens of co-workers who could hardly concentrate on work as we watched events unfold on television in our company’s conference room.

On March 15, 2020, there was another one of those days that occurred that I’ll never forget. It was the day the U.S. government implemented a nationwide shutdown because of COVID. Where was I at the time? I was down in Buras at the Cajun Fishing Adventures lodge with several other people in the media attending a conference put on by an organization known as Vanishing Paradise.

Vanishing Paradise is a program launched in 2009 by the National Wildlife Federation and Ducks Unlimited to advocate for restoration of the Mississippi Delta. We were there to hear about the various projects that were both undergoing and completed 10 years after the 2010 Gulf oil spill. Essentially, we got to see how the bill was being footed.

Besides fishing, one of the fun things about attending conferences like these is the post evening meal social hours. It’s amazing what you’ll hear, especially when there’s plenty of libations flowing.

At that conference I met John L. Cooper. Cooper had served as the cabinet secretary of the South Dakota Department of Game and Parks for over 12 years under two different governors. Prior to that he worked 22 years for the United States Fish & Wildlife Service as a special agent in the law enforcement division.

Cooper was literally holding session that evening on the plight of ducks, a topic that never falls on deaf ears when the outdoor media is present in the room.

Quite honestly, I was amazed by the things he was saying. Granted, some of it was anecdotal stories and opinions from a man with over 34 years of wildlife experience and leadership on the Dakota prairies, a region known as the “Duck Factory.” What’s more, some of it I also had heard before as I frequently read Ducks Unlimited and Delta Waterfowl publications, not to mention a bunch of national waterfowl related hunting magazines.

One of the things Cooper talked about was how farming practices in the Dakotas had impacted duck populations so much, it had influenced how the USF&WS manages the annual fall flight.
Cooper said since the late 1970s things have changed so much. He pointed out how some of the plows being used today are 50 feet wide and farmers are farming every square foot of available land. Moreover, how instead of 12-inch-wide corn rows, they are now planting 8-inch-wide rows.

He said each year more and more farm fields are being tiled in order to drain the water off of them faster, which leads to earlier spring planting. He also mentioned how, due to the colder northern climate, hybrid corn had been developed over the years to withstand colder temperatures, therefore providing a longer growing season.

The Duck Factory is also known as the “prairie pothole” region. For millions of years the prairie has been utilized by billions upon billions of migrating species of birds. They were perfectly designed to sustain waterfowl.

A number of years ago, I was invited by a magazine publisher and editor who said, “John, if you ever want to come up here, I’ll drive you around and show you what’s going on. You won’t believe your eyes and it will change you forever.”

In the past two decades more than 15 million acres of Conservation Reserve Program grasslands have been lost to agriculture, mainly due to government-imposed ethanol mandates in the United States alone.

One of the last things Cooper talked about was how climate change had influenced the fall flight in his part of the country.
Cooper noted how 20 plus years ago, ducks used to show up in the Dakotas just after Thanksgiving in large numbers. Moreover, by that time there wasn’t much season left to hunt them anyway.

Now, with warmer temperatures along with no snow or ice on the ground until the second week of December ducks hang around in perfect safety later.
One of the things that occurred during the COVID pandemic and subsequent US “and” Canadian government shutdowns was the cancellation of the annual Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey. The survey is the largest and most extensive wildlife surveys conducted in the world. The last complete survey was conducted in the spring of 2019.

Information from the survey is the cornerstone for developing sound waterfowl management policies and practices annually across the United States and Canadian provinces.

The results of the survey were released last week, and the duck breeding population numbers are not good.

The population and habitat survey indicated there was a 38.90 million total duck population the last time a survey was conducted.

This year the total duck population estimate is 34.21 million, a 12% decline in breeding duck numbers since 2019 and 4% below the long-term average.

Mallard populations were estimated to be 7.22 million ducks during the survey. However, that number is 23% lower than 2019 and 9% below the LTA.

Other popular ducks like the northern pintail shouldn’t even be hunted in 2022. They are 54% below the LTA. What’s more, this is the lowest their numbers have ever been in history.

American wigeon numbers declined 25% from 2019 and are 19% below the LTA.

Gadwall (gray ducks) numbers declined 18% since 2019 but remain 30% higher than the LTA. Blue winged teal numbers increased 19% since the last survey and their LTA numbers remain stable 27% above the average.

For the past two decades, duck population numbers have declined precipitously and have become yet another complex political issue. Unfortunately, like many things in government today, this set of problems shouldn’t be that way.

Sadly, the resent USF&WS 2022 Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Survey report shows, when it comes to duck numbers, it appears to be only getting worse.

John Flores is the Morgan City Review’s outdoor writer. He can be contacted at gowiththeflo@cox.net.