FOWL FACT
pay farmers to put grasslands and
wetlands into permanent protections,
protecting critical waterfowl habitat,”
he says. “We have helped almost
9,000 landowners place more than
900,000 acres into permanent ease-
ments in the Dakotas since I started
this job in 1987. All of that acreage has
a direct link to waterfowl conserva-
tion, which is one reason we are see-
ing an increase in waterfowl numbers.
Unfortunately, we have a backlog of
about 1,500 landowners wanting to
enroll land in permanent easements,
but we don’t have the money to fund
many more.”
The removal of shelterbelts—rows
of non-native trees-—has also helped.
Although landowners are clearing
those trees mostly to make way for
more crops, says McLeod, those trees
provide homes for a variety of nest
predators. When the trees go, so do
the raccoons, skunks and weasels.
“Landowners are also taking out
such things as cedar trees and Russian
olive, and they are removing aban-
doned houses and even piles of rocks.
By removing places for predators to
live, they are helping reduce preda-
tion,” adds McLeod.
Even such things as mallard “hen
houses” erected by volunteers
throughout the Prairie Pothole
Region have added a few more birds
to the fall flight. Delta Waterfowl
has been directly responsible for
more than 8,000 of the over-water
nest platforms, with countless others
installed by do-it-yourself conserva-
tionists. Nest success in those houses
is as high as 80 percent, while ground-
nesting mallards have success rates of
around 10 percent.
“I think the real reason some ducks
are doing so well is a result of a com-
bination of all those factors and prob-
ably a little luck,” says Rohwer. “Lots
of water, a reduction in predators and
an increase in conservation efforts by
the federal government, NGOs and
volunteers all add up. When you have
all those things come together at the
same time, things are bound to help
boost duck production.”
Whether or not those hen houses
add a significant number of birds to
the fall flight is open to debate. Onething isn’t: Aside from the Atlantic
Flyway population, mallards are con-
tinuing a run of boom years, as well.
Although breeding populations have
bounced from as low as 7 million to
as high as 12 million over the last 15
years, their numbers remain 17 per-
cent above the long-term average in
the traditional nesting grounds. There
were 9.2 million mallards in Prairie
Canada and the Northern Plains states
in 2018.
“Mallards can survive just about
anywhere and they will renest with-
out a second thought if they need to,”
says Rohwer. “They are basically the
super ducks of all the duck species.
They are highly adaptable and have
pretty high survival rates and they
are generalists when it comes to the
foods they eat. Mallards are like no
other duck.”
If that’s not enough to get you
dreaming about the upcoming sea-
son, early reports from the PPR point
to another good year. Although
some areas of the Duck Factory were
drier than normal, nesting conditions
are good to outstanding in lots of
places in the Northern Plains states
and Prairie Canada. You may not see
as many pintails this season, mallards
may not migrate to the bottom of
the flyways like they used to and
bluebills are continuing to struggle,
but teal, gadwalls, greenheads and a
handful of other species should give
any waterfowler a reason to buy a
duck stamp this year.-
14 WILDFOWL Magazine | September 2019 wildfowlmag.com
BY THE NUMBERS
ofbadgersin a 1999Minnesota-North
Dakotastudythathadrecentlyeaten
duckeggs,perDeltaWaterfowl.waterfowlthatdiedin 1947afterbeingswept
overNewYork’sNiagaraFalls.million acres conserved
and $2.34 billion raised
by DU’s Rescue Our
Wetlands campaign.of female wood ducks that produce
two broods per season.