Conservation Corner: August 2, 1999

Waterfowl Population High
by James L. Cummins

There is good news for Mississippi's 23,000 waterfowl enthusiasts. Not only did the 1999 estimate (43.8 million) of ducks indicate an 12% increase over 1998, but the estimate was 34% higher than the 1955-98 average. The annual breeding duck survey covers 1.3 million square miles across the middle-central United States, western and northern Canada and Alaska.

Breeding mallard populations rose 15 percent over 1999 and 51% greater than the long-term average. Blue-winged teal was similar to last year, but 66% greater than the long-term average.

Northern pintail were up 21 percent to 3.1 million over 1998. Redheads rose 60 percent to 1 million, gadwalls were up 110 percent to 3.2 million and canvasbacks were up 34 percent to 700,000 over their long-term average.

Intensive conservation efforts fueled by a tremendous partnership among government, conservation and private landowners have yielded one of the largest duck populations in almost 20 years.

Heavy rain and snow combined with the Conservation Reserve Program created very wet conditions in many parts of the prairie. An early, warm spring and abundant cover resulted in good nesting habitat in the Dakotas, northwest Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and western Ontario.

Exceptions to these good conditions were in southern and central Alberta, central Saskatchewan and western Montana where a dry, early spring limited nesting habitat. In addition, in Alaska, spring was 2 weeks late.

In the wintering areas, the Mississippi Partners Program, Conservation Reserve Program, Wetland Reserve Program and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program contributed to this increase in the waterfowl population. Also included are efforts of Wildlife Mississippi working with farmers and landowners to develop winter waterfowl habitat in Mississippi.

With these great conservation programs in place and the cooperation of the agricultural sector, the foundation was laid. All we had to do was watch and Mother Nature has finally come through. If we and others had not worked toward developing this habitat, the rains of the last three years would not have helped waterfowl very much.

One of the objectives of Wildlife Mississippi is to maximize hunting opportunities in a manner that is consistent with the status of waterfowl populations. When we have good habitat conditions and a high waterfowl population like we are experiencing at this time, we will have quality hunting opportunities.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi.