Chairman’s message:
North American Plan Strays from Original Goals

It seems appropriate that the architects of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP) met twice at Indigo Island, Louisiana. A state richer in waterfowling tradition does not exist.

What seems less appropriate is the direction the North American Plan has taken in regard to duck production since its inception back in 1986.

The Plan is currently undergoing a rewrite that spells out new goals, policies and priorities. While the update is not yet finalized, the lack of focus on waterfowl production is an important omission for duck hunters, who are the shareholders with the largest stake in the outcome.

The primary funding mechanism for NAWMP is the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), but it all starts with duck hunters’ license fees and donations to conservation organizations, which are used to match NAWCA dollars.

The Plan’s authors understood there would never be enough duck dollars to buy the habitat necessary to have a significant impact on duck production, and that leases and easements of upland nesting cover would stretch limited funds.

Despite that realization, the habitat acquisition program took on a life of its own, and the measure of success became dollars spent and numbers of acres purchased. While some important wintering and migration habitats were secured along the way, acres of habitat and dollars expended on the breeding grounds do not relate to waterfowl production goals in a meaningful way.

Our fear is that the Plan continues to drift from the issue most important to hunters: Prairie duck recruitment. NAWMP identified lack of recruitment as the primary problem facing duck populations, and that’s as true today as it was 17 years ago.

Delta Waterfowl recognizes that NAWMP has been a huge step forward for waterfowl conservation. The Plan is the largest conservation partnership in the world with over 2,000 partners in three countries, and it’s taught us much.

We’ve learned, for instance, that a 36 square-mile tract of land must have 40 percent grassy nesting cover–not the 15 percent we once believed –before it can produce ducks at a population-expanding level.

Where we cannot achieve that 35-40 percent nesting cover threshold through purchases, it should be apparent we need new ideas, tools and skills that translate into policies that actually produce ducks. Delta is using its research to develop programs that directly address duck recruitment problems on the prairies, and we believe duck hunters would like to see some of these actions promoted in the NAWMP update.

Delta Waterfowl believes the key strategy for success is to engage the farming community on the front end of conservation policy and program formation. Our Alternate Land Use Services (ALUS) concept embodies this approach by proposing to pay Canadian farmers in the “Duck Factory” to provide ecological services that produce environmental benefits, including more ducks. Like CRP in the US, this type of policy gives farmers a direct financial incentive to develop and maintain habitat for ducks and other wildlife.

Considering the ambitious goals of the original NAWMP–a return to duck flights of the ‘70s–the annual funding is modest. The best use for a significant portion of these funds is an investment in a new direction that can hopefully deliver a broad-scale landscape reform across prairie Canada.

Just as it was 17 years and hundreds of millions of dollars ago, the No. 1 problem facing ducks is lack of recruitment on the prairies. In our view the partners have strayed from the goals identified by the original authors. They continue to implement strategies that have proven ineffective in resolving the recruitment issue.

Duck hunters should tolerate no further drift from this mission, and should ask why their investment of hundreds of millions of dollars has not filled the empty skies over our decoys. I would ask you all to let your voices be heard, and hope that the writers of the new Plan are listening.

— Thomas P. Hutchens, MD
Chairman, DWF