Article originally published in The Commercial Appeal on October 12, 2003

Healthy Duck Debates
Delta spreads new message

By Todd Vinyard
vinyard@gomemphis.com
October 12, 2003

The first Delta Waterfowl banquet in Memphis three years ago drew 90 people. The third banquet this year had more than 400 on hand recently at Christian Brothers High School.

"People really want to hear what is going on with ducks and they are looking for information," said Rob Browne, who helped start the Memphis Delta Waterfowl chapter. "We're excited about the growth of the chapter."

Delta Waterfowl, a more than 35,000-member conservation group based in North Dakota, has been growing - even in Memphis, the national headquarters of Ducks Unlimited, which has more than 1 million supporters nationwide. While the organizations disagree on some waterfowl management issues, Delta Waterfowl members say the goal isn't to outdo Ducks Unlimited, but to work together for the rights of duck hunters and help duck production.

"I'm a member of DU as are several other Delta Waterfowl staff and they do great work," said John Devney, Delta Waterfowl's director of marketing and development. "We just believe there may be a different way at looking at some of the challenges duck populations face and we can have healthy debates on these issues."

One of those "healthy debates" is over predator management.

Delta Waterfowl recently completed 10 years of trapping to remove predators, like raccoons, foxes and skunks, on prairie breeding grounds to protect duck breeding nests.

"Nest success on our predator blocks was off the charts this year," said Rob Olson, Delta's vice president of operations. "At our Cando site in northeastern North Dakota we had a record 80.22 percent nest success. We managed predators on 36 square miles, and 80 percent of all the nests were successful. That's outstanding, and it's consistent with our long-term results showing predator management increases nest success rates by 200 to 300 percent."

Ducks Unlimited points to another answer to help ensure healthy duck populations for the long term.

"The most important thing we can do is to secure existing habitat and increase it wherever we have the opportunity," a question and answer sheet about predators from Ducks Unlimited states. "This is not just DU's opinion. It is widely supported and practiced by the conservation community throughout the world. The most critical threat facing waterfowl is the continuing loss of important habitats. We lose more than 100,000 acres of wetlands and upland nesting habitat every year in the U.S. alone. That's why DU's singular focus is on conserving, restoring, and managing habitat for waterfowl."

Olson agrees conserving habitat is important while pointing to the importance of trying other tools of waterfowl management.

"Habitat for ducks is what flour is to a loaf of bread - it's the first and most important ingredient in the recipe," says a Delta Waterfowl response to the DU FAQ on Predator Management position. "But it takes more than flour to make a loaf of bread."

Duck hunters who want to see the Ducks Unlimited frequently asked questions (FAQs) on predator management can go to the Ducks Unlimited Web site: www.ducks.org . For the Delta Waterfowl response and predator management information go the organization's Web site: www.deltawaterfowl.org .

Both organizations stress conservation to ensure waterfowl populations.

"If people care about ducks for the future, they need to join all the conservation organizations they can to make sure work for ducks continue. It's important for the future of duck hunting to get information and be informed," Browne said.

Copyright 2003 The Commercial Appeal. Republished here with the permission of The Commercial Appeal. No further republication or redistribution is permitted without the express approval of the The Commercial Appeal