by Doug Smith Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Published November 21, 2007

Helping ducks, and also hunters

BISMARCK, N.D. -- A dozen mallards, their iridescent green heads glistening in the morning sun, winged overhead, banked behind us, then glided toward our decoys.

A barrage of gunshots peppered the sky, and three drakes fell to the water.

"Boy, did they come in nice," John Devney said with a smile as his black Lab, Semus, bounded through the shin-deep water to retrieve the ducks one after another.

It was a glorious morning in the duck blind late last month, nestled in cattails on a small, shallow slough in the middle of the North Dakota prairie. It's a frequent scene for Devney, 37, of Bismarck, N.D., a Minnesota native and avid waterfowl hunter who, for the past 10 years, has focuse! d his passion on working for Delta Waterfowl Foundation.

The nonprofit group, based in Bismarck and Winnipeg, Manitoba, has an ambitious goal: to secure the future of waterfowl and waterfowl hunting. That's an enormous task, given the ominous setbacks occurring for ducks and duck hunters these days. Those include continued loss of wetland and grassland habitat and a decline in hunter numbers.

Devney, senior vice president of Delta, grew up in Mahtomedi and cut his teeth hunting bluebills in north-central Minnesota. He offered these thoughts on several key issues facing ducks and duck hunters:

Loss of habitat

North Dakota lost about 250,000 acres of grassland this fall when federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts expired. The state could lose another 300,000 acres by 2010. Similar losses are occurring in South Dakota. Both states have vast swaths of prairie pothole habitat, the breadbasket for waterfowl production. Nati! ve prairie also is being plowed and planted at alarming rates.! Both tr ends are fueled by an increase in prices for corn, soybeans, wheat and other commodities, driven directly or indirectly by the push for ethanol, Devney said.

All of that bodes ill for waterfowl production. CRP in the Dakotas added an estimated 2 million ducks yearly to the fall flight.

"If we continue to lose native prairie, and the CRP acreage doesn't turn around, we'll be back to the late 1980s [in duck numbers]," Devney said. "And we're wet right now. We'll be dry again, and with a lot less habitat, and we'll be in big trouble."

Another concern: Habitat losses also are growing in Canada, and there is no CRP-type program there to provide crucial nesting habitat.

Federal farm bill is key

Conservation groups -- Delta Waterfowl, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever and others -- say CRP is crucial to wildlife in the United States, and they argue the next farm bill must include CRP provisions that will be financially attractive! enough to entice landowners to plant grass instead of corn or soybeans.

"I think we're at a real crossroads," Devney said. "Every duck hunter has to understand what these big overarching issues mean. It's not a Minnesota or Arkansas or a North Dakota issue, it's a duck issue. The only way to have lots of ducks is to make sure the breeding grounds are producing ducks."

Why should Minnesotans care?

Because most of the ducks shot here were produced on breeding grounds in the Dakotas or Canada, Devney said. "It's remarkable how many ducks are grown in North Dakota that are shot in Minnesota," he said.

"Minnesota's duck harvest is 100 percent a function of the fall flight. If the [continental] breeding population is high, Minnesota's harvest is high. Unfortunately, Minnesota can't control its own destiny."

When native prairie, grasslands or wetlands disappear in the Dakotas or Canada, it affects duck hunters in Minnesota and e! lsewhere, he said.

Decline in hunters

As if t he habitat concerns aren't enough, Devney said the decline in the number of waterfowl hunters, both in the United States and Canada, also is alarming. Waterfowl hunter numbers in the United States have dropped by 30 percent since the 1970s. The decline has been greater in Canada, where there were 500,000 waterfowl hunters in the 1970s but where 140,000 remain.

Delta successfully pushed for a national youth waterfowl hunt in Canada, and U.S. chapters offer youth hunts and mentoring, all designed to encourage kids to hunt.

There is hope

Devney is an optimist. "You have to be," he said. Delta is pushing for a CRP-type program in Canada called Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS) that would pay farmers to set aside marginal land. It could have a huge impact on duck production, he said. And he thinks CRP will be included in the next farm bill. The Wetland Loan Act, which would borrow $400 million from future federal duck stamp sales to protect vi! tal wetland habitat at today's land prices, could be approved by Congress in 2008.

"What would the world look like with ALUS, CRP, the Wetland Loan Act and a drive towards cellulosic ethanol [which converts prairie grass instead of corn into ethanol]?

"It would look a hell of a lot better than it does now."

Copyright 2007 Star-Tribune. Republished here with the permission of the Star-Tribune. No further republication or redistribution is permitted without the express approval of the Star-Tribune.