PART IV - WATERFOWLING IN AMERICA: FIRM GROUND OR THIN ICE?

by Bob Bailey

There’s an old adage that says something like “people who don’t study history are destined to relive it”. I think the same advice holds for those who don’t learn from the experiences of others. Waterfowlers in America should heed the experiences of their beleaguered colleagues in Canada, if they wish to avoid a similar fate.

About 1 1/2 years ago, I was notified by a biologist- colleague that there was a proposal to close a huge section of the Ottawa River, near my home, to waterfowl hunting. This is a vast expanse of marshlands in western Quebec, which I had hunted for decades, and an area into which the North American Waterfowl Management Plan had channeled millions of dollars to conserve the wetland habitat. It is also one of the highest waterfowl harvest zones in all of the country. Having been in the waterfowl conservation business for over 30 years, you can imagine my distress and indignation at the prospect that marshes preserved by millions of Canadian and US duck hunter dollars, could be turned into one of Canada’s largest wetland nature preserves.

It was at that point that I realized how much waterfowl hunters, managers and others have overlooked many of the very real threats to our waterfowl hunting heritage. I undertook a scientific review of trends in hunter numbers and tried to identify the issues facing the future of waterfowl hunting in Canada. Summaries of this review have appeared on this website, in the pages of Delta’s Waterfowl Report, and in outdoor publications in Canada and the United States. The review demonstrated beyond doubt, that if present trends continue, and barring strong positive action on the hunting issue, there will be plenty of ducks trading over the marshlands of Canada, long after the last gunner disappears.

I naturally turned my focus to the status of America’s waterfowl hunting heritage. Like you, I assumed America is different, on all the usual fronts. Perhaps I thought, America isn’t burdened by as many “do- gooders” or social engineers. Maybe the lack of national gun- control laws makes it a lot easier to take up hunting in the US, and perhaps Americans have higher regard for individual freedoms and rural traditions like hunting, trapping and fishing. What I didn’t expect to uncover (with one very important exception) was a similar decline in waterfowl hunter numbers in America.

Is waterfowl hunting on firm ground in America? Take a look at the numbers below, think about the challenges you face to hunt waterfowl, and decide for yourself. If you saw these numbers in Delta’s Waterfowl Report, or in an outdoor magazine, I still think they are worth a second look. The whole story is covered here, right back to when the first reliable figures became available.

A Summary of Waterfowl Hunter Trends in the United States

US Fish & Wildlife Service figures representing total “potential adult hunters” rose steadily throughout the 1960s and peaked at 2,398,350 hunters in 1971. In the twenty years between 1971 and 1991, US waterfowl hunter numbers declined steadily to 1,146,944, which represented a 52% loss. The number of US waterfowl hunters began to increase again in 1992, and had risen to 1,584,768 by the year 2000 (a 38% increase from 1991). However, in spite of the recent increase, the total numbers of US waterfowl hunters remains 34% below the peak established in 1971.

Waterfowl hunter trends in each flyway are similar, but show some interesting differences. Atlantic Flyway numbers declined from 496,000 in 1971 to 226,256 (- 54%) in 1995, before increasing to 281,005 in 2000 (+24%). In spite of the recent increase, waterfowler numbers in the Atlantic Flyway in the year 2000 are down 43% from the peak in 1971.

Mississippi Flyway waterfowler numbers peaked in 1970 at 998,980, before falling by 54% to 464,439 in 1988. Hunter numbers then increased in the flyway by 57% to reach 730,062 in the year 2000. However, the number of waterfowlers in the Mississippi Flyway in 2000 is still 27% below the peak recorded in 1970.

Waterfowler numbers in the Central Flyway peaked at 460,900 in 1971, then declined by 56% to reach a low of 204,547 in 1991. Numbers rebounded from the 1991 low by 63% to reach 333,054 in 2000. Waterfowler numbers in the Central Flyway remains 28% below the 1971 peak.

Pacific Flyway waterfowler numbers peaked at 432,230 in 1971, before declining by 62% to reach 163,237 in 1991. Numbers recovered by 41% between1991 and 2000, where 230,682 waterfowlers were recorded in the flyway. However, numbers of waterfowlers in the Pacific Flyway are still 47% below the peak established in 1971.

Waterfowl Hunting: Firm Ground or Thin Ice?

The good news is that the number of US waterfowl hunters in each flyway began to climb again in the late 1980s and 1990s. Growth seems to have stopped in the Pacific Flyway, but numbers were still moving upwards in the Atlantic, Mississippi and Central Flyways in the year 2000. Is this an optimistic blip on a long- term downward trend, or does it represent rekindled interest in waterfowl hunting and a truly sustainable growth trend in hunter numbers?

The US rebound in waterfowler numbers appears strongly linked to the continental recovery of waterfowl populations during the decade of the 1990s. The increase corresponded to a period of more liberal hunting seasons and limits, reflecting the improved water conditions on prairie breeding grounds and the establishment of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). However, in spite of liberal regulations and the highest recorded duck and goose populations in history, waterfowler numbers in each flyway remain 27 to 47% below the peak numbers recorded in 1970-71. It appears that factors other than the numbers of waterfowl and hunting opportunity as measured by seasons and limits, may also be having impacts on the numbers of waterfowl hunters in the United States.

The US figures beg the question “what will happen to our waterfowling heritage when drought, unanticipated declines in duck production, or loss of CRP reduces duck populations and hunting opportunity in the future?” If the numbers of US hunters are closely tied to the numbers of ducks and hunting opportunity, the scarcity of ducks reported by hunters in 2001, and the ominous threat of drought on the breeding habitat this spring, does not bode well for continuing recent growth in waterfowl hunter numbers. Without doubt, more ducks in the sky is critical to continue the recovery of America’s waterfowling heritage. On the other hand, experiences in Canada and long- term trends in US waterfowl hunter numbers, suggest it may take more than ducks to conserve America’s waterfowl hunting heritage in the long run.