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Interactive Mapping
| Below you will find a growing collection of interactive, web-based mapping applications produced by the GIS team of Ducks Unlimited's Southern Regional Office. These informative tools serve a wide variety of functions and allow the user to browse many layers of geographic habitat data. |
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Bluebill Tracker
The continental scaup population has declined markedly since 1978. Annual
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Lowell Washburn, IA DNR
| population estimates of scaup have been below the population goal of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan since 1985 and reached an all-time low in 2006. Several major factors have been hypothesized as causing the scaup population decline including: (1) decreased quality and quantity of food resources on winter and spring migration stopover areas, (2) accumulation of contaminants, and (3) climate and habitat changes on boreal forest breeding areas, all of which may be directly or indirectly affecting female survival or recruitment. |
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Gadwall Tracker
Over 75 percent of North  America’s gadwall population winters along the Louisiana and Texas Gulf Coasts. Gadwalls frequent the coastal marshes in these states and typically rank first or second among all duck species in terms of number harvested. Despite their significance to hunters in this region, waterfowl biologists have a relatively poor understanding of gadwall habitat use, regional and long-range movements, and over-winter survival rates. Consequently, the Gulf Coast Joint Venture (GCJV), Ducks Unlimited (DU), Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and Louisiana State University have initiated a cooperative research effort to better understand winter movements and survival of gadwall. Researchers will equip 25 female gadwalls with satellite transmitters and track them throughout the winter and subsequent spring migration... |
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Project S.T.R.E.A.M.
The Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV), through which 41% of the conterminous US drains, exhibits severe water quality impairment, including high turbidity, elevated nutrient loads, and high pesticide concentrations. Ducks Unlimited developed a web-deployed water quality enhancement Decision Support System (DSS) known as STREAM, System for Targeting Restoration and Enhancing Aquatic Monitoring. DU utilized satellite imagery to demonstrate a replicable and cost-efficient method to estimate changes in turbidity across water bodies throughout the LMAV. Additionally, DU developed and compiled a suite of watershed characterization tools to aid in the assessment of conditions within and across watersheds. |
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Project S.W.A.M.P.
Ducks Unlimited, the world's leading wetland conservation organization has developed a set of powerful tools packaged within the Siting Wetlands in the Alluvial Mississippi Plain (SWAMP) Decision Support System for conservation planning within the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV). SWAMP represents the culmination of a suite of ecological and conservation datasets, outlined below, that were developed through the efforts of numerous regional conservation partners. |
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Project R.E.C.L.A.I.M.
Catahoula Lake, located in east central Louisiana, is one of those legendary locations where waterfowl winter by the tens of thousands each year. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and Ducks Unlimited, Inc. have teamed up to devise a management strategy that will help eliminate the destructive encroachment of woody vegetation. In order to facilitate a management plan, the encroaching woody vegetation had to be quantified and stratified into workable classes by relative density. This will allow decision makers at Catahoula Lake to prioritize their mechanical and chemical treatment efforts to minimize the costs and to maximize the benefits. | |
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