These vital breeding grounds are often overlooked public hunting grounds
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the acquisition of the first Waterfowl Production Area (WPA) in the United States Prairie Pothole Region (PPR). WPAs are purchased with federal duck stamp funds and managed by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System. WPAs vary in size from less than one acre to more than 7,400 acres. Collectively, the nation’s 36,000 WPAs have conserved more than 2.5 million acres of wetlands and adjacent uplands.
Nearly 95 percent of the WPAs are located in Montana, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.
It is estimated that while WPAs and the national wildlife refuge system account for just two percent of the landscape in the U. S. portion of the PPR and produce almost 25 percent of the ducks raised in the region. They also can be outstanding places to hunt in the fall. These public lands are visited by more than 800,000 people each year.
I have been one of those people. Some of my favorite waterfowling haunts are WPAs in North Dakota. I have hunted dozens of them and driven by hundreds. I am annually impressed each spring by the number of ducks these wetlands provide for and equally impressed at how few hunters utilize these wetlands in the fall. I have hunted WPAs in North Dakota for more than eight years and have yet to share one with another hunter. I don’t know if it’s a case of the timing; I tend to hunt North Dakota in late October, the particular area I hunt, the fact that there are so many of them or if many hunters overlook these often small pothole wetlands. Most hunters seem more interested in bigger water or dry fields than my fellow duck hunting companions and I require.
The "stinkin canvasback hole" in June 2008.
One WPA in particular holds a special place in my memory and heart. We call this particular WPA the “stinkin canvasback hole” after the propensity of canvasbacks to use this wetland and the foul smelling stench that arises from the mud with each step. It was not surprising to see them there because it always is chalked full of submergent aquatic vegetation, a canvasbacks favored diet.
Eleven year-old Buck retrieves a fat drake canvasback at the "stinkin canvasback hole."
This WPA also happens to be the spot I chose to spread the ashes of my previous yellow Lab “Buck” on a cold October morning in 2003. Over the years we spent many a morning on this wetland taking canvasbacks, bluebills, wigeon, mallards and other ducks. Fond memories abound and a tear still comes to my eye when I think of the morning I met a crimson sunrise, my faithful and ever eager hunting companion of 12 years ashes in hand. I waded into the wetland spreading his ashes and fertilizing future growth on this magnificent marsh.
Another fat drake canvasback at the "stinkin canvasback hole."
Elvis makes his first retrieve at the “stinkin canvasback hole” one month before his first birthday!
As luck would have it, this very marsh ended up being the site of my current yellow lab Elvis’ first retrieve. And, you probably guessed, it was a beautiful adult canvasback drake.
I still return to the “stinkin canvasback hole” every chance I get. The most recent visit was this past June and sure enough it was full of ducks, including canvasbacks, a testament to the importance of WPAs.
I have high hopes to be amongst its bulrush and cattail this October, decoys bobbing in the light chop. Since the Central Flyway is in the midst of the Hunters Choice experiment canvasbacks will still be legal in North Dakota. I think I’ll pass on that first bull canvasback, offering it to those waterfowlers and hunting dogs that have passed to that big WPA on the other side.
I’ll see you again in October “stinkin canvasback hole!”
Check Out:
Waterfowl Production Areas
National Wildlife Refuge System
DU on the PPR
