All waterfowlers over 30 years of age remember the record prairie drought of the 1980s and early 1990s, when midcontinent mallard numbers declined to near-record lows. Older duck hunters may recall an equally severe drought during the 1960s that also ravaged the pothole country. During the dark days of the most recent duck depression, some members of the waterfowl-management community predicted that mallard populations would never recover to levels of the 1970s. Photo by Jon Huelskamp