Ducks Unlimited- Serving the South- Arkansas

RIDGELAND, Miss., November 26, 2007 – Duck hunting has been highly variable in the South in recent winters. Biologists can point to no single cause, but mild weather through the winter period is surely a significant factor. When Old Man Winter does make an appearance, however, Ducks Unlimited is working to assure that sufficient habitat exists in the South to accommodate waterfowl and waterfowl hunters.

To date, Ducks Unlimited has completed 63 projects in Arkansas on public lands, including many state and federal lands open to waterfowl hunting. Projects like the one recently completed on Frog Bayou Wildlife Management Area, not only provide improved habitat for wintering waterfowl, but also increase hunting opportunities in the state.

“Ducks Unlimited was instrumental in partnering with the Natural Resource Conservation Service and Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in purchasing this newest wildlife management area for Arkansas sportsmen and women,” said Craig Hilburn, director of conservation programs in Ark. “Ducks Unlimited biologists and engineers also were instrumental in designing and constructing the new wetlands and reforesting the area with bottomland hardwood trees.”

Ducks Unlimited has worked with the AGFC to improve waterfowl habitat and hunting on all 25 public Wildlife Management Areas whose main purpose is providing habitat for waterfowl.

“We accomplished a great deal last year on Frog Bayou WMA, Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge and White River NWR,” Hilburn said.  “We also submitted a North American Wetland Conservation Act grant proposal for restoration work at Halowell Reservoir on Bayou Meto WMA and planned restoration work at Dry Lake on the White River NWR.  Restoration efforts should begin this summer on these two important waterfowl areas.” 

Plans for the upcoming year include submission of another NAWCA grant proposal for restoration work at Wrape Plantation on Bayou Meto WMA and White River NWR.  Ducks Unlimited, together with the AGFC, are actively reviewing all waterfowl areas in Arkansas for restoration opportunities to benefit both waterfowl and hunters. 

The Ducks Unlimited Southern Regional Office, located in Ridgeland, MS, carries out conservation programs in 15 southern states that include some of the most important wintering habitat on the continent.

Two-thirds of North America’s waterfowl spend the winter in Ducks Unlimited’s Southern Region. Ducks and geese depend on habitat in southern latitudes to feed, rest, and build vital energy reserves. Research shows the quality of habitat on the wintering grounds affects winter survival rates and the physical condition of birds returning north. Better wintering habitat may lead to a more productive nesting season, and more ducks flying south again in the fall.

It is true, Ducks Unlimited also works hard to protect habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region, but efforts there have a direct impact on ducks in the south. Known as the “duck factory”, breeding grounds across the Northern U.S. and Canada produce the vast majority of our wintering waterfowl.
 
“Our science tells us there is no place on this continent where we can have a bigger impact on waterfowl populations than the prairies,” said Dr. Curtis Hopkins, Director of the SRO. Unfortunately, we are seeing wholesale destruction of critical nesting habitat in the prairies. 

“We need solid support from southern duck hunters to maintain the necessary habitat base in the prairies that will yield fall flights to support liberal seasons. If we continue to lose grasslands and wetlands in the prairies, restrictive seasons could be the norm and closed seasons could be a real possibility”, says Dr. Scott Stephens, director of conservation planning for Ducks Unlimited’s Great Plains Office in Bismarck, North Dakota.

“Ducks Unlimited will continue to keep this critical conservation focus now and in the future, but that doesn’t mean we are ignoring vital wintering and migration areas,” Hopkins said.

Many waterfowl produced in the prairies, especially mallards, find the bottomland hardwood forests of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley ideal wintering habitat. However, 80 percent of the MAV forests were cleared for agriculture and other purposes, and over 50 percent of the wetlands have been lost.

The Wetlands Reserve Program, administered by USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, has restored more than 500,000 wetland acres in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Ducks Unlimited has played an important role in the engineering and tree planting efforts of the program. These flood prone lands are now providing important habitat for waterfowl and associated wildlife.

Ducks Unlimited and its partners work hard continent-wide to make certain there are sufficient wetlands to fill the skies with waterfowl today, tomorrow, and forever. Without the support of our members and partnerships in the south, that mission can never be achieved.

With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with over 12 million acres conserved. The United States alone has lost more than half of its original wetlands - nature’s most productive ecosystem - and continues to lose more than 80,000 wetland acres each year.

Contact: Andi Cooper
Regional Biologist- Communications
(601) 206-5463
acooper@ducks.org

Information for conservation efforts in each state can be found at: http://www.ducks.org/

For more information on Ducks Unlimited’s Southern Regional Office go to:  http://www.ducks.org/Conservation/SouthernRegionalOffice/1878/SouthernRegionalOffice.html