Ducks Unlimited- Serving the South

Projects on Public Lands in Mississippi and Louisiana Increase Hunting Opportunities

RIDGELAND, Miss., December 5, 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 51 projects on public lands in Louisiana and 58 in Mississippi, including many state and federal lands that provide waterfowl hunting opportunities.

DU conserves vital bottomland hardwood habitats in MS and LA.

In Mississippi, projects like the ongoing one at Malmaison Wildlife Management Area not only provide improved habitat for wintering waterfowl, but also increase hunting opportunities in the state.

“Our engineering and biological staff have an ambitious workload planned for the forthcoming year in Mississippi,” said Chris Cole, Director of Conservation Programs in Mississippi. “Plans include Phase III of the wetlands development at Coldwater National Wildlife Refuge, infrastructure upgrades to two wetland tracts on Delta National Forest and restoration work at Malmaison WMA.”

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 at 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 in the fall.

Ducks Unlimited also works hard to protect habitat in the Prairie Pothole Region because 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 waterfowl wintering in the South.
 
“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 Southern Region of Ducks Unlimited. Unfortunately, we are seeing wholesale destruction of critical nesting habitat in the prairies. 

Grasslands like this one in North Dakota are vital breeding grounds.

“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,” said Dr. Scott Stephens, Director of Conservation Planning for Ducks Unlimited’s Great Plains Office in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Conversion of native prairies continues at an alarming rate.

“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, nearly 80 percent of those 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 restoration work on land enrolled in WRP. Those lands are now providing important habitat for waterfowl and other wetland associated wildlife.

For some waterfowl, the MAV is not a final destination, but a stopover on the way to another continentally important wintering area - the Gulf Coast.

Coastal wetlands provide vital winter habitat for waterfowl, but large areas have been lost or degraded.  For example, Louisiana alone has lost over 1 million acres of coastal wetlands that were among the most productive in North America.  Today, natural and human-induced changes have severely compromised the region’s ability to support waterfowl.

Louisiana coastal marshes- Winter home for millions of waterfowl each year.

“Historically, the Gulf Coast has wintered upwards of 13 million ducks and 1.5 million geese. That is why this area is among Ducks Unlimited’s highest priorities,” said Jerry Holden, Director of Conservation Programs in Louisiana. Ducks Unlimited has committed $15 million to restore wetlands in coastal Louisiana through its ongoing Wetlands for Tomorrow campaign.

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 conservation partners 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; Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 12 million acres across North America. 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