The size of the crop is great news for both human rice harvesters and waterfowl. Improved duck migration habitat is one of the main purposes of the cooperative wild rice lake management program conducted by Ducks Unlimited and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The program is an integral part of DU’s Living Lakes Initiative and supports the shallow lake habitat goals of DNR’s “Duck Recovery Plan.”

“We are enhancing wild rice stands for ducks and humans in the fall, as well as benefiting migrating ducks in the spring,” said Jon Schneider, DU’s manager of conservation programs in Minnesota. “Wild rice lakes provide important seed and invertebrate food resources ducks need as they migrate through Minnesota to northern breeding areas. Wild rice also improves the quality of breeding habitat in Minnesota’s forest shallow lakes.”

Wild rice got off to a good start this spring due to favorable low water conditions. However, an extended cool, wet weather period in May delayed germination and growth by about two weeks. As a result, many plants appear shorter than normal and seed production in the north will be about two weeks later than average.

“I was concerned about wild rice in spring, but I’m quite pleased with what I see so far, at least for the ducks, which should have plenty of rice again this fall,” said Perry Loegering, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources area wildlife manager in Grand Rapids.

The quality of wild rice this year for human hand harvesters in the forest remains in question, according to Rod Ustipak, contract coordinator for the cooperative wild rice lake management program. “When wild rice germination is delayed in spring, the plants do not mature properly and often head-out at a reduced height and with a reduced yield,” he said. “People interested in harvesting wild rice will have to scout harder than usual to find good picking conditions in Minnesota this year.”

Ustipak says Minnesota experienced the poorest crop two years ago, the best crop last year and now the latest crop this year in recent memory.

The big crop that Minnesota enjoyed last year also appears to have provided abundant food for migrating and breeding waterfowl this past spring, when migration may have been delayed due to the cool, late spring. Migrating waterfowl were relatively abundant in northern Minnesota this spring, especially flocks of ring-necked ducks. Ustipak says he observed about 500 ducks feeding on a small 40-acre Crow Wing County wild rice lake for three weeks in May, despite thawing in the north.

The cooperative wild rice lake management program is funded in part through the proceeds from DNR’s wild rice harvest license revenues. This seven-year program focuses on removing obstructions from the outlets of wild rice lakes to keep them free-flowing in spring and summer. Ring-necked ducks, mallards, wood ducks and teal are the primary species that use wild rice habitat in Minnesota, and more ring-necked ducks are harvested here than in any other state in most years.

Daily ($16) and annual ($26) wild rice harvester resident licenses may be purchased online at http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/licenses/hunting/index.html?type=hunting. For more information on wild rice management, go to www.dnr.state.mn.us/wildlife/shallowlakes/wildrice.html.

With more than a million supporters, Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest and most effective wetland and waterfowl conservation organization with almost 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.

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For more information about DU’s Living Lakes Initiative, go to www.ducks.org/livinglakes.

Media contacts: Becky Jones Mahlum, 701-355-3507 bjonesmahlum@ducks.org

Jennifer Kross, 701-355-3515 jkross@ducks.org