An interesting article from MN that has a couple of ideas I would like to see on a grand scale...
LEADERS OFFER IDEAS ON FIXING WATERFOWL, WETLANDS
BY CHRIS NISKANEN
Outdoors Editor
LEADERS OFFER IDEAS ON FIXING WATERFOWL, WETLANDS
How do you improve wetlands and duck hunting in Minnesota? Here's a collective list of ideas from leaders in the conservation and waterfowl community. Contributing their thoughts are:
• John Devney, vice president of Delta Waterfowl, a North Dakota-based conservation, education and research group
• Bill Henke, president of the Minnesota Division of the Izaak Walton League of America
• Roger Holmes, retired director of the Minnesota's DNR's Division of Fish and Wildlife
• Mark Holsten, deputy Minnesota DNR commissioner
• Gene Merriam, current Minnesota DNR commissioner
• Harvey Nelson, retired waterfowl expert for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and volunteer for the Minnesota Waterfowl Association
• Jon Schneider, Minnesota state conservation director for Ducks Unlimited
Solution: Create a new, broad coalition of waterfowl, conservation and environmental groups. Such a group would lobby for more resources devoted to wetland protection and enhancement. Because wetlands directly affect clean water, clean lakes and streams and other species, notably songbirds and shorebirds, the coalition would be an umbrella group for those interests.
The impact: A bigger group with more diverse interests would have more influence with policymakers.
Solution: Efforts for wetland improvement and restoration should be couched not just in terms of impact on ducks but also on clean water. This is particularly important when funding sources are sought.
The impact: Policymakers are more likely to respond to a fundamental public need for clean water than to the interests of duck hunters.
Solution: Waterfowl habitat restoration needs to be more focused on the prairie pothole region of western Minnesota, where agriculture is degrading wetlands.
The impact: With less money in state coffers, some waterfowl experts think a shrinking pot of habitat money should be directed to areas used most by waterfowl. Arguably, that's the prairie pothole region.
Solution: Wetland restoration should be focused in areas that already have a critical mass of wetlands and grassland complexes. Experts think current wetland and grassland complexes should be expanded with more wetland acquisition and restoration.
The impact: Some of Minnesota's most valuable waterfowl areas, such as Heron Lake, continue to suffer degradation. A greater emphasis on those areas might accelerate their recovery.
Solution: The DNR should examine fish usage in wetlands. Some waterfowl authorities believe the fish are a major cause of degraded wetlands in the state. Wetlands are being used to raise a variety of fish, to the detriment of waterfowl habitat.
The impact: DNR research indicates fish infestation in wetlands leads to the wetlands' degradation, yet some experts wonder why the agency hasn't done more to eliminate fish-rearing from wetlands valuable to waterfowl.
Solution: Address waterfowl disturbance. There are hunters and waterfowl experts who want more refuges created in the state and a greater examination of how fall fishing affects waterfowl use.
The impact: Without refuges and undisturbed areas, migrating waterfowl won't stick around long in the state.
Solution: More emphasis on shallow lake management. Most experts and hunters agree that shallow lakes, along with wetlands, are critical to migrating waterfowl. Shallow lakes provide food and resting areas for waterfowl, but many are degraded and lack important aquatic plants and insects for attracting ducks. The state's fall use plan makes attempts to improve shallow lakes, but the process is slow and costly.
The impact: An updated and fully funded shallow lakes management program would focus the DNR's attention on these critical bodies of water. Political will also is needed to convince landowners who live near shallow lakes of the value of these waters to waterfowl. Without these lakes, the state's waterfowl hunting success will continue to plummet.
Solution: Reduce hunting limits and seasons.
The impact: A number of groups have argued that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's season-setting system leads to long seasons and liberal limits when population levels don't warrant it. Most experts say the length of the season has a greater impact on ducks than daily bag limits, because so few hunters actually reach their daily bag limit. Debate over the issue will intensify as states begin to plan for the 2005 season this summer.
Solution: Toughen the state's Wetland Conservation Act. State wetlands experts think the act has weaknesses that put wetlands at risk. Of particular concern is the quality of the wetlands constructed to replace drained wetlands under the state's mitigation law.
The impact: A toughened Wetland Conservation Act might close loopholes in the law and let developers know the state is serious about protecting wetlands.
Solution: Work to protect nesting cover for prairie ducks in Dakotas and Canada. Habitat is being lost throughout the prairies, and many of the ducks raised in those areas migrate through Minnesota.
The impact: Without the Dakotas and Canada, there would be few ducks left in the Midwest or a major portion of the United States.
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Originally Posted by Glenn
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