This was taken off of the CWS Facebook page. Wanted to hear input from the infinite wisdom of SCDUCKS.
This is from Strick9 and glad we have someone leading the way. Would like to get more and more folks involved. The more people we can get the more of an impact our voice will have!
DUCKS #s don't matter $$$$AY WHAT #SCDNR ?
As you can see in the graph below SC wintering waterfowl have been in a decline for quite sometime. For some reason in 2016, SCDNR decided it was no longer important to know or understand or to have any idea whatsoever how many ducks are still wintering here in our state. Any person, biologist, habitat manager, waterfowler or even a person not scientifically oriented, would certainly have to wonder why this data is no longer important. I would say it is more important now than ever especially with known habitat loss and during a period of changing weather trends. I especially wonder why such data is no longer important or valid when it was kept religiously for over 50 years by the best waterfowl managers in the nation and our state included. Were they just silly for wanting this data?
Well, I politely asked just this question among others in a recent email to SCDNR. To my extreme dismay, I learned that SCDNR had no intentions of re starting the aerial surveys, nor re starting the winter waterfowl index numbers nor increasing the banding programs to see what waterfowl were still wintering here and where they might be going afterwards. Far worse, they expressed no interest in re establishing a waterfowl advisory committee to address this issue.
Worse again even yet, and to be clear, SCDNR said quite clearly in their last response that they just weren't going to talk about it any further period.
That certainly leads the public waterfowl hunter and the lottery hunters to wonder why duck numbers no longer matter and why this data that has been collected for over 50 years is no longer important ? Is it the habitat or possibly the money spent on the habitat or is it the fact that in a changing weather trend that this data simply just isn't important to SCDNR in understanding waterfowl or waterfowl hunters these days?
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