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Thread: If you have no data then management can’t be wrong

  1. #1
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    Default If you have no data then management can’t be wrong

    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?
    Attached Images Attached Images
    “Duck hunting gives a man a chance to see the loneliest places …blinds washed by a rolling surf, blue and gold autumn marshes, …a rice field in the rain, flooded pin-oak forests or any remote river delta. In duck hunting the scene is as important as the shooting.” ~ Erwin Bauer, The Duck Hunter’s Bible, 1965

  2. #2
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    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?
    I am not speaking from any particular expertise on this, but it's been a national trend for the last few decades that more and more non-hunters and even anti-gun people have been joining State wildlife agencies and boards. I don't know about SC DNR and the Board, but I wouldn't doubt the non-hunting influence of the Democrat population 'take-overs' in Charleston, Columbia and Greenville areas.

    Just saying. I'll be curious as to other responses who, hopefully, know more details regarding SC, in particular.
    .
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  3. #3
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    Failing to have criteria to measure success is the modern day everyone gets a trophy attitude.

    Success is a full brace of ducks and a big smile.
    Either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.

  4. #4
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    I would like to know how our money is spent or better yet how it is misused. Insane to me...... Best way to not have data to show how you have screw up our public waterways is to stop taking data.....
    “Duck hunting gives a man a chance to see the loneliest places …blinds washed by a rolling surf, blue and gold autumn marshes, …a rice field in the rain, flooded pin-oak forests or any remote river delta. In duck hunting the scene is as important as the shooting.” ~ Erwin Bauer, The Duck Hunter’s Bible, 1965

  5. #5
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    Make sure you question them so they will have to talk about it. Sc dnr not keep tract with duck numbers has to be one of the dumbest things I have heard this year.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Duck Tape View Post
    Failing to have criteria to measure success is the modern day everyone gets a trophy attitude.

    Success is a full brace of ducks and a big smile.

    Please elaborate on your platitudes, Jr.


    “Muh butts been wiped.” TheBigGuy
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  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by darealdeal View Post
    I would like to know how our money is spent or better yet how it is misused. Insane to me...... Best way to not have data to show how you have screw up our public waterways is to stop taking data.....
    Absolute fact.
    Be proactive about improving public waterfowl habitat in South Carolina. It's not going to happen by itself, and our help is needed. We have the potential to winter thousands of waterfowl on public grounds if we fight for it.

  8. #8
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    After viewing the DNR budget requests I saw no requests for WMA's. I have heard of many problems but shocked to see no requests. I asked DNR to come to a special committee meeting to report budget needs for Cat 1 WMAs.

    It was 27 million. Samworth was 5 million alone. while some were reporting good hunts Samworth and Delta have slid into the gutter. Budgetary items that are not requested by an agency are rarely included in a budget. I got 2.8 million budgeted for the WMAs.


    How do you measure success? Shots, kills, quality of kills, wintering duck population, % of managed land in the water, acres of crops that survived until the winter????

    Without data collection one cannot follow the trend.
    Either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.

  9. #9
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    Id love to hear from the DNR Why they’re doing such a shitty job with waterfowl wmas.
    \"We say grace and we say maam, if you ain\'t into that, we don\'t give a damn.\" HW Jr.

  10. #10
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    They're probably too busy jacking off loggerheads and writing tickets for not having some sort of tag for anything you wanna kill.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sportin' Woodies View Post
    They're probably too busy jacking off loggerheads and writing tickets for not having some sort of tag for anything you wanna kill.
    Don’t forget, safety check season on SC waterways is coming soon.

  12. #12
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    FDEC3924-9E39-463D-9BE0-2232EA7B9904.jpg
    Quote Originally Posted by Sportin' Woodies View Post
    They're probably too busy jacking off loggerheads and writing tickets for not having some sort of tag for anything you wanna kill.
    867-5309

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Palmetto Duck View Post
    Id love to hear from the DNR Why they’re doing such a shitty job with waterfowl wmas.
    I suggest some of us go ask them at their board meeting. They testified they had the equipment then said they needed 27 million. The floods and hurricane have been costly and hurt morale.

    I looks like they have become dependent on outside vendors to repair the larger breaks in the dikes.


    I am afraid there is a lack of seasoned biologist that care about waterfowl along with upper management with other priorities.
    Either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.

  14. #14
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    The problem starts with the board member who was elected Chairman of this committee...

    http://167.7.158.9/admin/committees/wff.html



    Also I will be interested in what the meeting minutes have to say regarding Item #6 from their meeting agenda shown below.

    http://167.7.158.9/admin/committees/...2020agenda.pdf

  15. #15
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    Sell Samworth - it has been problematic for years with zero return in terms of waterfowl.

    I’m certain private ownership could turn it around.

    Use that money to build a large GTR along the 95 corridor or down along the Santee River (Wee Tee area)

    Less management requirements on DNR and will provide plenty of opportunity for a larger range of hunters

    Open it on Wednesdays only til noon.

    Hunters can shoot HT on Saturdays.

    What’s not to like?
    Be proactive about improving public waterfowl habitat in South Carolina. It's not going to happen by itself, and our help is needed. We have the potential to winter thousands of waterfowl on public grounds if we fight for it.

  16. #16
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    Or we can just loathe in the nostalgia of a failed property because it’s an old tidewater “plantation.”
    Be proactive about improving public waterfowl habitat in South Carolina. It's not going to happen by itself, and our help is needed. We have the potential to winter thousands of waterfowl on public grounds if we fight for it.

  17. #17
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    Well, that's where I was going.

  18. #18
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    Or we can do nothing and watch what has happened continue to get worse.
    “Duck hunting gives a man a chance to see the loneliest places …blinds washed by a rolling surf, blue and gold autumn marshes, …a rice field in the rain, flooded pin-oak forests or any remote river delta. In duck hunting the scene is as important as the shooting.” ~ Erwin Bauer, The Duck Hunter’s Bible, 1965

  19. #19
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    What’s your plan?
    Be proactive about improving public waterfowl habitat in South Carolina. It's not going to happen by itself, and our help is needed. We have the potential to winter thousands of waterfowl on public grounds if we fight for it.

  20. #20
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    For what it's worth.

    Evaluation of Aerial Surveys to Monitor Fall-Winter Waterbird Populations in South Carolina
    https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/3182/

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