Hunting Archery Duck Deer

Dilemma of duck-hunting season in Arkansas - Arkansas has had several below-average duck-hunting seasons lately, and fingers are pointing blame in as many directions as with the Katrina disaster.

Why aren’t the ducks coming to Arkansas when we want them and in the numbers we desire?

There isn’t a simple single answer. One factor, one cause of the problem is something most of us tend to close our ears or minds to - global warming. That comes out of the dark closet of doom that we try to ignore. It’s easier to bad-mouth various state and federal agencies, Republicans in the White House and short-stopping in states to the north of Arkansas.

But global warming is with us, according to extensive recent reports from The Wildlife Society and the National Wildlife Federation. Learning more about this trend will help us understand the duck situation better, although it won’t solve the problem by any means. Those duck-hunting bonanza days of the 1990s are gone. Let’s adjust to it.

So what is the big deal about global warming?

Winters are not as cold here in Arkansas as they used to be. If you are teen-aged or older, you can remember winters with prolonged days of below freezing weather. When was the last time we had a “cold” winter? Yes, we remember the ice storm of 2000-2001, but that was short, just a blip in an otherwise warm winter.

Ducks come to Arkansas because it gets cold up north. The cold includes snow and ice, and this covers up food ducks want and need. So they fly to where food is available, and water is abundant and handy. This is the bedrock of centuries of ducks in the bottomland hardwoods of Arkansas, augmented by the century-old addition of rice farming and later additions of soybean and winter wheat farming.

Larry Sweiger is present of the National Wildlife Federation and was in Arkansas a few weeks back. His organization compiled an extensive “Waterfowler’s Guide to Global Warming” that says in summary, “Ducks and geese face a trifecta of troubles caused by global warming.”

Sweiger explained this three-pointed threat. “This includes major loss of prime breeding grounds, a reduction of coastal winter habitat and disruptions in migration.”

None of these three should surprise anyone in Arkansas who is seriously into ducks and hunting them.

We’ve been told for years about the farmers in the pothole country of the upper Midwest and the Canadian prairie provinces who plow and plant around potholes when it’s dry enough to work machinery. Drought in the duck-breeding country means three things - potholes don’t provide water for ducks, fringe areas are plowed and predators can get to more nesting ducks.

The global warming situation is complex. Part of the problem is covered in the phrase “greenhouse gas emissions,” meaning there are many more people on earth using many more fossil-fueled machines that pour out carbon dioxide and other gases. This helps raise the world’s temperatures, according to the National Wildlife Federation and The Wildlife Society.

The ice cap in the Arctic is slowly melting and retreating. Glaciers have been melting for many years. These are effects of global warming, and they produce yet another problem - more water in oceans which raises the level and moves over coastal lowlands.

The Louisiana marshlands along the Gulf of Mexico have shrunk alarmingly, something like 1,200 square miles gone in recent times. More than one person has already said this was a factor in Katrina’s devastation.

The U.S. Senate has tackled the global warming issue, somewhat against the wishes of the White House, according to the NWF. More debate and, hopefully, more action are coming.

Unfortunately to us in Arkansas, the bottom line is fewer ducks in our hunting areas. Bag limits, number of hunting days and other factors aren’t significant when the ducks are absent.
By Joe Mosby