Moist Soil

[Quack]

Anyone else notice this article is half a decade old?

[Bullet21XD]

Yes.

But the thought that duck migration can be halted always remains.

[lanyard]

What can't be halted is the belief we need to get some more land.... THEN the ducks will return.

As already stated, we don't manage what we got. There's no success to build on.

[get-n-birdy]

I'm probably retarded, but buying more land in the current market seems counter productive.

I'd be willing to bet if there was some sort of volunteer program, there's a few guys who would donate time and equipment to help with projects on WMA's and WPA's. Have everyone sign a waiver and get some grass roots stuff rolling. The dnr seems so against this idea and I really don't understand why?

There's lots of little things volunteers could do to ease the burden on managing a lot of the properties we already have. He!! it would give guys a lot of pride too. And alleviate pressure on the usfws and dnr. But that makes way too much d@m sense I guess.

[tornadochaser]

I'm probably retarded, but buying more land in the current market seems...

There is a reason most duck stamp money goes towards easements these days. More cost to benefit ratio. The duck guys for the USFWS laugh at how MNDNR "manages" waterfowl.



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[Stute Slap]

I kinda like the bike paths........

The truth of it is that nobody gives a shyt about duck hunting. I mean the average Joe in MN could care less how many ducks there are here in the state.....most people don't know a mallard from a teal and who can blame them?

I actually hunt and don't care, why would anyone else.

I hate to say it, but it's over. There won't be some huge investment in habitat, not going to happen.

And really why should it happen? Spend our money on some birds so hunters can kill them? What a joke.


Think about it.....hunters want more ducks so they can kill them.....tough sell.

[Nershi]

Think about it.....hunters want more ducks so they can kill them.....tough sell.

How much does our state spend on fish stocking annually? How is that different?

If the state would take all the money we are wasting on our existing habitat 'projects' and invest it into MSM I'm guessing the state would hold a few more ducks. Although, they'd probably just abandon the MSM projects after a few years like they do with the rest of their projects so in the end it would probably be a waste.

[Quack]

Fish stocking is different because resorts, tourism industry, and farmers in lake-poor sw MN demand it. Politics.

DNR and DU have decided that water control structures on public wetlands/lakes are probably the best bang for the buck. Periodic drawdowns mimic natural cycles that have been interrupted by drainage. It all takes time but from what I've seen they (primarily private sector DU) are making good use of legacy funds. I've tried to convey to DNR and DU that they need to report not just annual projects, but show the increase after the amendment passed. Nobody seems to get it. And of course, everybody wants a project on their spot but they don't want anyone else to know about it.

[Quack]

I talked to a DNR guy who was trying to convert a worn out rice farm into a MSM unit and he said U.S. Army Corps of Engineers basically wouldn't let him do the necessary ditch improvements due to wetlands laws. Ridiculous.

[Bailey]

Yet we keep pumping millions at Lake Christina trying to bring back the glory days for a few hunters who own private property on the lake. These people must have one heck of a lot of political connections to keep getting all this money. Did the latest drawdown even work to bring in ducks? I haven’t heard a peep about the lake since they declared victory a year or so ago. My guess is five or six years from now we will throw another couple million at Christina again.