NORTH AMERICAN WATERFOWL SURVEY: The view from Prairie Canada
Without CRP, Canada looks at smaller-scale programs to improve waterfowl habitat -- and there's reason for optimism, biologists say
By Brad Dokken
Herald Staff Writer -Grand Forks Herold
SASKATOON, Sask. - Loss of waterfowl habitat remains a concern across prairie Canada, but a Saskatchewan biologist says the picture isn't all gloom and doom.
After several dry years, water conditions across southern Saskatchewan are much improved this spring, which will benefit breeding waterfowl.
And as goes wetland abundance, so goes duck production.
"It looks pretty good," said Dan Nieman, wildlife biologist for the Canadian Wildlife Service in Saskatoon. "In terms of birds and ponds, we can expect fair production out of the area."
Nieman again this spring is getting a first-hand look at waterfowl and habitat conditions as part of the annual North American waterfowl survey, a cooperative venture between the Canadian Wildlife Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that this year marks its 50th anniversary. Each May, teams of Canadian waterfowl experts called air/ground crews sample select segments of prairie wetlands from the ground, while pilot-biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conduct low-level flights over the same areas and farther north in the boreal forests, counting ducks and observing wetlands.
The resulting index of breeding waterfowl and wetland conditions guides managers across the continent's four waterfowl flyways in setting duck seasons and regulations. Nieman has participated in the Saskatchewan portion of the air/ground survey, which covers 10,000 wetland basins, since 1971.
"We've got a pretty good assessment of what's going on, on these individual wetlands," he said.
Habitat issues
As with North Dakota and other parts of the prairie pothole region, a look at the Saskatchewan countryside reveals why the area attracts ducks when the habitat is good. The geography of southern Saskatchewan includes a mix of prairie farmland interspersed with small potholes, along with parkland habitat featuring high-density wetlands ringed by aspen trees. Both are important to breeding ducks.
Still, Nieman says, habitat quality remains an issue because the areas most suited to duck production are located in the province's best farming country. And even with ample water, lack of nesting cover will hamper duck production. According to Ducks Unlimited, Canada has lost as much as 70 percent of its wetlands in some parts of the country.
"I think we're going to do pretty well for duck production in the parklands, but I don't want to minimize concerns for habitat," Nieman said. "We've got a lot of cover out there. We've got a problem with the quality of that cover."
According to Nieman, most of the habitat loss in prairie Canada occurred between the 1950s and early 1970s, when farmers tilled vast stretches of land in an effort to boost production and better compete in global markets. In some cases, entire wetland complexes either were plowed under or tilled right to the edge, destroying nesting habitat. The rate of loss slowed when high cattle prices encouraged some farmers to switch from crops to cattle. But that, too, has slowed with the discovery of BSE in a single Canadian cow two years ago and the subsequent closing of the U.S. border to live cattle imports.
Reversing the trend
In an effort to reverse the loss of habitat, groups such as Ducks Unlimited Canada are working with the government and farmers to offer incentives for establishing permanent cover and improve breeding habitat. Among them are programs encouraging farmers to plant crops such as winter wheat and winter rye that don't require tillage during nesting season.
DU Canada also owns about 290,000 acres of land, most of which is open to public hunting, and has conservation easements on another 50,000 acres.
According to Brian Gray, director of conservation programs for DU Canada, a "green cover" component in Canada's version of the farm bill provides a one-time payment of about $50 an acre for farmers who establish winter crops on their land for 10 years. The goal is to establish the program on about 700,000 acres of prairie land by 2007, Gray says, and that number is within reach. DU Canada is working with the federal government to target lands, and those with wetland areas receive the highest priority.
The challenge, he says, is convincing the government that preserving or restoring wetlands is good for air and water quality, as well as ducks.
"I'm quite excited about it," Gray said. "Governments move slowly. This is all new stuff. This isn't something that's going to happen overnight."
Gray says if the country ever established a program like the U.S. Conservation Reserve Program, prairie Canada again would produce 60 percent to 75 percent of North America's ducklings, instead of the 40 percent it has raised since CRP took hold in the late 1980s.
Meantime, in the absence of widespread initiatives such as CRP, Nieman of the Canadian Wildlife Service says the efforts are confined to a smaller scale.
"There are a lot of small programs; there's nothing extensive," he said. "That's the benefit of CRP. You've got these intensive acreages (being set aside). We've got these fractured parcels."
It might not be perfect, Nieman says, but it's reality.
"I think we're fooling ourselves if we think we can take some of the highest quality soil on the continent and put it into perennial cover," he said.
Holding steady
Despite the challenges, Nieman says the amount of perennial cover on the Saskatchewan landscape is similar to levels of the 1970s. Duck populations, too, are holding their own, he says. Two years ago, the prairie provinces held an estimated 9.5 million ducks, Nieman says, down only slightly from 10 million to 11 million in the 1970s.
Mallard numbers two years ago exceeded 2 million, Nieman says, relatively unchanged from 2 million to 3 million breeding birds in the 1970s. On the downside, that's considerably less than the 6.9 million mallards that nested in the prairie provinces between 1955 and 1958, according to estimates provided by Delta Waterfowl, a Bismarck-based conservation group.
"If you look at our populations now, our goal is to attain levels of the '70s," Nieman said. "I'm optimistic, I really am - if we can get some consistent water on the Canadian prairies."
