One of the main reasons (besides enjoying his company) I button-holed Mike Carloss for a duck hunt was the chance to get him away from distractions to pick his mind about the future of waterfowl hunting.
At first, Carloss was a little cautious, stressing that his views were his personal and professional opinions rather than the position or views of his current employer, Ducks Unlimited.
But once he felt comfortable with my recognition of that caveat, he was quite candid and direct.
And he identified eight areas of concern for the future of waterfowl hunting:
1) Loss of breeding grounds — “A lot of hunters don’t really understand the dire nature of grassland and prairie potholes being converted to agricultural uses,” Carloss said. “They have heard about it, but until you see it it’s just something that someone tells you.
“My first trip to North Dakota during a drought year to do research I saw how potholes were taken out of the wetland system and added to agricultural lands. It was eye-opening and disturbing. It made me wonder what the future is for waterfowl hunting on our wintering grounds.
“I saw it again this year at DU’s Duck University. The areas that are protected stick out compared to those that aren’t. It shows you the need for conservation. Everyone who likes duck hunting should be doing something for conservation — if not for DU, then for something else.”
More than group memberships are needed, however.
“Besides joining conservationist organizations, provide public input into the politics of regulation, especially the Clean Water Act,” he said. “Provisions within the act have powerful impacts in pothole conversions.
“Stay current with reading, such as DU, Delta Waterfowl, National Wildlife Federation and other websites. Contact your legislators once you are educated. Don’t forget that the boreal forests are important as duck producers as well.
“Climate change may be a factor. The information that I’ve seen is intriguing. Whether it’s a blip on the radar screen or not, I don’t know. Some evidence is compelling — but do we really have enough information?
“Ducks like water.”
2) Louisiana wintering-ground issues — “We are losing coastal waterfowl habitat because of a lack of sediment input into them,” Carloss said. “What little new sediment is added is often not a replication of what was lost. It takes a long time for that solid material to evolve into a functioning marsh habitat.
“Saltwater intrusion creates its own set of problems other than land loss. It changes fresh and intermediate marsh to saltwater marsh. Waterfowl prefer fresh and intermediate marshes because they hold more plant species; this diversity produces more energy per acre than saltwater marshes do.
“Much information now indicates that sea level is rising. With our low elevations, marshes may become open water because plant growth can’t keep up with subsidence of the land and rising water levels. The plants essentially drown and die.”
But he pointed out that critical wintering wetlands are not just a coastal marsh issue.
“Wooded swamps are important waterfowl habitat too, especially for species like mallards,” Carloss said. “In these habitats, invasive plant species such as salvinia have suppressed desirable native species and have carpeted open water.”
Even agricultural changes in Louisiana caught Carloss’ scrutinizing eye.
“There has been a reduction in rice acreage in Louisiana as farmers have shifted to other crops,” he said. “Rice fields provide roughly 40 percent of Louisiana’s waterfowl habitat.
“The shift away from rice is influenced by commodity prices, which in turn are influenced by provisions in the Farm Bill and federal agricultural programs. Sportsmen need to be informed on actions when the Farm Bill is reauthorized.”
That’s where membership does have its privilege.
“It is difficult to take action as an individual and best done through national conservationist organizations that have the best interests of waterfowl hunters at heart,” Carloss explained.
And the need for action cannot be understated.
“If the current trends in quality wintering habitat loss continue, it will produce a reduction in the number of wintering birds and a reduction in hunter success,” he said. “Habitat loss seems to be slowing, perhaps because there is less left to lose.
“The outlook is gloomy. According to the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Act Authority’s 2012 master plan, the loss can be reversed if we have enough money — but the $50 billion may be difficult to come by.”
3) Managing hunting pressure — “Hunting pressure is a combination of more hunter numbers and improved technology,” Carloss said. “In Louisiana, hunter numbers are still climbing, although they are declining in many other states.
“More hunters mean more disturbances. In the recent past, many areas were difficult to access, effectively serving as refuges. The combination of more hunters and better equipment moves birds to less-desirable habitats and/or makes birds become more nocturnal.”
Hunter advances cover the gamut.
“Technological changes include things like shallow water boats and surface drive engines, motion decoys and better shotshell technology — for example 3 ½-inch shells,” Carloss said. “The net result is that more disturbance and better technology mean an increase in mortality. Science says that it is compensatory (replacing what would die anyway due to natural causes), but …?
“One major outfall of all this is that the birds are in poorer condition for migration to their breeding grounds and for breeding.
“If trends continue, resource management agencies may have to address the issue. Numbers of hunters may be addressed with lottery access on public areas, but most agencies want more participation by hunters rather than less.”
It’s a difficult situation with which to deal, Carloss said.
“Reducing season length and bag limits are other options, along with technology restrictions, but people have investments in equipment,” he said. “Managing pressure is a sensitive issue.”
4) Public opinion of hunting — “The overwhelming majority of people don’t use waterfowl resources. But they own it as much as do hunters,” Carloss said. “That can be hard for hunters to accept. More intriguing is that many hunters don’t even think that much about the subject.”
Carloss then asked a rhetorical question.
“What really is the difference between protected species like robins and ibis (aka bec croche) and a hunted species like ducks?” he asked.
He deliberately selected two protected birds that had historically been hunted and eaten in Louisiana.
“The public is very environmentally conscious now,” Carloss said. “It would be easier to move a hunted species to protected status than vice versa.”
His eyes twinkled a bit as he made his point.
“Legislators and congressmen make the decision. They react to public opinion,” Carloss said. “Hunters should be more proactive about their sport — explain their motives for hunting.”
5) The declining pool of hunters — “Only hunters can explain their sport,” he said. “The number of non-hunters is increasing; the number of hunters is a decreasing minority. You need hunters’ voices to support hunters’ rights.
“Will the percentage of hunters in the population drop so low that they become irrelevant? Hunter numbers is a delicate balance between putting too much pressure on the resource and not having enough participants to represent the sport.”
6) Changes in waterfowl migration patterns caused by changes in agriculture — “The duck system, from breeding grounds to wintering grounds, is very dynamic,” Carloss said. “Agriculture responds to market forces. For example, more demand for corn for ethanol production means more corn being planted. Because of the increased availability of corn, some waterfowl species don’t need to migrate farther south.
“Agriculture also changes in response to public policy. When the government encourages farmers to practice no-till agriculture because it reduces soil erosion, the practice also leaves more waste grain on the ground instead of it being buried; this grain is available to ducks, which can also change migration patterns.
“It’s entirely possible to have high continental populations of ducks and have poor numbers of some species migrate to Louisiana.”
This led Carloss to touch on an issue sensitive to him.
“There are rumors of organizations such as Ducks Unlimited planting crops, dumping feed and feeding ponds ‘up north,’ resulting in short-stopping of ducks,” he said. “In my professional career I can vouch for the fact that this is not a practice of conservation organizations. Some of it comes from the short-stopping of Canada geese decades ago; that actually occurred.”
7) Habitat conservation programs — The major habitat conservation programs of interest to waterfowl hunters are the the Wetland Reserve Program and the Conservation Reserve Program. Both “retire” land from agriculture and both were created by the federal government.
In somewhat simplistic terms, with WRP the government pays agricultural landowners an annual fee for their lands that qualify as wetlands to be retired from agriculture and restored as wetlands.
About 80 percent of these land agreements are permanent, with the remaining 20 percent being 30-year easements.
CRP differs in two ways. First, the agricultural lands to be retired do not need to qualify as wetlands. Secondly, CRP lands are retired for shorter terms: 10 to 15 years.
Land enrolled in either program may be sold by the owner, and there are no obstructions to using the land for hunting or fishing.
Carloss strongly believes both programs benefit waterfowl.
“Besides providing habitat, WRP offers real opportunities for sportsmen to buy and manage land in Louisiana for waterfowl,” he said. “But these managed properties do compete for migratory birds with public and private leased lands.
“CRP is more important in duck breeding grounds. The natural vegetation that grows in place of cropland provides dense cover that makes it difficult for predators to find duck nests.
“Ducks will travel long distances with their broods to get from good nesting cover to water, so CRP lands away from water are important, too. Without CRP, ducks are offered the choice of tilled-up ground or just a fringe of natural vegetation around potholes of water.”
