FowlWeather Podcast

Policy wizard, John Devney of Delta Waterfowl joins the FowlWeather Podcast for a review of financial woes of our USFWS National Wildlife Refuge system. He defined delayed infrastructure and why our refuges aren’t keeping up. What can be done? Not much if you don’t have funds to keep up with critical wetland infrastructure, don’t have the staff necessary to properly manage duck habitat, and you don’t have access to enough places to hunt.

With ducks moving back north it is time to start thinking about habitat and habitat management for the coming growing season. DrMike hits the hot button habitat decision-matrix for the coming season.  What conditions to create? What foods to grow? and how it all goes down on public v. private lands. Plus, we dive into some prairie conditions updates and what the coming spring and summer will bring for breeding ducks.

We meet with Dr. Scott Stephens, Senior Director of Conservation Strategies with Ducks Unlimited. A staunch advocate for wetlands conservation, Scott details the accomplishments made and the challenges ahead to helping sustain ducks and duck habitat across duck country in the USA and Canada. A long-time waterfowler, we dig deep into the weeds with Dr. Stephens about what is needed to make the prairies and boreal tick and keep producing ducks.

For some it was the season of the storm, for others the best season they can remember, others the worst season ever, the winter that has not yet happened. The 3rd year of the FowlWeather Podcast brought us a welcome calming of the fake news by other podcasts, drought but ducks for many, and the corn conversation came to a head. We also recognized once again that weather plays a major role in duck migration timing and the later-season Duck Shuffle, plus that telemetry doesn’t tell us everything. Today we dissect these hot topics for the year and analyze how well long-term duck migration forecast played out throughout Duck Country.

For some it was the season of the storm, for others the best season they can remember, others the worst season ever, the winter that has not yet happened. The 3rd year of the FowlWeather Podcast brought us a welcome calming of the fake news by other podcasts, drought but ducks for many, and the corn conversation came to a head. We also recognized once again that weather plays a major role in duck migration timing and the later-season Duck Shuffle, plus that telemetry doesn’t tell us everything. Today we dissect these hot topics for the year and analyze how well long-term duck migration forecast played out throughout Duck Country.