Latest / Ducks Unlimited Podcast / Ep. 547 – Pacific Flyway Update and “The Big Four” of DU’s Western Region

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Ep. 547 – Pacific Flyway Update and “The Big Four” of DU’s Western Region · Ducks Unlimited Podcast

• Swell AI Transcript: Jeff McGreary NO MUSIC.mp3 Mike Brasher: Everybody, welcome back. I'm your host on this episode, Dr. Mike Brazier, and it's an exciting week here at National Headquarters. There are a lot of people coming into the office. We have our Conservation Programs Committee meeting here at National Headquarters that is made up of a lot of our senior level volunteers. It's a volunteer organization. We highly prize every volunteer, every committee member, every member that we have. We have some in the organization that have made commitments and have found ways to get involved at levels that allow them to help advise on some of the activities that we do. And one of those is our Conservation Programs Committee. A lot of folks in town for that, along with our leadership staff from across the country. One of those is sitting across the table from me, Jeff McCreary, the Director of Operations for the Western Region. Jeff, you've been on at least once before, if not a couple of times, but remotely. And you were telling me when you walked in, we met earlier, just 20 minutes ago. It's the first time you've been back to headquarters in 15 years. Welcome back. Jeff McCreary: Yeah, thanks, Mike. It's great to be here. It's been a while. You don't get that opportunity to come back to Memphis too often, but when you do and you come into the building, it's just an amazing, amazing facility. Mike Brasher: And 20 minutes into your first visit in 15 years, you're in the Ducks Unlimited podcast studio. We're honored, man. We're honored that you would do this. Me too! So, it is a great opportunity and great timing, as we were talking about, because just released today was an episode where we recapped a visit that I had the opportunity to make to the YK Delta up in Alaska, visiting a research camp. So, it had sort of a Western and Pacific Flyway flavor to that episode. We're also going to be re-releasing, re-airing a Brandt episode with Dr. Mark Lindberg, the special guest on that. A lot of that focused on the habits and ecology of that bird, mostly from a Pacific population standpoint. We did talk about Atlantic Brant a little bit, but we've got a little bit of a Western theme going here over the next few episodes, and this is an outstanding compliment to have you in studio with us. We're in mid-January, actually late January, and we're wanting to provide a bit of a recap of how the hunting season went, the waterfowl season went out in your neck of the woods. It's certainly been a frustrating year, I think, for everyone in the lower 48 states, and your region and the Pacific Flyway writ large has not been spared that. I guess to sort of tee this up, I guess we'll go back to the summer of last year. One of the most notable observations to come out of the waterfowl breeding population and habitat survey were the numbers from Alaska. Alaska is one of the most important areas for breeding waterfowl and for the Pacific Flyway. Those numbers got our attention. When you saw those last year, what went through your mind? Remind people what those numbers were, just kind of generally what was the big surprise there, and you came into this hunting season expecting what relative to those numbers? Jeff McCreary: Yeah, that's a really good question. I think some context is important when we talk about Alaska. There's multiple duck factories in North America. The biggest, of course, is the prairie potholes followed by the boreal forest. But we can't forget about the contributions that Alaska makes to continental waterfowl populations. In the Pacific Flyway, though, Alaska is our duck factory. It produces more than half of our widgeon. Green-winged teal, large number, of course, pintails. Most of our pintails are coming from Alaska. Mallards. And those birds are staples in the bag when it comes to Pacific Flyway waterfowling. Mike Brasher: Green-winged teal. Did you say green-winged? Green-winged teal will be up there. Jeff McCreary: We also get a lot from the boreal forest, too, so anywhere kind of in that northern tier. I don't remember the proportions from Alaska versus the boreal forest, but they're substantial. So if you're not paying attention to what's happening in Alaska from a breeding standpoint, then you're going to be wondering why there's no birds. Well, we're wondering why there was no birds this year. So let's pay attention to what's happening in Alaska. And what was it, like 85% decline from last year's count for American wigeon. Mike Brasher: From 22 to 23. Jeff McCreary: 22 to 23. And I'm a rice field hunter and I shoot mostly Wigeon. And I don't think I've… Have I seen a Wigeon? I might have heard some Wigeon, but I don't think I've seen a Wigeon this year. Man. Some places have. And my first thought when I saw those numbers was, OK, well, the counts are wrong. And we've seen that in the population counts. You see these wild fluctuations from year to year. Because when they fly these transects, they fly them at the same time, at the same place consistently. And sometimes the birds are there, and the counts are high. And sometimes the birds are not there, and the counts are low. And so the long-term average is what's really important to smooth those variations out. Well, maybe this was one of those years where the birds just weren't there. They either flew past, I don't know where they would go, or they just hadn't shown up yet, or there was something else that was going on. Maybe they didn't fly the counts, or maybe they had different, you know, people in the plane flying that didn't know how to count. So, you know, a lot of questions, basically, on why such a big drop. Mike Brasher: Yeah, I remember we reached out to a number of people asking, like, what's going on there? Because I think the overall duck number was down 50% in Alaska. And you mentioned 85% down for Wigeon, but overall down 50%. We're like, that's a head scratcher. And so, yeah, we got the same type of feedback. It could be this, could be this. And it was sort of like a wait and see what's going to be in front of us in the winter. Jeff McCreary: Talking to our scientists in the Western region, there were some weather anomalies in Alaska at key points in the breeding cycle. I'm not familiar with all the details there, but I know there were some anomalies that could have influenced. But that's an 85% drop. That's pretty huge. So my thought was, OK, well, let's let's see what happens this winter and do we see birds or do we not see birds? Well, it was a weird winter because it was so warm. There were birds up in Canada still. There were birds in Washington, Oregon. They weren't down in the Central Valley where they typically were when they typically are. Okay, we'll blame it on the weather. Well, we just, everybody just exited the deep freeze for the most part. Yeah, because y'all got it too. We got it too. Oh, yeah. And well, okay, maybe that's going to force all the birds south into the valley. Well, This weekend, nope. Went out there this weekend and had a good Saturday for the most part. Got skunked on Sunday. And at least in my blind, there was no witching to be seen or heard. A few other people had some. Mike Brasher: How uncommon is that for you in some of the places where you have the opportunity to hunt for you to get skunked this time of year? Jeff McCreary: Well, I've got a one bird average going at my rice blind this year. Wow. Mike Brasher: And that's probably not normal. Jeff McCreary: No, no. I mean, we keep pretty good records, and we've got guys on our blind that have been hunting there for over 20 years. And this is by far the worst year ever. Wow. Worst year ever. Mike Brasher: Wow. That really surprised me. Whenever I sent out an email a few days ago, last week, I guess it was, asking for some input from around the regions, because it's the time of the year where we're getting requests and writing various reports related to how is the season, you know, and so I'd like to get input from the regions. And I was surprised to hear the nearly universally either bad or Boy, average at best reports coming out of various parts of the Western region. You provide some input there relative to California, the Central Valley, and I reached out to one of our co-workers in Oregon, and he described the Pacific Northwest as just Highly variable. He said, we had some good times, but then the weather just was… There were very few weather events to bring new birds in, either for some of those migrants out of Canada, more northern latitudes, or to move birds around, create new habitat for those that were there. So, he said it was a struggle. And a lot of folks talk about the Pacific Northwest as sort of the hidden gem of really all of the lower 48. And, but it sounds like, you know, this year was a struggle for many of those hunters as well. Jeff McCreary: Yeah, I think it was. It was, and even in the valley, it was highly variable. We've got some biologists on staff that they had actually a really good season, where the birds just happened to be where they were hunting, and they did well. The birds were not where I was hunting, and so I did not do well. So it was, it was highly variable, I think, within the valley, and I think throughout, throughout the flyway. Mike Brasher: One of the other things that I heard and was kind of wondering about is what were wetland conditions, what were water conditions like in the valley, Central Valley. Two years ago, we were talking about how incredibly dry it was and we were worried that birds weren't going to have any access to any food. I think last year was better. I forget the timing of some of this, but this year, at least when we're talking about winter, the hunting season, we're going to talk about broader drought, deluge, and then where are we now in a minute. But from a wintering waterfowl season perspective, how were wetland conditions in the Central Valley? Jeff McCreary: I'd say that the conditions were optimal. A year ago this time, we were in record snowfall, record rainfall. 18 months ago, we were in record drought. The reservoirs were full, the snowpack was high. at least for the Central Valley. And much of the Great Salt Lake and much of the West, except for the Klamath Basin, was in prime optimal water conditions. And that carried over throughout 2023 through the growing season. Rice was at its normal planting levels. This winter, 300,000 acres were flooded. That's the normal amount of rice. All the wetlands are flooded. There's plenty of water. The reservoirs are still doing good. But what I'm concerned about going forward is, at least at my house, at my weather station, I'm only at 25% of what our normal rainfall should be. And the rainy season in California pretty much starts to end in March and April. You'll get a little bit, but not really much. February is typically the wettest month of the year. And I don't think we're going to get 20 inches of rain in February to get up to normal. Mike Brasher: So Jeff, are we approaching any levels in the lakes that would make some of the water management districts think about curtailing releases of water for rice production? Do you have a read on that right now? Jeff McCreary: This year it looks like it's shaping up to be okay. I don't, unless it totally completely stops raining going forward, the reservoir conditions are pretty good. It is a big question on what kind of the snowpack is going to be, but It's too early to see if there's going to be curtailments on water supply, whether it's in the Klamath Basin or whether it's in the Central Valley or other irrigation projects. Mike Brasher: And so that water supply is important, not just from rice production standpoint, but also wetland management to support some of the locally breeding waterfowl populations. That is one of the things that bolsters some of the early hunting success for some of your hunters in the Pacific Flyway. California, Oregon, Washington all have of breeding, a sizable number of breeding ducks, and the states conduct breeding waterfowl surveys, and I think, matter of fact, Kelly Warren was telling me that some of the early success that they had in Pacific Northwest, he attributed to some locally produced birds. So, what do you know about that? We're probably not at 2021 drought levels, right, for those local breeders, but what can you say? What's your understanding of where we are in that breeding season kind of outlook? Jeff McCreary: I would imagine, not being a waterfowl scientist that completely knows all the ins and outs of what drives a particular bird to do a particular thing, but what I'm seeing out there is the precipitation that we're seeing across the West has been pretty uniform. Everybody's getting a little bit And I think that what that'll do is create those conditions for kind of a normal year. It's not going to be super wet, it's not going to be super dry, but I think we'll be able to have a decent production year this year across the West. Of course, mallards, as the science tells us, about 60% of the mallard harvest in California are of mallards that are from California. Mallards are a western breeding bird. Gadwall, cinnamon teal, wood ducks of course, those are kind of core breeders, but you get a little smattering of everything that'll breed down below Canada and Alaska. Mike Brasher: Now it's not just the actual breeding, the nesting and brood rearing that we have to also think about. Talk about the role of Klamath Basin in supporting the waterfowl kind of during the breeding season. Jeff McCreary: Klamath is one of these interesting locations in the flyway where It serves all of the life cycle needs of waterfowl. Spring migration, breeding, molting, fall migration, and wintering. And one of the keys that's often overlooked is the role that it plays in supporting the molt migration that happens for all waterfowl. That happens the late summer, early fall. Waterfowl need big bodies of water, lots of food, lots of cover. They lose all their feathers, so they're flightless. They're helpless for the most part. And when Klamath can't supply that, the birds have to go either farther or molt in less optimal conditions. So it plays a key role in supporting all of our locally so-called nesting birds in addition to the migrations that come through. Mike Brasher: Jeff, that's a great point. I want to, I want to explore that a little bit more. Uh, but first we'll take a break and then we'll come back and we'll, uh, we'll get, we'll wrap up on the backside of this. So stay with us folks. We'll be right back. Mike Brasher: Welcome back, everyone. I'm here with Jeff McGreery, our Director of Operations for Ducks Unlimited's Western Region. And we're kind of doing a recap of the 2023-24 waterfowl hunting season and looking ahead to, you know, the summer. And one of the important things that you were mentioning, Jeff, before we went to the break was the importance of the Klamath Basin, not necessarily for raising ducks, but ensuring that adult, molting adults have a place to go and complete that very important annual life cycle event. And that is a great illustration of why it's important and why Ducks Unlimited emphasizes what you mentioned in this annual cycle approach of supporting the needs of waterfowl throughout the year and all of the things that they do in different places, in different times. And we're constantly having to evaluate sort of the state of the landscape and not just the state of the landscape from a wintering standpoint or from a breeding standpoint, but from also a molting habitat standpoint, because what we're trying to do is avoid any of those time periods or places from becoming what we call a limiting factor, right? And so we have programs, our conservation programs that we're putting into place in all of these areas are tailored to address what's most important for the birds at that particular time, and so the Klamath is exactly one of those high-priority landscapes for you. So I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to make that connection there to that year-round biology. What I'll do now is sort of transition and offer you an opportunity to talk about any of the conservation work that's going on in California, the western region in general is one of the has to be one of the most challenging places to think about programs and implement programs. Number one, it's expensive to do any kind of work out there. But the other thing, more fundamental challenge, probably relates to just the tremendous variability that you see in time and then across space. There are some common themes there, but what are the big issues for the Western region? I mean, we can kind of start with variation in weather and rainfall and what it means for water and how do we, how do you, What's it like, person in your position, providing that overarching leadership to have to figure out how you handle those high degrees of variability and uncertainty? Jeff McCreary: Yeah, that's a good question, Mike. What I would say is the fundamentals of Ducks Unlimited's conservation is that we're science-based. We rely on science to tell us what, where, why, how much. So we have to really look at what are the tools that are available to help guide what kind of conservation practices we need to be deploying and implementing wherever we are on the landscape. Whether that's in California, whether that's in Utah, whether that's in Alaska. And there's tools that are out there that are telling us about What do we see from a climate variability standpoint? Are there patterns over a period of time that we need to be paying attention to? And some of the science says, yes, there's a 30-year drying trend in the Western United States. And if we're not accounting for that trend and trying to think ahead about how do we take care of the wettest places and to make sure that the wettest places remain wet, How do we help the drying places stay wetter longer, whether that's a certain kind of water control structure or recharging groundwater? Or what are those types of practices that we can do that are specific to the needs of that landscape? And I'd say, when we think about the needs of waterfowl, for us, it's a flyaway perspective. The Western region and the Pacific flyaway are essentially one. We overlap almost completely, except for the Canadian part. And within that landscape, there's really four areas that stand out. We used to call them the big three, but now we call them the big four because the fourth one, I'll start there, is Alaska. And the wake-up call was this breeding survey report about the decline. And if we're not paying attention to what's happening in Alaska, then we're not doing justice to the Pacific Flyway. The other three are probably more standard and more familiar to folks, the Central Valley, the Great Salt Lake, Klamath, and its surrounding landscape, which we call Sonic, Southern Oregon, Northeast California. Approximately 70% of all waterfowl in the Pacific Flyway use one of the lower three, Great Salt Lake, Sonic, and Central Valley, for part of their life cycle. Many of those birds go up to Alaska. Now, when we think about a DU project with a water control structure or some dirt work or a pump, well, that's typical for our lower 48 states. What we're going to do in Alaska, Well, it's still to be seen, but it's not going to be a lot of dirt moving. You don't have any water control structures. You don't need 300 million acres of water control structures up there. You have a vast landscape that's largely pristine. However, how are we managing the land use on there from a mineral extraction, a oil and gas production, forestry? What are those large-scale land uses that we can identify and help to guide in terms of how they're best used within these same landscapes that are important for waterfowl? So it'll be a little bit different. It'll be sustainability. It'll be science. It'll be policies. It'll be working with land managers to guide sustainable land use. And what we're really excited about this year is we've are successfully implementing our Klamath Initiative. Last year, we launched our Great Salt Lake Initiative, which is going great. And this year, we'll be developing our California Wetlands Initiative and our Wings and Wetlands, which covers Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, as well as launching an Alaska Initiative. So we're really excited about putting all the science pieces together, prescribing what a conservation program looks like to help Pacific Flyaway Waterfowl. Mike Brasher: That's really cool to hear you describe that, Jeff. That's sort of the first time that I've heard about some of those. Our mutual friend, Dr. Mark Petrie, occasionally shares with us some of the documents, some of the planning that y'all are doing, and some of your leadership messages. And so just want to say kudos to you for all of the all of the leadership that you're providing to an incredibly important series of geographies, not just to Waterfowl in general, but to our very important constituents and supporters of Ducks Unlimited. And it's really exciting to see some of the plans that y'all are producing that take the science that you referenced and translated into strategies and tactics and partnerships and these rolled up into these strategic initiatives. I mean, that's where the rubber meets the road, I guess you would say. I guess the rubber meets the road on the ground, but our driving directions kind of come from the science into these think tanks that essentially you have with a lot of your staff in those regions. that take that information and translate it into identifying the actions, and then you put it on the ground in one form or another. Jeff McCreary: Yeah, it's very deliberate. It's not random acts of conservation. We are driving towards North American waterfowl populations that are prescribed by the North American Waterfowl Management Plan, and we are putting together a science-based program that pursues that purposefully. Mike Brasher: Jeff, I know you have to run here in just a couple of minutes. We could talk for quite a bit longer, but can't do that because you've got other obligations here at headquarters. Final comments to any of your folks out there, staff, members, friends, volunteers. Obviously, you share their pain, their frustration with how this duck season went, but any final message to leave them with? Jeff McCreary: We're in this for the long haul. We're leaving a legacy for generations to come. And you can be part of that legacy. You can help DU do this. We're hiring engineers. We're hiring biologists. We're hiring regulatory specialists. If you want a dream job and make a difference for the Ducks, you can do it with DU. And I encourage you to go to ducks.org slash jobs and find out how you can join our amazing conservation team in the West. Mike Brasher: Outstanding, Jeff. Yeah, we are definitely in growth mode. We're not standing still. We're moving forward fast and deliberately. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for all your leadership. And thanks for sharing some of the insights on how things unfolded for the for the folks in the Pacific Flyway. We we all share sharing that you got a few more days, I think. So get out there and get after them while you can. Jeff McCreary: Have fun. Be safe. Thank you, Mike. Mike Brasher: Very special thanks to our guest on today's episode, Jeff McCreary, our Director of Operations for Ducks Unlimited's Western Region. We appreciate his time and joining us here for the first time in the Ducks Unlimited studio. As always, we thank our producer, Chris Isaac, for the terrific job he does with these episodes, getting them out to you. And to you, the listener, we thank you for your time. We thank you for your support and commitment to wetlands and waterfowl conservation.