Conservation in Montana (Ducks Unlimited)

[Tom Phillips*]

Conservation in Montana

http://www.ducks.org/Montana/Montana...jectsHome.html

Montana ranks third in duck production in the lower 48 states. When the glaciers melted, they left millions of natural depressions - these are the prairie potholes. Just fill these potholes with snowmelt and rainfall, mix with Montana sunshine, and the ducks will come.

For many ducks, Montana lies at the northern end of the annual migration route that takes ducks thousands of miles through the food-rich interior of the U.S. to the wetlands of the Mississippi Valley, the Gulf Coast and the Central Valley of California. Unfortunately, a little over a quarter on Montana's wetlands have been drained or filled, reducing the capacity of the region to attract and sustain breeding ducks. An immediate threat is the continuing loss of grassland nesting habitat. Less grass means fewer nest sites that are safe from predators and a mix of predatory mammals that are decidedly "duck-unfriendly."