I would just like to let all of the duck hunters out there know why we haven’t seen as many ducks flying the past couple of years. It all starts with Ducks Unlimited, an organization that most of us are familiar with. DU was founded over 65 years ago by group of hunters, after splitting with a similar organization called Ducks Delta. DU is an organization that, through fund-raising, purchases large plots of wetlands that are conserved for the ducks and geese. They have accumulated over ten million acres in wetland conservation to this point. They are doing all of this in the name of “So our grandkids’ kids will have ducks to shoot”. I believe that this is an extremely worthy cause that should continue. However, DU is now being controlled and ran by several animal rights activist, who are using the well-established name of DU to do their dirty work. What they are doing is disrupting the ecosystem.

DU is buying large plots of land in ideal climates for ducks and geese, providing food, water, and a hunting free environment for the birds to live in. These conservation are so perfect that the birds are not leaving, and that is messing up parts of the wildlife’s natural checks and balances. There is no doubt that the ducks are not leaving, hunters have been seeing fewer ducks every season. Also, The executives of DU took a poll last year asking how many ducks were seen that season, and it was reported that 40,000 less ducks were seen in the U.S. than the year before. In all actuality there may have been 40,000 more ducks in the U.S., they are just not leaving these conservation. Last year DU took these results before congress to try to get the hunting limit lowered to almost nothing, they did not get any thing passed. However, they will keep trying and eventually there will not be a duck season.

The ducks have a normal fly pattern that many generations of ducks have followed. On these fly patterns the ducks kept the species of insects and fish that they eat from overpopulating, and at the same time there are many animals in these regions that rely on the ducks as a food supply. There is no doubt that this will become a problem. Many of the regions that the ducks normally migrate to will soon begin seeing changes in the ecosystem. The insects that are normally eaten by the ducks will become overpopulated, and this could cause widespread distribution of insect transmitted disease. Many farmers could loose their crops due to the overabundance of plant eating insects as well. Also the fish that are normally eaten by the ducks will become overpopulated. When a pond has to many fish in it, the fish become unhealthy. The fish’s’ bodies will shrink from starvation, and eventually they will begin to die off. Then the animals that depend on the ducks as a food supply will either starve or be forced to find a new food source. What we are looking at is regions that are overpopulated with insects where fish and animals are dying. This almost sounds like a plague to me.

There is one sure solution to this problem. We want DU to fire off cannons at the end of each season inside each of these conservation to scare the ducks back into their normal migration patterns. DU is taking our duck hunting rights away, and putting the ecosystem in a state of disarray. I along with many other members have decided not to support DU until they change a few things. Every true duck hunter in the U.S. would appreciate it if you would no longer support Ducks Unlimited in their fight to take away duck hunting. This cause should bring environmentalist and hunters together to fight for nature’s right to be free.

Contact me if you would like to help in this fight, or find out more about what Ducks Unlimited is doing. You can e-mail me at dat02a@acu.edu.

Dustin Tallent
freshman political science major from Tyler