Article from Times on global warming effects on duck hunting

[bdogtippo]

See below, if articles such as these continue and more science gets on the record we could actually see consideration to move the seasons back. Changing the migratory bird act between the US, Canada and Mexico takes a lot of doing but if sportsmens groups get behind it, things could move. This is what we need to be asking DU to help us with instead of bickering back and forth about the amount of food left unharvested in IL and MO. Need scientific evidence, support from hunters and a strong lobby.

In Midwest Duck Blinds, Visions of Global Warming

Don Ipock for The New York Times

By WILLIAM YARDLEY

Published: December 11, 2007 RICH HILL, Mo. - After 32 years of hunting ducks in the wetlands of Missouri, Chuck Geier knows when temperatures will drop and waters will freeze. That means he also knows when the birds will fly and hunting will be best. Except that much of what he knows is now in question."It used to be by Dec. 6, this place was frozen," said Mr. Geier, 51, a national sales manager for a telecommunications company. "That's not true anymore."From the "prairie potholes" of Canada and the upper Midwest to the destination states of Arkansas and Louisiana, the rhythms of the cross-continental migratory bird route known as the Mississippi Flyway are changing. In Missouri, where the average winter temperature has been rising, hunters say birds are arriving later and sticking around longer before bolting for warmer redoubts. Elsewhere, wetlands are not freezing over the way they once did. As hunters point their shotguns toward the sky and fire, a question echoes in the spent powder: what is up with the ducks? "People say it's cycles, every five to seven years, but it's just been too long," Mr. Geier said of the warming trend, which he traces to the late 1990s. "It's a wake-up call." Five-year averages for "duck use" days on some conservation areas in Missouri show peaks that come a week or more later in the year than do the 30-year averages. Hunters have said in state surveys they want later hunting seasons, reflecting the later arrival of major weather systems that move birds into the state.In Missouri, the average winter temperature this decade has been about 35 degrees, roughly 2 degrees higher than the previous peak around 1930. "We're having milder falls, later winters," said Dave Erickson, chief of the wildlife division for the Missouri Department of Conservation. "What we don't know is if the trend that affects migration and the hunters' desire for a longer hunting season is a temporary fixture or a permanent fixture."Sure science is elusive. Scientists and state wildlife officials say there is not clear-cut data to support the reports of changes in duck behavior, but the patterns are familiar. They note that various other animal species, including songbirds, frogs and foxes, are developing different patterns for breeding and migration."We're seeing northern range shifts of lots of birds and butterflies," said Camille Parmesan, a professor of conservation biology at the University of Texas and a member of the United Nations panel that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its work documenting climate change.Many hunters, wildlife officials and scientists say the changes have added new mystery to waterfowl migration and to how to manage it. Against an uncertain future, state wildlife agencies and conservation groups that cultivate waterfowl populations are re-examining some longstanding conservation approaches and questioning whether business as usual needs to change. Why, after all, some wildlife experts ask, should money still be poured into cultivating traditional breeding grounds like the prairie potholes of the upper Midwest if some climate forecasts prove true and those areas get too dry for ducks? "The birds will not be there if you don't have the same kind of general patterns of moisture and grasslands to nest in," said Alan Wentz, who oversees conservation programs for Ducks Unlimited, a group that works to conserve and restore wetlands.Similar questions are being raised elsewhere.Some experts on Pacific salmon argue for diverting conservation resources away from areas where water temperatures are forecast to become too warm for survival. Some big game experts say deer and elk in many Western states might not leave higher elevations for traditional hunting areas because the weather will be milder. Anecdotal evidence suggests that this is already happening. Other animals, like moose in northwest Minnesota, are disappearing from some of the southern latitudes that they have traditionally inhabited. Matt Hogan, the executive director of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, which represents state wildlife divisions, said the prospect of climate change was presenting wildlife with a new kind of threat. The association devoted part of its annual meeting in September to climate change and wildlife management."I know what I can do to mitigate this housing subdivision, but how do I mitigate that?" Mr. Hogan said of climate change. "A lot of it is saying, 'O.K., what do I have to do to address this?'"Concern is widespread. Consensus is not. Many hunters are fond of calling themselves the original environmentalists. But in a sport with a distinct rural identity, many are not about to get behind Al Gore. Some are just as quick to blame farming practices of big agricultural companies or government feeding programs for changes in duck behavior. In many areas, wildlife have also changed their behavior when their habitat has been damaged by development and when it has been improved by conservation efforts, like converting farmland to forests."We were conservationists before 'green' was even a popular word," said Allen Morris, known as Horntagger, who lives in Jackson, Mo. "We have sacrificed and used money for licenses to save land for the wildlife, but in the mainstream media, you never hear about it."Mr. Morris dismissed "so-called global warming" as having no impact on hunting. Some biologists are divided, too. National conservation groups typically are more inclined to say climate change is already affecting wildlife and hunting."This actually is happening," said Douglas B. Inkley, a senior scientist at the National Wildlife Federation and an author of "The Waterfowler's Guide to Global Warming.""The evidence is there," Mr. Inkley said, noting bird migration, changes in amphibian behavior and even impacts on lobsters in warming Atlantic waters. "We have both the scientific and we have the anecdotal, and then on top of that we have the theoretical based on climate models."Virginia Burkett, the chief scientist for global change research at the United States Geological Survey and a member of the United Nations panel that shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Gore, said scientists have already tracked changes in the breeding and migration patterns of many species because of warming, although they have not focused on game animals. Red foxes are moving north, Ms. Burkett said. More than two dozen types of birds are nesting earlier. Three species of warbler are expected to move completely out of the United States. Squirrels in Canada and frogs in the United States have had their breeding patterns affected. Ms. Burkett, a former director of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, said that while development and land-use changes have had the most impact on wildlife in the past, "the affect of climate is much more likely to be a player in the loss of wildlife in the coming decades."She warned against wildlife managers using previous patterns to manage for the future."Relying on historical data alone," she said, "can lead to mal-adaptation and the setting of seasons and bag limits that may no longer sustain populations, for both fish and wildlife." Even if climate change hurts habitat in some places, it could improve it in others. For all the uncertainty, times are good right now for many hunters, depending on where and when they hunt. Here in west-central Missouri, the ducks come late, but with the prairie potholes now wet after a long drought and with aggressive feeding programs in place on farms and wetlands, they come in abundance. Hunting seasons once restricted to 30 days by the federal government have been extended to 60.By 10 a.m. on a recent morning in the Schell-Osage Conservation Area, Bob Wafel was one bird short of the daily limit imposed by the state. His black Labrador, Gunner, licked blood from the feathers of the five dead ducks that lay limp in the blind. Mr. Wafel, 55, a barber from nearby Appleton City, lighted a cigar. "I think weather goes through cycles," he said, "and I think you'll have them warmer cycles." Later, after bagging his sixth bird and with the optimism of a man who rises at 2 a.m. on winter mornings to sit in a dark, muddy, freezing hunting blind, Mr. Wafel added, "Maybe the cycle we're going through now was before anybody kept track of the weather."

[brad crowder]

I am sure in the next 30 years, we will have scientific proof of what is happening; but then of course, the cycle will start reversing itself.

[duckter]

I tried to call the author of the article but he is without power and phone service due to a major winter/ice storm.

[cwink]

It is like the Global Warming thread and the Can of Worms thread got together and had a baby called "Oh Lawd here we go again"

[sunnylab]

New York Times!!!!!!

....get a rope.

[Deagle]

Global warming, huh? Maybe thats the reason for my wifes irregular breeding patterns. Maybe I should migrate.