Biofuel demand affecting waterfowl habitat

A key breeding habitat for North America’s waterfowl has recently fallen under intense pressure, an official with Ducks Unlimited said, and the reason is greater demands for fuel alternatives.
“We are losing the Prairie Pothole Region, fast,” said Dave Schuessler, director of event and volunteer promotion with Ducks Unlimited. “It is bad — very bad — right now.”
The Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) extends southeast from the Canadian Provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba through northern Montana, the northeastern two-thirds of North Dakota, eastern South Dakota, western Minnesota, northeastern Nebraska and north-central Iowa. Schuessler said the area is the most important breeding habitat for waterfowl, and recent demands for biofuels are beginning to take their toll.
“Never before has the Prairie Pothole Region been under the pressure it’s under now,” he said.
The pressure comes from the 2008 Farm Bill, Schuessler said, which for the first time includes a demand for the increased use of natural energy. This has put the PPR, a very fertile area, under much demand for ethanol production.
“We took a big kick in the rear end” through the 2008 Farm Bill, Schuessler said. The increased agricultural pressure on the region could have such dire affects on waterfowl species that numbers could drop and, in turn, hunting seasons could be shortened.
Ducks Unlimited officials describe the PPR as the “core of what was once the largest expanse of grassland in the world, the Great Plains of North America.” The region gets its name from a “geological phenomenon” that “left its mark beginning 10,000 years ago.”
DU officials say when the glaciers from the last ice age receded, they left behind millions of shallow depressions that are now wetlands, and these depressions are called prairie potholes. They are rich in plant and aquatic life “and support globally significant populations of breeding waterfowl.”
“It’s our breadbasket for waterfowl,” Schuessler said.
DU officials say the Great Plains and the PPR are No. 1 on the 25 most important and threatened waterfowl habitats in North America. Millions of ducks and geese pass through the region each spring to nest in the grasslands. The region provides breeding habitat for duck species including pintails, mallards, gadwalls, bluewing teal, shovelers, canvasbacks and redheads, DU officials said.
Researchers estimate that since 1984, nearly 194,000 acres of native grasslands have disappeared in the region, DU officials said. Schuessler said DU’s mission in the PPR is “to conserve, restore and enhance both wetland density and grassland cover. Water plus grassland equals ducks.”
More information on the issue is available at www.ducks.org/helpnow.
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Jason Smith may be reached at 214-3932.