Van Horn has launched an ambitious process to develop a strategic plan for managing waterfowl and waterfowl hunting. A migratory game-bird committee, with representatives from state and federal agencies and waterfowl groups, was formed last winter. In addition to hunter opportunity and experience, participants at the March Waterfowl Hunters Conference were asked to provide input on regulations, recruitment and retention of hunters, public and private land management, and funding and licenses. What they came up with can be viewed at www.fws.gov/midwest/planning/uppermiss/index.html.

Public open houses were scheduled around the state during the week of June 6 to seek additional information from waterfowl hunters on issues, desires and strategies for waterfowl management. Van Horn planned to introduce some new ideas to hunters at these meetings, including some managed hunts, similar to those conducted in other states but never used here in Wisconsin.

"On balance, we are producing ducks and making new habitat," Van Horn said. "But hunters are still saying, 'I'm not coming home with birds in the bag.' One of the issues we need to look at is hunter pressure. With managed hunts on certain wildlife areas, we might be able to improve the quality of the hunt and allow people to see and shoot at more ducks."

Van Horn will mail surveys to a random selection of several thousand waterfowl hunters after this season, then use all the information gathered to draft a strategic plan that will be presented at next year's Waterfowl Hunters Conference, then revised and presented for public review. A final draft will then be presented to the Natural Resources Board by next summer.

Managing ducks and duck hunters is especially challenging because hunters in different parts of the state want different things.

"We have about 75,000 very enthusiastic waterfowl hunters in Wisconsin," Van Horn said. "But they have very different interests. Those who hunt northern marshes want a different season framework from those who hunt southern marshes, and those who hunt canvasbacks on the Mississippi differ from those who hunt scaup on Green Bay."

During the 2003 season, Wisconsin hunters bagged an estimated 677,400 ducks, up from 529,000 in 2002. Of those, mallards led the list with 252,042 in the bag, followed by wood ducks with 123,965. Green-winged teal were next with 75,201, followed by buffleheads with 38,188 and blue-winged teal with 32,313. About 70,000 duck hunters spent an estimated 468,200 hunter days afield in 2003 and 462,800 in 2002. For a downloadable report of the 2004 harvest, you can log on to www.fws.gov. For current information on conditions in the prairies, log on to Ducks Unlimited's Web site at www.ducks.org.

SPRING SURVEY
Each spring, biologists survey habitat and count waterfowl as part of a survey conducted throughout North America. The Wisconsin survey is conducted on 66 east-west transects throughout our state. The transects are 30 miles long and 1/4-mile wide. Aerial crews of two observers and a pilot fly each transect once, and ground crews of two observers check segments of most of the flown transects within the next day or two. The survey -- conducted annually since 1973 -- has provided long-term data used to estimate duck populations and to set seasons and bag limits.

Survey results separate mallards, blue-winged teal, wood ducks and Canada geese. All other ducks observed are pooled into a category of "other ducks." In 2004, for the first time since the survey began, wood duck numbers had increased to the point where they could be separated from the "other duck" pool. This means that the spring survey can now provide independent breeding population estimates for the three duck species produced in the state that constitute the majority of Wisconsin's fall harvest.