# duck hunting conditions in ND



## bornlucky (Jul 24, 2007)

In my travels from town to town watching girls volleyball here in SE NoDak, I am shocked at the rate that sloughs are drying up. I saw a lot of ducks in this area in August. We haven't had a duck visit our goose decoy spreads the whole month of September. The ironic things is that after 15 years of wet, the roads are finally being raised and resurfaced and now those same spots only have a few inches of water left in them. Mother Nature giveth and she also taketh away. I am old enough to have gone throught the dry cycle of the late 70's and 80's and then the wet cycle since then. Add in CRP during the wet cycle and you ahve mother nature on steroids. It's been a fun ride the last 15 years!!!


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## Dunk221999 (Sep 11, 2002)

Sloughs are drying and farmers are setting the landscape on fire. Most dry sloughs are being burned and tilled up.

Attached is a picture of one of those fires from this weekend.


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## prairie hunter (Mar 13, 2002)

Burning sloughs is nothing new, been done often by man over the past 50 - 80 years. When rains return these areas will become wetlands again and the cattails and other pond plants will return too (unless drain tiled). In fact 100s of years ago, sloughs burned along with the prairie grasses as part of a natural cycle.

Burning destroys weeds and invasive species. The native plants are the first to return.

Once the wetland returns, the burned sloughs actually are much more huntable than "protected" sloughs. The protected sloughs often become huge areas of unhuntable area ... overgrown with far too many cattails and little visible water ...

It is amazing how many areas that were farmed in the late 80s and early 90s became nice wetlands in the mid 90s and 2000s.


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## prairie hunter (Mar 13, 2002)

All that said, as a pheasant hunter - the loss of these little sloughs is sad.


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## Dunk221999 (Sep 11, 2002)

prairie hunter said:


> Burning sloughs is nothing new, been done often by man over the past 50 - 80 years. When rains return these areas will become wetlands again and the cattails and other pond plants will return too (unless drain tiled). In fact 100s of years ago, sloughs burned along with the prairie grasses as part of a natural cycle.
> 
> Burning destroys weeds and invasive species. The native plants are the first to return.
> 
> ...


I don't disagree with you. It is the dry years that make the wetlands so productive when it is wet. My concern though is that I see a lot of these farmers not only burning, but creating drainage in these areas into nearby ditches. Meaning that when water returns it is not going to create a wetland....... it is just going to run off like it does in Western Mn.

The equipment farmers have today vs. back in the 80's is night and day different and allows them to eliminate these forever. My concern is that more than 50% of the wetlands that are being burned and tilled this year will not come back in the future - other than to puddle up 4 -6 inches in the spring.

Maybe I'm totally wrong........


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

If its a natural drainage way you can legally clean it out and drain it. Unless you have premission to drain.


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

blhunter3 said:


> If its a natural drainage way you can legally clean it out and drain it. Unless you have premission to drain.


"Yea lets just take a trackhoe and earth mover out there and clean out that natural drainage"


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

jpallen14 said:


> blhunter3 said:
> 
> 
> > If its a natural drainage way you can legally clean it out and drain it. Unless you have premission to drain.
> ...


If its a natural drainage ditch then its legal. Alot of people are just cleaning out the drainage ditches. This fall we have a drainage ditch that we will clean and there is 15 inches of sediment we can remove.


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

At least in SD a lot of "natural drainages" have been made when no one is looking over the last two years.


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## FLOYD (Oct 3, 2003)

I know that in SE ND there have been periods where the NRCS has allowed farmers to relieve excess water from wetland basins, as long as they don't drain them below the "ordinary" high water line of the basin. I am not sure if they are still allowing this, but I know 10-15 yrs ago it was happening.

Without unwritten "policies" such as this, the effects of high water would have been devastating on countless farm operations. Of course, there are alwasy the percentage who will test the system.


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## Dunk221999 (Sep 11, 2002)

jpallen14 said:


> At least in SD a lot of "natural drainages" have been made when no one is looking over the last two years.


Couldn't agree more!

These farmers are not cleaning already existing ditches...... they are creating drainage flows out of spaces where wetlands used to exist.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

Dunk221999 said:


> jpallen14 said:
> 
> 
> > At least in SD a lot of "natural drainages" have been made when no one is looking over the last two years.
> ...


Turn them in if you think its illegal then.


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

blhunter3 said:


> Dunk221999 said:
> 
> 
> > jpallen14 said:
> ...


Don't worry I have. It is worth the chance to the farmers. So they get slapped with fine, big deal. Say they create an additional 30 acres of crop ground with 130 bushel corn at $8.......

How may NRCS employees conduct wetland determinations in NE SD? maybe 3-5? To say the least they are way under staffed.


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## blhunter3 (May 5, 2007)

They won't get fined and they won't know who turned them in. All that happens is you get told to fill in your ditch.


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## teamflightstoppersND (Feb 20, 2009)

I like to see over grown sloughs be burned. The cattails can get pretty thick. Do you think a farmer is gonna plant over a wetland if they dont drain it? When the water comes back the cattails will return.


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## jpallen14 (Nov 28, 2005)

teamflightstoppersND said:


> I like to see over grown sloughs be burned. The cattails can get pretty thick. Do you think a farmer is gonna plant over a wetland if they dont drain it? When the water comes back the cattails will return.


This makes no sense. If the wetland is drained via ditch or tile the wetland is gone forever. If it rains four inches their might be standing water for a couple of days, then it is off to the local stream, river and lakes, so we can have another 500 year flood.


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## Dunk221999 (Sep 11, 2002)

That is fine if they want to burn it.... I actually agree with you on that.... not fun to have to walk through hundreds of yards of cattails ........... but the wetland isn't comming back....... unless you know how to get water to stay on a 20 degree downgrade????????? The issue is not burning and plowing as long as the ground is not minipulated, however that is not what is happening.

Take a drive through Southern MN and you will see what ND will be in 3-5 years as long as crop prices stay high and subsidies continue.

As said above, there is no risk to the Farmer. All they will get told is to "put it back".

I am ussually an optimistic person, but I am seeing history repeat itself...


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## prairie hunter (Mar 13, 2002)

jpallen14 said:


> teamflightstoppersND said:
> 
> 
> > I like to see over grown sloughs be burned. The cattails can get pretty thick. Do you think a farmer is gonna plant over a wetland if they dont drain it? When the water comes back the cattails will return.
> ...


It makes perfect sense ... read it again. It says the same thing I did.

If a slough is burned, even farmed ... some were in 1988 - 92, they will return if not drain tiled when water returns. I saw plenty of sloughs last fall full of water and circled with cattails that were dried and farmed 2007-2009.

Now if you see rolls of black plastic drain tile and a ditch witch in the field ... be very concerned that the wetland is gone for good.


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## the professor (Oct 13, 2006)

It's been a fun ride but we are on a collision course in the dakotas. Permanent wetlands will be come infested with fatheads and carp instead of perch and divers. Seasonal wetlands? We will be referring to them in a few years as "flooded soybeans" or "sheet water." I guess I'll have a competitive edge, growing up in western MN, I know how to hunt these black dirt, tiled, and ditched fields already. :-?


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## Dunk221999 (Sep 11, 2002)

Prairie Hunter......

So what you are saying is you agree with us 

We understand that if they are just plowing it under it will come back, but for the 3rd time....... they are not just plowing. They are ditching and tiling. Water does not hold at a 20 degree downgrade.

The only thing that will turn this around is for crop prices to fall down again (which they certainly will due to the amount of CRP going into production). Unless CRP prices are somewhat competitive with yield results it is a no brainer for the farmers who most do not give a hoot about ducks or pheasants.


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## prairie hunter (Mar 13, 2002)

Dunk221999 said:


> Sloughs are drying and farmers are setting the landscape on fire. Most dry sloughs are being burned and tilled up.
> 
> Attached is a picture of one of those fires from this weekend.


In your first post, you said tilled not tiled. Big difference between tilling a burned slough and laying in drain tile.


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## Dunk221999 (Sep 11, 2002)

Dang it..... you are right. One too many l's. Both are happening, but yes drain tile is way worse...


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