The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), Ducks Unlimited, Inc. (DU), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the U.S Geological Survey's (USGS) Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit based at Louisiana State University (B.R.) have begun a two-year project using radio telemetry. The radio-tagged ducks will be monitored through 2006 to evaluate habitat use and determine what effects weather and hunting pressure may have on the local and long-range movements of mallards.
DU is providing $250,000 of the $512,000 total cost of the research.
LDWF and DU are also in the process of implementing a $1.6 million project on the Pointe-aux-Chenes Wildlife Management Area in southeast Louisiana. The project involves the construction of water control structures and levees, and will return 5,000 acres of highly saline, unproductive shallow open water to a productive brackish marsh ecosystem that will once again provide important habitat for thousands of wintering waterfowl.
In north Louisiana, a twenty-year reforestation project on the Ouachita WMA near Monroe now provides greentree reservoirs, moist soil management units, and flooded agriculture area for 2,000 acres of waterfowl habitat. Again, DU's assistance with funding made it happen.
DU representatives recently presented Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco a token of appreciation for the state's efforts in these joint ventures. Pictured with the governor (left to right): Bimbo West, 2004 DU state chairman; William Colvin, chairman for DU's Public Policy Committee; Gov. Blanco; Mickey McMillin, at-large DU National Board member; and Augie West, DU state trustee.
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