A Duck’s Eye View of Southeastern US Waterfowl Habitat
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Today’s guest is a self-described super nerd that played college ball, knew he wanted to be a biologist since childhood, and remembers falling in love with ducks when a flock of wigeons pitched into an Oklahoma farm pond he was hunting. Dr. Heath Hagy is now US Fish and Wildlife Service Waterfowl Ecologist for the National Wildlife Refuge System in the Southeastern United States. Using broad research and applied habitat experiences, Hagy works with 131 Federal Refuges, states and other entities managing waterfowl habitat resources. How does Federal Refuge habitat management compliment surrounding land uses, and why is the landscape level considered? How important are emergent marsh habitats for waterfowl, how might managers increase invertebrate biomass? What are wetland habitat complexes, why are they extremely important to how waterfowl perceive and use geographical areas? Why is habitat quality and quantity a moving target–and might there really be duck food deficits in parts of the Mississippi Alluvial Valley? What about water versus food as limited resources? How might hunting pressure have changed things in the past couple decades, and could it affect waterfowl distribution? How important is waterfowl sanctuary? At the landscape level, how is waterfowl habitat changing across the southeastern United States? Why is the North American Model a crowning achievement in waterfowl management and what makes it possible? Like a plate heavy with gravy-topped goodness, this episode hits the spot, addressing many of those duck-related topics that we hunters wonder aloud among ourselves in duck blinds and around tailgates nationwide.
