The end of the long wet cycle couldn't come at a worse time for ducks, which have responded positively to the ideal conditions on the prairies since the 1994 breeding season. Old-timers insist the current population is no where near the number of ducks that populated the continent in the 1970s and far below the migrations of the 1950s. But everyone agrees there are more ducks than there were in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Ironically, drought is part of nature's plan for the breeding grounds. The pothole region evolved with periodic droughts and wet cycles.
Drought regenerates the soil, producing healthier wetlands once the region again becomes wet.
Historically, drought also produced grass fires, which led to improved nesting cover when the dry cycle ended. But man has drastically altered the landscape. The most productive upland nesting cover is now provided by Conservation Reserve Program grasses, which are protected from prairie fires. Man also has altered the predator community, eliminating wolves and reducing the number of coyotes, leaving in their wake high densities of smaller nest-raiding mammalian predators like skunks, raccoons and fox. Fox exist in such abundance across much of the region that Mother Nature intervened with an outbreak of mange in recent years.