The total harvest in the United States was 15.8 million ducks, only 50,000 below the record high harvest of the 1970 season. Even though we counted record numbers of breeding ducks last year, many factors influence hunting success, including weather and the amount of available habitat. We can't control the weather but we can continue to protect, restore and even rebuild waterfowl habitat. During the mid-1990s, we enjoyed favorable weather and habitat conditions in the continent's northern duck factory that, combined with the millions of acres of wetlands restored in the past decade, have boosted duck populations. This year's habitat surveys remind us that dry cycles can return and reinforces the need for continued habitat conservation.
Pintails are still well below their target populations.
As a consequence, the Service has proposed a bag limit of one pintail in all flyways. The Service is particularly concerned about the continued lack of improvement in scaup numbers, which are 36 percent below the long-term average. As part of this year's regulatory process, the flyway councils have agreed to assist in the development of a scaup harvest strategy that can be implemented beginning with next year's hunting season. The population level of mid-continent snow geese remains dangerously high and continues to threaten the arctic ecosystems on which snow geese and so many other species rely. Hunters in areas frequented by these snow geese and other growing goose populations will enjoy additional hunting opportunity this fall.