on the landscape that it’ s really hard for duck populations and other ground-nesting birds to do well,” Szymanski continued.“ One metric we look at is going back to 1994 to 2016 when we had really good wetland conditions and a lot of grass, a lot of CRP on the landscape. Our total duck population is now down 34 percent from that time period’ s average, and our mallard breeding population in
North Dakota is down 57 percent from that average. Those are pretty significant declines.”
Szymanski emphasized that we here in the Dakotas produce a lot of ducks each year, which is a plus.
“ North Dakota is the duck factory of the United States and North America,” he said.“ We have a lot of folks relying on us to produce ducks, not just our hunters
here in North Dakota, but hunters all across the Central and Mississippi flyways. When we have poor production in North Dakota, other folks feel it as well. Unfortunately, the direction we’ re going right now is smaller and smaller fall flights.”
But, according to recent brood( new bird hatchings) counts, the situation for this fall looks brighter. Duck brood numbers were up 28 percent from 2024, and Game
www. dakotacountrymagazine. com Dakota Country, September 2025 Page 43