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Well, I received my lease email yesterday and my first reaction was, I'M DONE!. The base lease amount stayed the same, but there was a 1K tack on for two years. After reading the email and doing a bit of thinking, I decided we're going to take the lease. The email stated that in progress now is a 12.5' foot-wide x 3' tall levee that is being constructed around a large section of neighboring marsh that surrounds our lease. Currently, the patched levee we have is only 3 to 4 feet wide, maybe, and is only 6" above the normal water level, which does nothing for wind-driven high tides.

Our water level has not fluctuated but a few inches up or down since the season ended, which was mainly due to rainfall and is at a perfect level right now. I came to the realization that a 2K contribution for improvement work wasn't much to ask of us considering what I was told some lessors and landowners are shelling out for this work, and their duck lease costs compared to ours. I did, however, lose a blind partner over this deal, but I have an interesting prospect that I'll be speaking with tomorrow.



Now I need to educate the wife.

It ain't cheap. Hope it all works out

Glad to hear you're still in it. Would hate to see you reduced to deer waiting.

Rick wrote:Glad to hear you're still in it. Would hate to see you reduced to deer waiting.

What's really pushing me today is my 18 month old wild animal at home. I must, at the least, give her another season, maybe two. I'm growing tired of what is and has become of duck hunting. The internet (face book) has turned Rockefeller refuge into the mall of America, so that has me staying away from the camp. I'm becoming a disgruntled older person.

DComeaux wrote:What's really pushing me today is my 18 month old wild animal at home. I must, at the least, give her another season, maybe two. I'm growing tired of what is and has become of duck hunting. The internet (face book) has turned Rockefeller refuge into the mall of America, so that has me staying away from the camp. I'm becoming a disgruntled older person.

When I was a much, much younger and at least somewhat dumber soul going through my Capt. Rick phase, I did a piece for the Louisiana Sportsman titled "The Forgotten Coast," or some-such, profiling the uncrowded near-shore fishing between Freshwater City and Camron - then wondered what was going on when I pulled into a jammed parking lot at an otherwise empty Grand Chenier Park. Duh.

Getting my field flooded and ready for teal season.

Psst...you're fixin' to washout your levee. Need to drape a trash bag over it first. (City folk...)

LOL...I noticed that.

Job security

You guys are hardcore. I hope your hard work pays off with many limits! I don’t think I have that kind of dedication anymore!

Read the piece and watched the clip and still missed any real/tangible information on the program. Can someone tell me what it actually does?

Rick wrote:Read the piece and watched the clip and still missed any real/tangible information on the program. Can someone tell me what it actually does?

After a lengthy search I found this. I remember this same program, or one very similar offered years ago but it wasn't popular due to the flooding length and management needed by the farmers through the spring. I remember well a face to face conversation i had with Doug some years ago when I mentioned he may benefit from enrolling in the program. In short, he told me it was too much work. He would have received some funding to support his efforts.
In a nutshell, DU and other partners provide funding for upgrades to water wells and dictate land use in a more waterfowl friendly way. The land owner/farmer has to follow their guidelines, i.e. maintaining water on the landscape late into the spring at optimal depths for dabbler's.

https://www.ducks.org/conservation/public-policy/farm-bill/rice-and-ducks


Farmers cultivate slightly more than 3 million acres of rice in the United States each year. Approximately two-thirds of the nation's rice crop is grown in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) of Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri. Slightly more than 1.5 million acres of rice are annually grown in Arkansas, while an additional 500,000 acres are cultivated in Mississippi, southern Missouri, and northern Louisiana.

Private landowners working with DU, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, state conservation agencies, and other partners, annually flood more than 110,000 acres of agricultural land in the MAV. Farmers without financial support from government agencies and other conservation groups flood an additional 350,000 acres across the region.

Dr. Tom Moorman, director of conservation planning at DU's Southern Regional Office, explains, "DU has been evaluating potential waterfowl feeding habitat capacity in the MAV since 1997. The flooded agricultural habitat provided by private landowners, combined with habitat provided on public wildlife management areas and created via natural flooding, appear to meet the foraging requirements of desired populations of waterfowl in the MAV during most winters. The role of private landowners in this effort, particularly rice growers, cannot be overstated."

Another region where rice production is critical to wintering waterfowl is the Gulf Coastal Plain of Louisiana and Texas. While the Gulf Coast remains one of the nation's most wetland-rich regions, it has suffered staggering losses of habitat to development and rising sea levels. During the past 50 years, Louisiana alone has lost nearly 1 million acres of highly productive coastal wetlands, and the state could lose an additional 630,000 acres of wetlands over the next 50 years.

With the widespread loss of freshwater prairie wetlands and coastal marshes, flooded rice fields provide critical resting and feeding habitat for migrating and wintering waterfowl along the Gulf Coast. However, due to rising production costs, rice acreage has declined by more than 50 percent in the region, from 1.2 million acres in 1968 to only 577,000 acres in 2002. Many former rice fields have been claimed by urban sprawl or have been taken out of production and invaded by exotic Chinese tallow or salt cedar, which provide little value for waterfowl or other wildlife.

I remember the old shore bird shallow water program that BP's spill money funded and that local farmers still using water for weed control took advantage of and ducks may have used. But I'd think farmers wishing to hold water for other than crawfishing purposes are now far and few between. And "optimal depths for dabbler's" are, of course, much shallower than that for crawfishing - though I'd not wish to bet there aren't those willing to see what they can get away with...

DComeaux wrote:Farmer's Almanac Winter Forecast

Then it shall be!

That simple.

Or not.

Darren wrote:

DComeaux wrote:Farmer's Almanac Winter Forecast

Then it shall be!

That simple.

I like the "average" for Louisiana.

We know, DC, heaven forbid ya get your lil paws and feets cold chasing ducks in the winter.

Since it is to be "average," then we should not fret the horrendous first couple of weeks of November 2024 repeating itself. Baton Rouge exceeded it's latest calendar date 90 deg day on record, then did it again, and again.

Video sent to me this morning from Thornwell.

Pro'lly black birds.

(Did my level best to make teal of woodies in the marsh this morning, but without success. Glad they're showing somewhere.)