Ducks Unlimited decision leaves birds homeless in severe drought situation

The Lucky Lake Heritage Marsh has been a migratory bird rest stop for ages, as well as home to shorebirds and others that share the same kind of habitat. 

The marsh is listed in bird and tourism books as one of the best places in Saskatchewan to see various birds, from songbirds and shorebirds in spring and summer to geese, ducks and sandhill cranes in fall and early spring.

A visit in late June showed the 800-acre marsh on the south side of the lake has all but vanished.

Small shallow channels on the west side of the lake had a few shorebirds and ducks foraging in them.

The lake is about two-thirds the size it was last summer.

Disappointed, Yours Truly looked at the long dike built across the lake in the late 1980s by Ducks Unlimited to create different depths of lake water levels and habitat and allowing viewers to drive across.

Years of high water and eroding rains have made the dike unsafe for vehicle traffic. 

During the depths of the 1980s drought, the North American waterfowl conservation group, Ducks Unlimited, built the dike and engineered three levels of water for various bird habitats. Ducks Unlimited undertook to pump water from Lake Diefenbaker, some 20 kilometres away to maintain the water levels. 

At the nearby Birsay Kitchen, whose new owner also serves delicious pie and has added some East Indian dishes, I chatted with a local retired farmer.

Told about the low water levels he explained that Ducks Unlimited has decided to no longer pump water to Lucky Lake. “In a few years the lake will be dry,” he asserted.

Yours Truly recalled seeing an item in a newspaper stuck among reams of COVID-19 coverage, stories on We Chat scandals and military misconduct news. The piece said Ducks Unlimited would be reducing some of its commitments to conservation. 

By abandoning the ducks, geese, sandhill cranes, shorebirds and other creatures, Ducks Unlimited is leaving these helpless creatures homeless and without sources of food and breeding habitat.

They deserve shelter and protection on the small pieces of habitat left on the Prairies.

What makes this situation even more deplorable is the lack of any alternate water bodies and habitat in this drought. All the usual habitats are shrinking. 

Ducks Unlimited has deserted these birds, condemned them to declining populations. Has Ducks Unlimited forgotten a half century of co-operation by farmers and rural residents to conserve birds?

When I was a youngster in southern Alberta many decades ago, a lot of the local farmers thought of Ducks Unlimited as an outfit dedicated to saving duck and goose populations for mostly rich American hunters. Yours Truly is beginning to think they were right on the mark. 

The new century hasn’t been lucky for Lucky Lake — at least not good luck. 

About 20 years ago, everybody was excited about the prospects for growing potatoes by irrigation. When the variety of potato chosen by provincially-owned SPUDCO turned black in fast food fryer trials that plan suddenly went up in smoke.

A Vauxhall, Alberta processor bought the immense potato sheds and bought spuds for a while then pulled out.

The resourceful people of Lucky Lake and area then pooled their money to set up a legal marijuana grow op in the shed.

That venture went up in smoke when their associated marijuana retailer pulled out, leaving them high and dry.

Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.