Duck Hunting Research Articles

The Prado Wetlands: 24 years of river diversion treatment wetlands reducing nitrate and phosphate while increasing an endangered bird

Nitrate pollution of surface water from farms and urban runoff is widespread – impairing drinking water supplies, recreation, and wildlife habitat. The scale of the problem in rivers has overwhelmed most watershed-based best management practices. A new paradigm is needed. In this paper we highlight the 119 ha (294 acres) Prado Wetlands in southern California, USA as an example of a gravity-enabled, free surface flow vegetated wetlands to treat a river – the nitrate-rich, effluent-dominated Santa Anna River. The wetland treats ∼1–2 m3/s of the 7.1 m3/s (250 cfs) flow of the river in 28 wetland cells in two parallel trains (residence time 2–4 d, hydraulic loading rate 10–20 cm/d). The cleaner water is returned to the river and infiltrated downstream into a managed groundwater basin supplying 2.4 million customers. Since 1998, ∼1200 t of nitrate-N have been permanently removed from the river and released as N2-gas into the air. Over 24 years, in the warm summers an average of 6.1 mg-N/L entered the wetland and 3.7 mg-N/L flowed out, a removal efficiency of 57%. In the cooler winters, an average of 6.4 mg NO3-N/L entered and 2.6 mg NO3-N/L flowed out, a removal efficiency of 45%. Individual months varied widely in concentration removal efficiency from 7% (winter) to 98% (high summer). Areal summer removal averaged 137 mg NO3-N/m2/d and the apparent “k” was around 46 m/y. All-year rates were 129 mg NO3-N/m2/d or 47 g/m2/y, a reasonable performance considering the size of the system and its configuration for both nitrate removal and duck hunting (i.e., more open water). Annual average nitrate removal efficiency increased substantially over time (45 to 72% for 1998–2004 versus 2016–22) and is attributed to an increase in hydraulic residence time, upgraded internal plumbing, and increased winter temperatures (+3C°). Prado Wetlands also removes phosphorus, though not as well as nitrate; average warm season removal efficiency was 23% (inflow 1.20 mg PO4-P/L, outflow 0.93 mg PO4-P/L). The aerial removal rate was high at 23 mg P/m2/d or 8.5 g/y, probably due to the high inflowing P-concentrations and the hard water. Wildlife was also enhanced. Least Bell's Vireo (Vireo belli pusillus), an endangered bird in the Prado Basin, increased from 19 pairs (1998) to a recent average of 444 pairs due to habitat improvement and reduction of cowbird parasitism. Results from the Prado Wetlands show that cleaning up rivers via diversion through wetlands benefits both water quality and wildlife.

Duck hunters and difficulty complying with harvest regulations

AbstractDue to the steady decline of duck hunter participation, several studies have investigated means to bolster the duck hunter population. Researchers and wildlife professionals have assumed that simpler regulations would attract new and unconfident hunters to participate in duck hunting. In light of this, we sought to identify what portion of the duck‐hunting population had difficulty understanding species‐specific bag limits or complying with species‐specific bag limits in the field. We also sought to describe hunters who had difficulty complying with specific bag limits and how their difficulties were associated with elements related to demography, attitude, and behavior. We found most hunters had no difficulty understanding (82%) or complying with (74%) species specific bag limits, but flyway (χ2 = 35.06, P < 0.01), number of ducks harvested (χ2 = 9.76, P < 0.01), number of years hunted (χ2 = 9.20, P < 0.01), and gender (χ2 = 4.14, P < 0.05), were important to predicting hunter difficulty with compliance. Hunters who can overcome their difficulties understanding and complying with species‐specific bag limits may be more likely to be integrated into the duck hunting culture, and more likely to continue duck hunting in the future. More species identification tools and fewer species‐specific bag limits may be appropriate for the 18% of the duck hunter population who indicated that bag‐specific regulations were difficult to understand and the 26% who indicated that it was difficult to comply with species‐specific bag limits in the field. A closer look may be warranted for how the trade‐offs associated with the combination of species‐specific bag limits in combination with the variety of duck season zone and split options states employ, license/stamp requirements, area‐specific regulations, and trespass laws may influence duck hunter experiences.

Not all sanctuaries are created equal: variation in protected area selection by wintering mallards

AbstractPublic lands managed for wildlife frequently provide various forms of sanctuary to increase residency times and allow access to energetic and other habitat resources for waterfowl. The influence of sanctuary type and disturbance regime on resource use and fine‐scale movements of waterfowl has not been investigated extensively using currently available transmitter technologies. We examined mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) use of various types of waterfowl sanctuary and non‐sanctuary areas in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley region of eastern Arkansas, USA, during winters of 2019–2021. We deployed 105 global positioning system transmitters on mallards at 4 closed‐access spatial sanctuaries on or adjacent to Dale Bumpers White River National Wildlife Refuge. We used hourly transmitter locations to examine mallard use of public sanctuary areas, public hunt areas, and private lands using integrated step selection analysis. Public sanctuary areas provided varying levels of protected status, public hunt areas allowed for varying levels of hunting intensity by duck hunters, and private lands were open to waterfowl hunting and other forms of private uses but may or may not have been hunted at any specific frequency. Mallards selected spatial sanctuary and avoided public hunt areas, other sanctuary types, and private lands during the day. In contrast, mallards selected for private lands over spatial sanctuary at night. Mallards tended to avoid areas that allowed duck hunting or used them during the night when risk of harvest mortality was removed. After the hunting season closed, mallards began using areas that previously allowed duck hunting during the day, suggesting that risk was the primary factor influencing site use. Moreover, mallards were 1.6 times more likely to use public daily hunt areas and 2.1 times more likely to use private lands potentially open to hunting during the day than spatial sanctuary 2 weeks after the close of duck hunting season in February. Spatial sanctuaries appear more effective in influencing mallard use than temporal sanctuaries or inviolate sanctuaries, which are commonly used by state and federal agencies. Partial daily, daily, or activity‐specific (e.g., no hunting past noon, no hunting 3 days/week, no waterfowl hunting) closures to encourage mallard use of temporal sanctuaries do not appear to reduce the perceived harvest‐related risk to mallards enough for them to view these areas as accessible or significantly increase their use.

Habitat management favouring hunted waterbird species prevents distribution changes in response to climate warming

AbstractClimate warming is driving species to shift their geographical distribution poleward to track suitable climatic conditions. Two strategies have been suggested to help species respond to climate warming: facilitating distribution change or improving persistence. We questioned whether habitat management in favour of duck hunting activities interacted with duck responses to climate warming. We studied non‐breeding waterbird community changes (110 species) over 28 years at 851 sites in South‐West Europe, where habitat management is a common practice to attract and hunt ducks. We hypothesized that duck species targeted by habitat management do not need to track temperature changes as much as non‐hunted species, because of the availability of suitable habitats provided by hunting land managers. We used the community temperature index (CTI) to assess the temporal responses of communities and species to climate warming. We compared the effect of hunting status with other functional traits on species responses, controlling for phylogenetic relatedness. The CTI trend has increased over the study period, indicating a community adjustment to climate warming. However, hunted ducks contributed to almost 40% of the negative contributions to this community adjustment, suggesting that hunted ducks do not shift their distribution as much as the other waterbirds do. Winter fidelity associated with the provision of attractive feeding grounds might explain why ducks did not seem to shift their distribution in response to climate warming. This study suggests the broad impact of human activities on wildlife, including on large‐scale distribution processes, and questions the long‐term consequences on duck populations.

Take-em!

At what point is a discussion a debate; at what point is it undue pressure? Is all unwanted pressure a kind of manipulation and violence? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, the narrator is invited by his father to go duck hunting as part of their bonding time. The narrator wants to spend time with his father, but expresses ethical concerns about hunting ducks. The father asserts hunting is a natural part of human evolution. The debate continues as the narrator decides to go on the hunt, but is undecided if he will pull the trigger. The story ends with father and son in the blind just at the moment before the narrator must decide if he is going to pull the trigger.

The Civil War Letters of Dr. Daniel Garrison Brinton, Surgeon in Charge at the US Army General Hospital in Quincy

The Civil War Letters of Dr. Daniel Garrison Brinton, Surgeon in Charge at the US Army General Hospital in Quincy

Dispatches from Kolob

Dispatches from Kolob

Choosing an optimal duck season: integrating hunter values and duck abundance

AbstractState wildlife agencies have long struggled to identify optimal hunting season dates for migratory game bird species that meet the diverse and often competing interests of stakeholders. Many approaches have been used to ensure the regulated community participates in the decision‐making process, including public hearings, hunter season‐date preference surveys, and hunter task forces or committees. Although hearings, surveys, and task force approaches include portions of the regulated community (typically the most avid) they may not necessarily reflect the opinions and values of all stakeholders. Additionally, these approaches rely heavily on limited anecdotal observations that may be unduly influenced by hunter avidity (e.g., days spent afield), hunter density, species preferences, and property access. To address the challenges caused by engaging only portions of the stakeholder community, we used a structured decision‐making framework that included a 2017 duck hunter survey to elucidate values of a representative sample of the regulated community in each waterfowl hunting zone in the state of New York, USA. Rather than asking duck hunters about their specific duck hunting season date preferences, we asked them to rank 6 objectives describing what they value in their hunting experience (e.g., maximizing the opportunity to see mallards [Anas platyrhynchos] and black ducks [Anas rubripes], maximizing the number of weekend days). Four of the 6 objectives described duck species availability (i.e., abundance or immigration) and the remaining 2 described considerations that affect an individual hunter's opportunity or limitation to going duck hunting (i.e., holidays or conflicting hunting seasons). We used spatiotemporal abundance models derived from eBird citizen science data to estimate abundance and immigration rates of ducks in each waterfowl zone. We evaluated up to 9 unique season date alternatives developed by duck hunter task forces to determine which season date alternative best satisfied the competing objectives of duck hunters in each zone. The approach we developed allowed for selection of optimal duck hunting season dates and successfully involved avid duck hunters in the regulation development stages, while ensuring that the values of a representative sample of all stakeholders were directly considered through a clear and transparent decision‐making process.

Public perceptions of wetlands and preferences for on-site visitor facilities and communication media: a case study from an Australian Ramsar wetland

There is wide recognition, championed by the Ramsar Convention, of the need to increase the public appreciation of wetlands and their conservation by providing meaningful experiences for visitors to Ramsar sites. In a case study of an Australian Ramsar site on the 50th anniversary of the treaty, we investigate the public’s awareness of this internationally significant wetland and their understanding of wetland biota and ecosystem services. To inform future communication, education, participation and awareness (CEPA), we also investigate public preferences for particular wetland-related knowledge, on-site activities, facilities and communication media. Less than half of the 326 survey respondents expressed some familiarity with wetlands. Notably, they were not aware of the existence of the Ramsar site, despite having driven past and being within close proximity to the wetland at the time of surveying. Non-extractive and non-commodified recreational activities such as trail walking and photography were preferred over extractive uses such as fishing and duck hunting and activities such as boat cruises and guided tours. There was a high demand for on-site facilities such as walking tracks and viewing platforms and for communication through web-based sources. Visitation to further the goals of Ramsar CEPA could be encouraged through the resourcing of locally appropriate infrastructure, promotion of activities and better communication.

Duck Hunt: Memory forensics of USB attack platforms

To explore the memory forensic artifacts generated by USB-based attack platforms, we analyzed two of the most popular commercially available devices, Hak5's USB Rubber Ducky and Bash Bunny. We present two open source Volatility plugins, usbhunt and dhcphunt, which extract artifacts generated by these USB attacks from Windows 10 system memory images. Such artifacts include driver-related diagnostic events, unique device identifiers, and DHCP client logs. Our tools are capable of extracting metadata-rich Windows diagnostic events generated by any USB device. The device identifiers presented in this work may also be used to definitively detect device usage. Likewise, the DHCP logs we carve from memory may be useful in the forensic analysis of other network-connected peripherals. We also quantify how long these artifacts remain recoverable in memory. Our experiments demonstrated that some Indicators of Compromise (IOCs) remain in memory for at least 24 h.

Take-Em!

At what point is a discussion a debate, and at what point is it undue pressure? Is all unwanted pressure a kind of manipulation and violence? In this work of philosophical short story fiction, the narrator is invited by his father to go duck hunting as part of their bonding time. The narrator wants to spend time with his father, but expresses ethical concerns about hunting ducks. The father asserts hunting is a natural part of human evolution. The debate continues as the narrator decides to go on the hunt, but is undecided if he will pull the trigger. The story ends with father and son in the blind just at the moment before the narrator must decide if he is going to pull the trigger.

The Evolutionary Dynamics of Influenza A Viruses Circulating in Mallards in Duck Hunting Preserves in Maryland, USA.

Duck hunting preserves (DHP) have resident populations of farm-raised mallard ducks, which create potential foci for the evolution of novel influenza A viruses (IAVs). Through an eleven-year (2003–2013) IAV surveillance project in seven DHPs in Maryland, USA, we frequently identified IAVs in the resident, free-flying mallard ducks (5.8% of cloacal samples were IAV-positive). The IAV population had high genetic diversity, including 12 HA subtypes and 9 NA subtypes. By sequencing the complete genomes of 290 viruses, we determined that genetically diverse IAVs were introduced annually into DHP ducks, predominantly from wild birds in the Anatidae family that inhabit the Atlantic and Mississippi flyways. The relatively low viral gene flow observed out of DHPs suggests that raised mallards do not sustain long-term viral persistence nor do they serve as important sources of new viruses in wild birds. Overall, our findings indicate that DHPs offer reliable samples of the diversity of IAV subtypes, and could serve as regional sentinel sites that mimic the viral diversity found in local wild duck populations, which would provide a cost-efficient strategy for long-term IAV monitoring. Such monitoring could allow for early identification and characterization of viruses that threaten bird species of high economic and environmental interest.

Context Rocks!

Searching for the phrase “appreciation of literature” in Google's Ngram Viewer shows that the phrase reached its peak usage in English publications between 1936 and 1937 and then nosedived after those years. It's interesting to speculate about what came together at that time. In 1937, DC Thomson published the first issue of The Dandy, one of the best selling comics in the history of British pop culture and the third-longest-running comics in the world; Daffy Duck debuted in the animated short Porky's Duck Hunt, directed by Tex Avery for the Looney Tunes series; and Detective Comics commenced publication. A year later, Superman went public. But 1937 also was the year that John Crowe Ransom left Vanderbilt University for Kenyon College and published “Criticism, Inc.” in The Virginia Quarterly Review. The target of Ransom's ire is “moralist” historical criticism, into which camp he puts actual morality purveyors, the new humanists and the new leftists (those purveyors of what we often now call symptomatic readings), and “personal registrations” or unfettered appreciation (597). While of course correlation is not causation, 1937 might mark an important fork in the subterranean lines in the United States, where the two trains of comics fandom and literary criticism begin to go in different directions, on trajectories that take them farther apart during and after World War II: comics toward the aesthetics of appreciation, and criticism to increasingly professionalized literary analysis. Critics today seem to be returning to this junction, asking how comics and criticism might reunite. Perhaps that convergence is happening now, through approaches variously known as surface reading (Best and Marcus), reparative reading (Sedgwick), close reading, postcritique (Felski, Limits), thin description (Love), or redescription (Latour)—each of which encourages professionalized critical appraisal without taking rolling stock into dead-end symptomatic tunnels. Perhaps it is through some other approach, one that may look like Hillary Chute's Why Comics?

ГЕРОЙ И МОТИВНАЯ СИСТЕМА «УТИНОЙ ОХОТЫ» А. ВАМПИЛОВА

The article examines A. Vampilov’s drama “Duck Hunting” and suggests a new approach to studying Vampilov’s text - identifying dichotomy of the main hero’s image on the basis of the textual and poetological analysis taking into account the nuances of the system of motives and having in view to find a new interpretation of the drama’s titular image - “duck hunting”. The authors show that Vampilov’s play was conceived and developed mostly as an “epic”, “prosaic”, novelistic text, and the titular image-symbol of duck hunting reveals deeper inter-textual roots and traces its origin back to the traditional images of the Book of Genesis - Flood myth and Noah’s Ark.

Daimyo Gardens by Shirahata Yōzaburō

Reviewed by: Daimyo Gardens by Shirahata Yōzaburō Christian Tagsold Daimyo Gardens. By Shirahata Yōzaburō. Translated by Imoto Chikako and Lynne E. Riggs. Kyoto: International Research Center for Japanese Studies, 2016. 209 pages. Nichibunken Monograph Series 19: http://nichibun.repo.nii.ac.jp. Shirahata Yōzaburō’s Daimyō no teien is among the most important books on the history of Japanese gardens to have been published in recent decades. Though aimed at a broad readership, that book introduced a new paradigm in scholarship on the subject, shifting the focus from reductionist Kyoto gardens, for decades erroneously labeled “Zen gardens,” to the lively and colorful world of Edo gardens. The English edition under review here is part of a translation project of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken) aimed at making books by its scholars more accessible to an international readership. Translated by Imoto Chikako and Lynne E. Riggs, Daimyo Gardens offers a significant restructuring of the original, with a discussion of pleasure gardens in Japan and Europe, for example, presented early in the book rather than hidden in later chapters. This edition also has a larger format and is much more lavishly and colorfully illustrated than the original paperback. Thus [End Page 260] Anglophone readers are afforded a better visual impression of the daimyo gardens than their Japanese counterparts.1 Shirahata, a leading scholar of Japanese garden history, was one of the first to challenge the orthodox view that Kyoto gardens from the middle ages represent the pinnacle of Japanese garden culture while Edo gardens symbolize its general decline. His 1997 Daimyō no teien preceded another work with an iconoclastic take on the Japanese garden, published in 2005, by fellow Nichibunken scholar Yamada Shōji; the book by Yamada, as it happened, appeared in English in 2009, seven years prior to Daimyo Gardens.2 These two works in English place Nichibunken at the forefront of redefining Japanese garden history, which is remarkable for an institution founded in 1987 to sustain conservative discourses of Japaneseness. Prior to Shirahata’s scholarship, daimyo gardens had been largely neglected by historians notwithstanding the more than one thousand gardens of feudal lords that in their time had been the pride of the capital. The quarters of the shogunate’s retainers, which dominated Edo, must have resembled a large garden landscape, making it a green city indeed despite the extreme population density in the commoner’s quarters. Today not even a dozen of these daimyo gardens still remain, most of them having been scrapped in the construction of modern Tokyo. The book under review brings the rich culture of daimyo gardens back to life. Most daimyo built several gardens in Edo. Though initially they would maintain only one residence, after the great fire of the Meiroku era in 1657 they added more as retreats in case of emergency. Typically, a daimyo would own a main, a middle, and a lower residence in what today is the Yamanote area of Tokyo, and each residence was adorned by a garden (p. 101). Aesthetically, the daimyo gardens were different from those in Kyoto, which were smaller in size, more secluded, and often part of a temple. In contrast, the Edo gardens featured open vistas, huge ponds, and large lawns as the daimyo competed to build spacious, open gardens that reflected their wealth and political influence. The sites often took up literary allusions and mimicked famous landscapes. Daimyo Gardens does more than elaborate on the aesthetic splendor of the gardens, focusing rather on their social function—another area that has been mostly neglected by traditional histories. Shirahata uses the famous garden of Katsura Detached Palace in Kyoto to illustrate the problematic consequences of the predilection for aesthetics in previous scholarship. With scrutiny placed exclusively on the aesthetic qualities of the Katsura garden, its rich history of “gaiety and fun” was supplanted by a “stiff image” of an “elegant garden modeled on Heian-period standards of beauty” (p. 8). Daimyo and imperial gardens like Katsura served a multitude of social purposes in the Edo period. They set the scene for banquets, garden parties, meetings for composing renga, horseback riding, duck hunting, fishing, and so on. Lawns were a...

Mallard resource selection trade-offs in a heterogeneous environment during autumn and winter.

Animals select resources to maximize fitness but associated costs and benefits are spatially and temporally variable. Differences in wetland management influence resource availability for ducks and mortality risk from duck hunting. The local distribution of the Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) is affected by this resource heterogeneity and variable risk from hunting. Regional conservation strategies primarily focus on how waterfowl distributions are affected by food resources during the nonbreeding season. To test if Mallard resource selection was related to the abundance of resources, risks, or a combination, we studied resource selection of adult female Mallards during autumn and winter. We developed a digital spatial layer for Lake St. Clair, Ontario, Canada, that classified resources important to Mallards and assigned these resources a risk level based on ownership type and presumed disturbance from hunting. We monitored 59 individuals with GPS back‐pack transmitters prior to, during, and after the hunting season and used discrete choice modeling to generate diurnal and nocturnal resource selection estimates. The model that classified available resources and presumed risk best explained Mallard resource selection strategies. Resource selection varied within and among seasons. Ducks selected for federal, state and private managed wetland complexes that provided an intermediate or relatively greater amount of refuge and foraging options than public hunting areas. Across all diel periods and seasons, there was selection for federally managed marshes and private supplemental feeding refuges that prohibited hunting. Mallard resource selection demonstrated trade‐offs related to the management of mortality risk, anthropogenic disturbances, and foraging opportunities. Understanding how waterfowl respond to heterogeneous landscapes of resources and risks can inform regional conservation strategies related to waterfowl distribution during the nonbreeding season.

Evaluation of harvest and information needs for North American sea ducks.

Wildlife managers routinely seek to establish sustainable limits of sport harvest or other regulated forms of take while confronted with considerable uncertainty. A growing body of ecological research focuses on methods to describe and account for uncertainty in management decision-making and to prioritize research and monitoring investments to reduce the most influential uncertainties. We used simulation methods incorporating measures of demographic uncertainty to evaluate risk of overharvest and prioritize information needs for North American sea ducks (Tribe Mergini). Sea ducks are popular game birds in North America, yet they are poorly monitored and their population dynamics are poorly understood relative to other North American waterfowl. There have been few attempts to assess the sustainability of harvest of North American sea ducks, and no formal harvest strategy exists in the U.S. or Canada to guide management. The popularity of sea duck hunting, extended hunting opportunity for some populations (i.e., special seasons and/or bag limits), and population declines have led to concern about potential overharvest. We used Monte Carlo simulation to contrast estimates of allowable harvest and observed harvest and assess risk of overharvest for 7 populations of North American sea ducks: the American subspecies of common eider (Somateria mollissima dresseri), eastern and western populations of black scoter (Melanitta americana) and surf scoter (M. perspicillata), and continental populations of white-winged scoter (M. fusca) and long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis). We combined information from empirical studies and the opinions of experts through formal elicitation to create probability distributions reflecting uncertainty in the individual demographic parameters used in this assessment. Estimates of maximum growth (rmax), and therefore of allowable harvest, were highly uncertain for all populations. Long-tailed duck and American common eider appeared to be at high risk of overharvest (i.e., observed harvest < allowable harvest in 5–7% and 19–26% of simulations, respectively depending on the functional form of density dependence), whereas the other populations appeared to be at moderate risk to low risk (observed harvest < allowable harvest in 22–68% of simulations, again conditional on the form of density dependence). We also evaluated the sensitivity of the difference between allowable and observed harvest estimates to uncertainty in individual demographic parameters to prioritize information needs. We found that uncertainty in overall fecundity had more influence on comparisons of allowable and observed harvest than adult survival or observed harvest for all species except long-tailed duck. Although adult survival was characterized by less uncertainty than individual components of fecundity, it was identified as a high priority information need given the sensitivity of growth rate and allowable harvest to this parameter. Uncertainty about population size was influential in the comparison of observed and allowable harvest for 5 of the 6 populations where it factored into the assessment. While this assessment highlights a high degree of uncertainty in allowable harvest, it provides a framework for integration of improved data from future research and monitoring. It could also serve as the basis for harvest strategy development as management objectives and regulatory alternatives are specified by the management community.

John Holland Martin From Picograms to Petagrams and Copepods to Climate: The Class of MS 280, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories

John Holland Martin From Picograms to Petagrams and Copepods to Climate: <i>The Class of MS 280, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories</i>

The use of hormonal therapy in “andropause”: the con side

The use of hormonal therapy in “andropause”: the con side

Incremental Investment Value of Waterfowl Impoundments in the Upstate of South Carolina, USA

Financial incentives and economic factors play a role in expansion and survival of waterfowl in the Upstate of South Carolina. Satisfying a basic biological need, waterfowl impoundments are an effective way to ensure that migrating ducks have a food source, cover, and water on their journey south during the winter months (duck hunting season), but also year-round to ensure these birds return annually. Development of the region’s rural areas has resulted in a decrease in total area of flooded wetlands designated to waterfowl and a decline in waterfowl populations. At the same time, the willingness to pay to hunt ducks has escalated. South Carolinians drive across the United States in search for duck hunting when the same hunting experience could be created in their own backyard. The incremental value of creating a waterfowl impoundment was determined on five different properties in the Upstate of South Carolina (the study area). A discounted cost flow analysis approach was used that considered initial costs (a pond leveler, site preparation work, and blind building), recurring costs, and hunter revenue. The model also considered the opportunity cost of foregoing the harvest of planted crops on the land. Realistic examples are provided with corresponding net present values and geographic information system generated maps illustrate the layout of these impoundments. Waterfowl impoundments were found to produce significant financial return.