Andrew L.
Well-known member
Recently had the pleasure of touring some DU projects in Southwest Minnesota along with one of our conservation partners, Fox Lake Conservation League, who graciously allowed the use of their drone for the day. We have had very heavy rains in this part of the state since late April. In fact, right now is a good showing of how many wetlands used to be in this part of the world as nearly all fields have some sort of standing water. Most do not think of this area when they think Prairie Pothole Region but it used to be littered with great duck habitat just like the Dakotas. In fact, some early transcripts from Jackson county say that settlers could not go more than 1/4 of a mile without having to go around some sort of wetland.
Happy to report that great progress is being made in this area in terms of restoration and the drone photos help show a little justice for the cause. Breeding pairs and a number of waterfowl species were seen at each property so lets hope MN can pull its weight a little more with the rest of prairies much drier.
Here is a WMA with a water control structure and fish barrier (bottom left) that DU installed in recent years. This helps keep out invasive carp and allows for a draw down rotation to promote a healthy wetland. Despite the heavy rains there still appeared to be good submerged vegetation.
This is another overhead shot of a different WMA again showing some decent vegetation.
On that same WMA looking west DU just acquired some ground that the wetlands will be restored on. You can see some of the property that is currently in CRP, green area, and just beyond that will be restored back to native prairie and wetlands. In background you can see how wet some of the nearby fields are.
This next WMA was a huge surprise in terms of numbers of pockets of water when we saw it from above. A duck hunters paradise in my books. Hard to imagine this is what all of southern MN and the prairies used to look like. A few swans in the center were big enough to show up.
Same property but from a different angle.
Hope you enjoyed some shots from the ducks point of view. I will try and post again later this fall when we can hopefully do some more flights once water has receded.
Happy to report that great progress is being made in this area in terms of restoration and the drone photos help show a little justice for the cause. Breeding pairs and a number of waterfowl species were seen at each property so lets hope MN can pull its weight a little more with the rest of prairies much drier.
Here is a WMA with a water control structure and fish barrier (bottom left) that DU installed in recent years. This helps keep out invasive carp and allows for a draw down rotation to promote a healthy wetland. Despite the heavy rains there still appeared to be good submerged vegetation.
This is another overhead shot of a different WMA again showing some decent vegetation.
On that same WMA looking west DU just acquired some ground that the wetlands will be restored on. You can see some of the property that is currently in CRP, green area, and just beyond that will be restored back to native prairie and wetlands. In background you can see how wet some of the nearby fields are.
This next WMA was a huge surprise in terms of numbers of pockets of water when we saw it from above. A duck hunters paradise in my books. Hard to imagine this is what all of southern MN and the prairies used to look like. A few swans in the center were big enough to show up.
Same property but from a different angle.
Hope you enjoyed some shots from the ducks point of view. I will try and post again later this fall when we can hopefully do some more flights once water has receded.
