WEBVTT - Ep. 36: Ducks - The Duck Hunting Capital of the World (Part 1) 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:07.200 M my dad. He thought he was unique, even at 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:09.760 that time to have a camouflage boat and a black 0:00:09.800 --> 0:00:13.320 dog in south central Kansas. And you know then he 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:15.760 comes out here to visit me and hunt here, and 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:18.919 it's it's nothing exceptional at all. I mean, there's there's 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.760 a there's a camouflage boat and a black dog at 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:25.919 every other house, it seems. On this episode of The 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:30.639 Burglaries podcast will be exploring the ancient migration of Mallard 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.000 ducks and how a place they chose as a primary 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:39.120 wintering ground is called the duck hunting capital of the world. 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:43.040 I'm talking about my home state of Arkansas, and I 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:47.040 want to understand why this reputation has lasted the test 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:51.040 of time. I like the boldness and passion of such labels. 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:54.639 We'll talk with the lead waterfowl biologist of the Arkansas 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:59.000 Game and Fish Commission and the new director of the agency. 0:00:59.360 --> 0:01:01.680 We'll go into a flooded timber and hunt with the 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:06.520 world champion duck caller, jimbo ron Quest, and we'll talk 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:11.680 with ornithologist and author Scott Widensaul about the mystery of 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:16.040 the migration. Well even here from Sean Weaver of meat 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:19.880 Eater the lineup is stacked, the knowledge drop will be 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:23.000 thick and we'll use this info in part two of 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:28.039 the podcast. YEP already talking about Part two to learn 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:32.040 how the Green Tree reservoirs, the flood prone hardwood bottoms 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:35.399 of Arkansas are in jeopardy and what the plan is 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:39.240 to save them. It would not be possible for you 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:43.640 to intentionally want to miss this one. Duck Hunting in 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:47.600 Arkansas was something I was obsessed with as a kid 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:52.200 because there was a romance that all duck hunters had, 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.640 like across the country. No matter what, you look to 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:59.960 Arkansas and you're envious of them shooting green heads come 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:12.119 through the trees. My name is Clay Nukelem and this 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:16.239 is the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:20.680 but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, and where 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:24.520 we'll tell the story of Americans who lived their lives 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:30.239 close to the land. Presented by f HF Gear, American Maid, 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:34.280 purpose built hunting and fishing gear that's designed to be 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:45.880 as rugged as the places we explore. What's this dog's name? 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.040 His name is Tiny Tinie. How old is it? Nye's 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.640 Night Team Months, High Team Months that'll retrieved up. He'll 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:54.840 fant you up. I promise you he will fet you up. 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:57.959 Let's go. I want to see him do it. Let's 0:02:58.040 --> 0:02:59.760 keep this thing off kind of you or push off 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:06.080 my It's dark, but a large led light on the 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.000 front of the boat illuminates the dark water and the 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:12.400 skeletal shapes of timber in front of us. We're in 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:16.200 a sixteen foot John boat with two black labs driving. 0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:21.040 The boat is Jumbo ron Quest. We're in Arkansas, cruising 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.720 through a giant stand of oak timber and about two 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:27.520 ft of water. Now, where are we going this morning? 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.640 We're going to the hole called twin Willows. There's two 0:03:30.680 --> 0:03:32.880 big willows on each side of it frames it up 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.760 like a goal post for south wind. They break between 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:37.960 them two big willow trees and it's beautiful when they 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:41.000 fall in there. Hopefully we'll get that opportunity this morning. 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:46.400 It's this is part of it that you wouldn't understand 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.560 unless you're hair. You can't. You can't describe this to somebody, 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:53.360 can you. You can't. This is Mr Bobby Martin, and 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:55.480 you know this morning we've got a full moon. This 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:57.800 is about our third day of having a full moon 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:00.280 and you know, really, even if I killed the light, 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:05.000 you can just kind of see and feel again this 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.480 this moonlight coming across the type of those trees, and 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.240 it's the site every one of us always enjoy enjoy seeing. 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.520 Mr Bobby. Our duck hunters just like everybody else, and 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:18.760 they make big excuses when there's a full moon. You know, uh, 0:04:18.800 --> 0:04:21.680 there's something that happens that Mother Nature franked in there. 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:24.760 I knew it, I knew it. This is this is 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.920 this is our excuse. You have something leaning on. It's 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:31.719 kind of like that big beast that got away. We 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.920 get to the Twin Oaks hole and put out our decoys. 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.839 I'm instructed to tuck in tight at the base of 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:41.200 a tree. We're standing in knee deep water in the 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:54.600 flooded timber Zarre. First calling sequence just almost legal shooting line. 0:04:56.160 --> 0:05:13.040 One minute until illegal shooting line. Yeah, they don't want 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:28.240 to drop in here, dude, boy shot boys, good job. 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:39.640 A degree angle coming down. Arkansas has long been known 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.480 as the duck hunting capital of the world. Have you 0:05:42.520 --> 0:05:45.960 heard that before? On this episode, we're gonna learn if 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:49.960 the label is fitting and if so, why. Secondly, we're 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.000 gonna learn about green Tree reservoirs and why the ones 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:56.240 in Arkansas are critical. If you'll just buckle in and 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:59.200 be patient, over the next two episodes, I'm going to 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:02.559 introduce you to some experts that are going to paint 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:07.400 for us a grand story, an old story involving man 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:11.279 and beast, and as you know, with great pride. I've 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:16.479 often proclaimed that I'm a seventh generation Arkansan, but I've 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.640 rarely hunted ducks. I grew up in the highlands of Arkansas, 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:25.080 in the mountains, a long way from any major waterfowl flyway. 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:29.600 You see. Arkansas is geographically divided into the highlands and 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:33.839 Delta regions. If you envisioned Arkansas as a square and 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:36.839 drew a line diagonally from the upper right hand corner 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:39.200 of the square to the lower left hand corner of 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:42.280 the square, you would divide the state into two sections. 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.839 And for the general purposes of this analogy, the upper 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:50.680 left section would be mountainous, including the Ozark and Washingta Mountains, 0:06:50.680 --> 0:06:54.400 and the lower right section, beside hugging the Mississippi River, 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:58.400 would be the lowland Delta regions of Arkansas. It's flat, 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:03.400 agricultural land with timbered rivers and pockets of contiguous hardwoods. 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:06.760 The Delta regions of Arkansas are the bread and butter 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:11.920 of the great and ancient Mississippi Waterfowl Flyway, also known 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:14.720 as the flyway of the mallard, which is the most 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:19.120 sought after of all waterfowl. Arkansas is special, and I 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:24.560 want to understand why. As non looker, it's clear that 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:29.240 the mystical migrations of these birds moves people's souls in 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:33.160 strange ways. People talk about ducks flying into a set 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:38.320 of decoys as if they're recounting a spiritual experience. Their 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:42.240 eyes twinkle, their voices change, and then the right context, 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:45.720 around the right fire, with the right people, a tear 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:49.360 might even be shed. When the cupping of mallard wings 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.160 is spoken of. It's clear that this is sacred territory, 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:58.360 and I'm interested in understanding why the second objective of 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:01.320 looking into the waterfowl world is of more importance than 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:05.440 the first. There's a significant sector of critical winter ground 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:10.400 waterfowl habitat that's in peril, and that peril is man induced. 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:12.960 By the time we're done with this series will be 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:16.920 experts on green tree reservoirs for g t r s 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:21.880 as they're called they're flooded hardwood bottoms. Luke Naylor is 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.360 the lead waterfowl biologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:27.920 He's one of those guys that when you shake his hand, 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:32.199 you're convinced of his authenticity. His confidence coupled with his 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.520 down to earth demeanor, lets you know that you're dealing 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:39.360 with the professional. I'm interested in gleaning from the passion 0:08:39.520 --> 0:08:43.600 and sight of these hardcore waterfowl guys. I'm hoping that 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:49.440 Luke can help. So you're the statewide waterfowl program coordinator. 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:53.040 That's right, waterfowl biologist, duck biologist. And how long have 0:08:53.080 --> 0:08:55.439 you been with gaming fish? Fifteen years now? So I 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.280 got here at early summer of two thousand six. That's 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:00.520 pretty cool, man, it is. I mean, so that kind 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:05.480 of like playing for like the Golden State Warriors championship team. Yeah, 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:07.920 if I can shoot like Steph Curry, I guess you 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:09.880 know what it it is. And and talked to a 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:11.719 lot of people before I got this job. In the 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.400 situation you come into when you work as the Arkansas 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:17.280 waterfowl biologist, and there's a whole lot of positives. There's 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:19.480 a few things some people might view as negatives, But 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:20.760 you know, if you just kind of roll with it, 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:22.360 there's a lot of a lot of interest, a lot 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:25.520 of intensity here, and so sometimes that can be can 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:27.800 be a lot to deal with. I'd rather have folks 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:31.600 that are really passionate about the resource and passionate about 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.320 the pastime of duck hunting and the culture of duck hunting. 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:36.840 I'd much rather have folks who are on the on 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.840 the extremely passionate side of the spectrum versus apathetic. You know, 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:43.400 So you've come here and and it's definitely the truth 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.000 in Arkansas. There's just lots of people care about it. 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:48.800 But that passion that people have here makes a job 0:09:48.840 --> 0:09:52.000 both really rewarding frustrating at times. But you can work 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.280 through that and there's always something new to be done, 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.480 you know, there's always some new issue. Yeah, there's always 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.080 because of that passion, because of the great water, our 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.640 resource we have, there's just always something else to work on. 0:10:04.880 --> 0:10:07.400 I want to understand the duck hunting culture of this 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:11.319 place that's been dubbed as its capital. I'm well aware 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:14.480 of the reputation of Arkansas duck hunting, but being raised 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.320 in a region absence of a major flyway, I have 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.079 missed out, and if I'm being honest, we're probably a 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:23.599 little jealous and tried to convince ourselves that our squirrels 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.240 and coons were a more noble quarry. But that's currently 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:34.200 under reconsideration. I've asked Slute to describe Arkansas duck hunting culture. Yeah, 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:37.640 the culture of of duck hunting here is everywhere. It's amazing. 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:41.040 There's other places, of course, that have really strong claims 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:43.880 to a waterfowl hunting culture. I never want to forget that, right, 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:46.320 I mean, most of modern waterfowl hunting is an East 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.679 Coast Great Lakes type affair, right, Folks maybe here in 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.040 the South don't want to hear that sometimes, but but 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:53.880 you know, I mean, but it's a matter of where. 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:57.480 You know, European settlement started in just that progression of things, right, 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.160 So the culture of duck hunting here is and is 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:02.040 just intense. You know. I grew up in south central 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.600 Kansas and moved here um in oh six And I'll 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:07.640 never forget my dad coming and he thought he was 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:09.880 it kind of is. It was unique even at that 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.640 time to have a camouflage boat and a black dog 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:16.120 in south central Kansas, and you know, then he comes 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:18.840 out here to visit me and hunt here, and it's 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.560 it's nothing exceptional at all. I mean, there's there's a 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:24.559 there's a camouflage boat and a black dog on it 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:28.400 every other house, it seems, and so it's just deeply 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:34.600 culturally embedded here. Sean Weaver is an addict. He's a 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:37.679 waterfowl at it. He's the kind of guy that earns 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.400 your respect quickly as you see the honesty of his passion. 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:45.280 And he's meat eaters, waterfowl guru, and the host of 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:48.200 our new show called Duck Lauren, which is coming out soon. 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:52.320 Sean talks about the waterfowl prospects of the different regions 0:11:52.320 --> 0:11:55.440 of the country like an art dealer talks about art, 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.800 or like Brent Reeves talks about corn bread. Sean lives 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:02.440 in out Dakota, so I wanted to see what he 0:12:02.559 --> 0:12:08.360 said about Arkansas duck hunting culture. Arkansas duck hunting culture 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:12.760 and just duck hunting in Arkansas was something I was 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.959 obsessed with as a kid because there was a romance 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:21.160 that all duck hunters had, like across the country, no 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:24.760 matter what you looked to Arkansas and you were envious 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.320 of them. Shooting green heads coming through the trees. So 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:32.559 I just became eight up with Arkansas duck hunting culture, 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.600 and you really looked at the guys in Arkansas as 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.319 the best and that they got, you know, they got 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:41.920 all the ducks, but they also were the best at 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:45.400 hunting ducks and they had the most experience, right, And 0:12:45.480 --> 0:12:49.520 it's reflected in a bunch of ways. You have companies 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:53.440 that were based around Arkansas duck hunting. All the call 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:57.160 companies were based in Arkansas, or the vast majority of them. 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:01.040 For a long time, you had world champion callers and 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:06.400 the world champion duck calling contests based in Arkansas. So 0:13:06.640 --> 0:13:10.120 really it is undeniable that it was the epicenter of 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.600 duck hunting, and no one could argue it otherwise. Let 0:13:13.640 --> 0:13:16.400 me ask you a question, how much of that was 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:20.080 marketing and hype and how much of it was reality? 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.319 I think that and that's that is not a slight 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:28.319 to Arkansas. I mean, I I am deeply deeply biased 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:31.760 towards Arkansas. So I want you to say, Clay, every 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:33.680 word of it was true. But I just know that 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:39.400 they're epicenters for things that that produced culture. But they're 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:44.320 not always they're not always the best, they're not always everything. 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:48.400 But yeah, the first duck hunt I had where I 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.840 came to hunt in Arkansas wasn't what I was watching. 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:57.120 It wasn't the same. It wasn't eight man limits of 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.400 green heads coming down in the flooded timber. Some of it, 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.720 for sure, was just like a lot of video content. 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.880 You're watching the cream off the top, you're watching the best. 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:09.960 You're watching you can going to Iowa and sitting the 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:14.440 best farm in the world and not kill exactly, and 0:14:14.840 --> 0:14:19.880 you are undeniably watching stuff that's either one real special 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:23.080 day or private duck club that you know, someone like 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:26.880 myself might never have access to. That being said, even 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:29.960 though my first duck hunting trip to Arkansas wasn't that 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:34.360 great and wasn't that successful, I still loved it because 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:38.440 the culture surrounding it. You know, a way I've described 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:41.080 the Delta of Arkansas to a lot of people that 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.880 have never seen it is there's a thirty dollar duck 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.480 boat parked in front of like a five thousand dollar 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.080 pick up a lot of places. I mean, there is 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.800 a duck boat around every corner, in every driveway. It's 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:59.440 it just runs thick and I love that. I just 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:04.440 love it. Here's Luke continuing to build the story of 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:07.640 Arkansas duck hunting. You know, it goes back all the 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:11.760 way to I think the importance overall of Arkansas duck 0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:15.240 hunting ties back to it's important to ducks, obviously, and 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:19.120 and that's really a question of geography and geology of 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.080 how this whole landscape to tell me about that. Yeah, 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:24.160 it just funnels ducks here. I mean you just kind 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:28.240 of take a step back out to feet and look 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:30.920 at the whole landscape, and you just see this. You 0:15:30.960 --> 0:15:34.480 see all these rivers just kind of draining throughout most 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.440 of the mid continent US and ending up funneling together 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.560 right here in the delta of Arkansas. So you could have, 0:15:41.840 --> 0:15:46.400 if you weren't from here, but you knew about waterfowl biology, 0:15:46.600 --> 0:15:48.320 you would you would look at a map and you 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:52.040 would go that region is gonna be special. Yeah. You 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:56.320 look back at the early maps of migratory corridors for ducks, 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.320 the early flyway maps, And I always gotta be real 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:02.080 careful about at the term flyway gets gets thrown around 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:04.360 a lot these days with duck hunters talking about a 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:06.840 flyway here and a Flyway there, and that's not how 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:10.480 we talk about flyways. When you talk about continental waterfowl management, 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:14.920 we talk about these major flyways within which we manage resources. 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:20.800 You know, the four major flyways across the continent. So 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:24.760 there are four major waterfowl flyways in North America from 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:28.880 east to west. It's the Atlantic Flyway, the Mississippi Flyway, 0:16:28.960 --> 0:16:33.200 the Central Flyway, and the Pacific Flyway. The Atlantic Flyway 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:36.840 starts in the eastern Arctic tundra of Canada, travels down 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:40.760 the Atlantic Coast, goes into the Caribbean, covering more than 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:45.800 three thousand linear miles. The Central Flyway spans from central 0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:49.000 Canada all the way to the Texas Gulf Coast. The 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:53.080 Pacific Flyway stretches four thousand miles, starting in Alaska, it 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:56.720 goes to Mexico. We've gone out of order because I 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:01.160 wanted to be dramatic. The Mississippi Flyway is the progeny 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:05.520 of what the Algonquin tribe called the Father of Waters 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:10.600 or the big River, the Mighty Mississippi. The name Mississippi 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:15.440 is a transliteration of an Algonquin language word mississie b, 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.480 and the French called it Mississippi and later it turned 0:17:19.520 --> 0:17:24.640 into the modern pronunciation. Turns out Hernando de Soto called 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:27.440 it the River of the Holy Spirit, but that didn't stick. 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:31.639 I'm very happy the river wasn't named after some chump 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:38.440 or a politician's girlfriend. This river drains of the continental 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:43.360 United States. It's the third largest river watershed in the world, 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:47.240 behind the Amazon and Nile rivers. The flyway is twenty 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.920 miles long and has a watershed of over one point 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.719 five million square miles, and it's the most heavily used 0:17:54.800 --> 0:18:01.320 migration corridor for waterfowl on the continent. Wild stuff. Those 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:04.879 were described really early on by guys like Frank Belros 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:07.800 where they looked at did some really just cool observations 0:18:07.840 --> 0:18:11.000 of ducks during migration, and looked at early band recovery 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.960 information and develop these maps. And if you go back 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:17.200 decades to look at these maps, it just highlights all 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:21.119 of these little corridors, major areas of band recovery. Just 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:24.919 follow these lines of these major rivers and they all 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.159 come to a confluence in Arkansas. So it just makes 0:18:28.200 --> 0:18:32.200 sense that this fun literally does funnel funnels them right now. 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:38.320 Once I started dabbling in the Arkansas waterfowl world, Jim 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:42.000 Ron quest name came up over and over. They call 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:46.080 him Jimbo. I quickly learned he's very well respected in 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:50.760 the waterfowl industry as a caller, hunter, conservation advocate, and 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.159 just a general good man. He's a call maker and 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.280 was the World's duck calling Champion in two thousand and six. 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:01.040 But more important than titles, he is a Jedi master 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:06.160 in the duckwoods. I asked Jimbo why Arkansas is special 0:19:06.400 --> 0:19:11.720 when it comes to ducks. Geographical location. So, if you 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:15.080 think of the Mississippi Flyway and to some extent, the 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:17.320 Central fly Away, and you and you look at a 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:21.720 big map of the USA, and you think of water drainages, watersheds, 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:24.159 what's the Ohio River do? The Ohio River comes from 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.520 the northeast with the southwesterly flow, meets up with the 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:30.720 Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois. Then above it you got 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.000 the Missouri River coming out of the northern plains and 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:36.560 the Dakotas in the in the Montana and it dumps 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:40.520 into the Mississippi River just above St. Louis. Then as 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:42.760 you come down, you got the Arkansas River that starts 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.960 in Colorado, comes across the Central plains, with a southeasterly 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:50.960 flow and dumps into the Mississippi River just below stuck guard. 0:19:51.119 --> 0:19:53.480 But when you start looking at all those confluences of 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:57.240 watersheds and you think of ducks traveling those watersheds as 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:00.160 arteries art maybe people would relate to it better as 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.640 interstate highways or roads or highways if you start looking 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:06.280 at it. We're in the eye of the funnel. But 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:10.160 the geographic location and where we are is what set 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:13.320 us up to be the matter capital the world. It's 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:18.080 just where ducks want to be. Continental geography on a 0:20:18.119 --> 0:20:21.000 massive scale plays a vital role when you're dealing with 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:24.639 an animal that has a home range encompassing thousands of 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:28.560 linear miles. To understand why ducks come down this funnel 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:32.240 in the winter, we've got to understand flooded timber or 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:35.720 g trs. We'll be talking a lot about this stuff. 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:38.520 And if you're a duck hunter, you may have just 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:43.560 gotten cold chills. Austin Booth is a born and bread 0:20:43.560 --> 0:20:48.120 are Kanson, a former marine, a lawyer, a public land 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.560 duck hunter, and he's the new director of the Arkansas 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:54.760 Game and Fish Commission. We're gonna hear more from Austin 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:59.120 in part two of this podcast hashtag foreshadow, But I 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:02.840 wanted to here's thoughts on Arkansas being the d h 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:07.880 c W, the duck hunting capital of the world. We're 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:11.359 known as the duck hunting capital world because about fifty 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:14.320 to sixty years ago the public discovered what the ducks 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:17.520 discovered a long time ago, and that was green tree reservoirs. 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:23.119 Do we have plenty of other kinds of duck hunting opportunities, Sure, 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:28.679 we got fantastic moist soil habitat, we got fantastic grain 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:33.560 rice mostly habitat. But it's really the green tree reservoirs 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:36.840 smack dab in the middle of the Mississippi Flyway that 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:40.359 put us on the map. When I worded it that way, 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:43.879 saying that the public discovered what the ducks discovered long ago, 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:48.600 I meant that. I mean that this flyway in Arkansas, 0:21:48.680 --> 0:21:53.280 eastern central Arkansas, northeast Arkansas has been a duck magnet 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:56.119 for a very very long time, and when we started 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:57.879 to rest, I mean it has nothing to do with man, 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:01.760 it has nothing. I mean the initial, yes, the the 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:06.760 ancient natural migration patterns of these these ducks and geese 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:11.000 is coming down the Mississippi drainage, and they'll and they'll 0:22:11.000 --> 0:22:14.359 shoot off one of the best duck hunting offshoots of 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:16.800 the Mississippi River as the White River and the Cache 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:19.600 River and the Black River and St. Francis, and it's 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:24.320 the whole flyway. We recognize that that these ducks were 0:22:24.359 --> 0:22:27.760 attracted in a special way to green tree reservoirs, to 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:31.680 bottom one hardwoods, and so fifty sixty years ago we 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:35.639 started putting up infrastructure to try to hold water on 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:39.520 these green tree reservoirs for the purpose of attracting more ducks. 0:22:39.600 --> 0:22:43.800 One but to making the green tree reservoir hunting more 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:49.320 predictable and more stable, rather than relying on mother nature 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:52.800 to flood and drop down and flood and drop down. 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:58.320 We need to understand the original design of green tree 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:02.560 reservoirs or flooded hard would timber inside of natural systems. 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:06.840 Here's Luke. I think it's pretty fascinating to think about 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:11.080 pre European settlement animal movements and what and what was 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:16.320 here to think about This flyway is ancient. It is 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:19.880 as long as there have been ducks, Mallard ducks and 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:22.320 all these ducks that have flown in the air. They 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:25.760 have been doing this thing, and they've been coming through 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:29.080 this area. Talk to me about the flooded timber of 0:23:29.200 --> 0:23:32.960 Arkansas and how that's unique because I would have thought 0:23:33.040 --> 0:23:35.960 that there was this flooded timber thing would have been 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:39.600 kind of all over widespread. But tell me about yet, 0:23:39.840 --> 0:23:42.400 it's it's not as much as as what you might think. 0:23:42.680 --> 0:23:45.800 Now there's there's pockets of this sort of habitat really 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:50.159 all across the US, and just a lot smaller scale. 0:23:50.680 --> 0:23:52.640 So it makes sense. You know, even in my home 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:54.879 state of Kansas. You know, there's some areas in eastern 0:23:55.040 --> 0:23:57.320 Kansas and there's some of these old river bottoms that 0:23:57.320 --> 0:23:59.840 would have flooded up that would have seasonally flooded and 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:03.919 surely provided habitat for ducks. But the vast majority of 0:24:03.960 --> 0:24:07.280 it was here in the Mississippi Louivial Valley where we're talking. 0:24:07.480 --> 0:24:10.679 You know, well over twenty million acres of of bottom 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:15.040 and hardwood forest in the delta of Arkansas acres over 0:24:15.080 --> 0:24:16.879 twenty million, and a bunch of other states, right you 0:24:16.920 --> 0:24:19.840 would have Mississippi, Western Mississippi, You even would have had 0:24:19.880 --> 0:24:23.040 the Boothole of Missouri, Western Kentucky, Western Tennessee and Northeast 0:24:23.080 --> 0:24:27.240 Louisiana all would have contributed to this massive block of 0:24:27.280 --> 0:24:29.800 bottom and hardwood forest. Now it would have been constantly 0:24:29.800 --> 0:24:31.959 in a state of flux. This landscape would have been 0:24:32.000 --> 0:24:34.760 constantly changing. It would have been bottom in hardwood forest 0:24:35.080 --> 0:24:38.159 in some stage of succession. In a really good colleague 0:24:38.200 --> 0:24:40.520 and friend of mine said years ago, you know it 0:24:40.760 --> 0:24:43.000 really the Mallard. If you really kind of think about 0:24:43.040 --> 0:24:46.520 the continental landscape, it kind of transitions from a prairie 0:24:46.560 --> 0:24:50.400 species to a forest species, probably about St. Louis latitude. 0:24:50.840 --> 0:24:53.240 If you go back and look at historic land cover maps, 0:24:53.480 --> 0:24:56.280 you can start looking at the at the delta becoming 0:24:56.320 --> 0:24:59.720 this forested landscape. Maybe you know about that St. Louis 0:24:59.760 --> 0:25:03.159 lad to following those river corridor south. So that's what 0:25:03.280 --> 0:25:06.359 these ducks were adapted to come find prairie wetlands throughout 0:25:06.440 --> 0:25:08.680 most of the year and then several months of the 0:25:08.800 --> 0:25:11.440 year finding the resources they need in these In these 0:25:11.480 --> 0:25:17.440 forests and wetlands, forested wetlands, flooded timber or green tree 0:25:17.480 --> 0:25:20.160