agency interested in wildlife resources—both governmental and 

 private—if the job is to be done. It was to develop such a partner- 

 ship approach to the terrific task of solving today's waterfowl 

 problem that Waterfowl Councils were created. 



Our Waterfowl Problem 



Our present waterfowl conservation difficulties are the result 

 of three things. The number of people on this Continent is rocket- 

 ing upward and more and more of us are turning to the outdoors 

 and wildlife resources for recreation. As the demand for more 

 opportunity to enjoy wildlife increases, the habitat needed to 

 produce and maintain wildlife shrinks steadily in the face of 

 urban, industrial, and agricultural encroachment. At the same time, 

 man's advances toward an easier way of life for himself through 

 technology— modern highways, high-speed cars, electronic bird 

 calls, better guns, drainage, and pesticides— are giving the wild 

 creatures new troubles in their reduced living space. How to ap- 

 proach this big problem of keeping our waterfowl in a complex 

 world is the concern of wildlife managers generally. 



Ducks Supply the Pattern 



The ducks themselves have had something to say about how 

 we should organize our conservation efforts. Basically, waterfowl 

 of this Continent are divided into groups that have discernible 

 patterns of migration between their nesting and wintering grounds. 

 Hunters, by returning the bands they find on the legs of ducks and 

 geese they shoot, have produced this information. Although there 

 is considerable overlapping of these flight lanes and a certain 

 amount of trading back and forth between them by waterfowl, 

 studies of band recoveries have shown that the various migration 

 patterns for ducks and geese break down into four major flyways. 

 They are referred to as the Pacific, Central, Mississippi, and 

 Atlantic Flyways. 



Banding ducks and geese has told us many things about the behavior of 

 our waterfowl 



t?. 



