Dollars from the Montana Waterfowl Stamp 

 program and Ducks Unlimited have financed 32 

 wetland improvements (left) at the WMA in the 

 past two years alone. Wood ducks (left, below) 

 and CanaJa geese (below) are just a few of the 

 species benefiting from these projects. 





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"It's certainly not for a lack of 

 geese," s;i\s Bill West, a U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service (USFWS) biologist 

 stationed at the nearby National Bison 

 Raiiyc. 'C'lmada goose populations 

 have been steadily increasing and are as 

 high as they've been in the valley since 

 records have been kept." 



Duck populations, too, are thriving, 

 after many years of decline. Last 

 summer, biologists from FWP, 

 USFWS, ami the Conlcderated Salish 

 and Kootenai Tribes banded ducks on 

 the WMA and on nearby USFWS 

 waterfowl production areas as part of a 

 multi-state effort to identify migration 

 patterns of western ducks. More ducks 

 were banded in the Ninepipe area than 

 on any equivalent area in Montana. 

 "About 95% of them were young birds 



that probably hatched locally," says 

 West. "We were done trapping by 

 Labor Day, before southward migration 

 generally begins." 



Joe Hall of the Montana Cooperative 

 Wildlilc Research Unit began supervis- 

 ing graduate student research at 

 Ninepipe in 1986. That year only 20% 

 of duck nests on the study areas 

 hatched successfully, compared with 

 rates of about 50% for similar areas in 

 the I93(is. His students also found far 

 fewer nests than in earlier studies. "It 

 was a worrisome situation," says Ball, 

 "because nesting cover was in excellent 

 condition." 



Ball and his students learned that 

 skunks and ravens, existing in unnatu- 

 rally high numbers due to food and 

 breeding sites provided by human 



settlement, were responsible for 90% of 

 the nest losses. Because skunks were 

 causing the biggest problem, they were 

 trapped intensively between 1988 and 

 1993. Many artificial denning sites in 

 irrigation culverts and old foundations 

 were removed or obstructed in an 

 attempt to keep skunk populations 

 closer to natural levels. Duck nest 

 success has since rebounded to nearly 

 50% and the number of nests has 

 increased about 300%. "If skunk 

 populations do return to their pre- 

 trapping density, the higher number of 

 nesting ducks may be able to sustain 

 the nest predation that formerly caused 

 problems," says Ball. 



Intensive vegetation management 

 initiated on the WMA about 12 years 

 ago undoubtedly also helped boost 



