56 
WATERFOWL BREEDING GROUND SURVEY IN WASHINGTON, 1954 
Henry A. Hansen, Wendell H. Oliver 
and Robert G. Jeffrey 
Introduction 
Personnel contributing field data to this report are: Robert G. Jeffrey, 
Donald S. Galbreath, Henry A. Hansen and Wendell H. Oliver, Federal Aid Project 
of the Washington State Game Department, and Wayne C. Hanson, Wildlife Technician, 
Hanford AEC Project, Richland, Washington. 
The 1954 waterfowl breeding ground survey represented the eighth consecutive 
year this inventory has been conducted in Washington. For study purposes the State 
has been divided into three units with a resident waterfowl biologist working in each 
area. The heavily forested part of the State west of the Cascade Mountains annually 
yields from seven to ten percent of the total waterfowl production, almost entirely 
mallards and wood ducks. The central irrigation areas, including the Yakima Valley 
and the embryo Columbia Basin Project, produce about 25 percent of the annual 
waterfowl crop. This area will increase in importance as new irrigation systems are 
completed in the Columbia Basin within the next few years. The remaining 65 percent 
of the waterfowl are produced in the scabland potholes areas of eastern Washington. 
Method of Sampling 
Under all applicable conditions the standard one-fourth mile transect is used, 
but in some local situations, principally large irrigated tracts, modifications of the 
transect method of censusing are applied. Over-all, the same five to six percent of 
the total waterfowl habitat is inventoried each year so that direct comparisons: should 
be possible. 
Weather and Water Conditions 
In western Washington water conditions were good as usual. Habitat deter- 
ioration is seldom a problem in the high rainfall belt west of the Cascades. In south- 
central Washington water conditions were good, but in the potholes area of north- 
central and eastern Washington the habitat continued to deteriorate at an alarming 
rate. Of the potential of 10,000 potholes, attained in 1949 to 1951, only about 50 
percent were available in the spring of 1954, and by late July these had evaporated 
until only about 20 percent were still usuable. [in checking precipitation charts from 
1899 to date it appears that the present water level may be much more normal than 
during the period from 1949 to 1951 when unprecedented rain and snowfall hit eastern 
Washington. 
