U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) on Wednesday introduced legislation that aims to help reverse the alarming decline in duck populations by creating incentives to improve the quantity and quality of breeding habitat.
The Habitat Enhancement Now (HEN) Act (S.2315) authorizes additional tools and practices to improve the nesting success of hen ducks. The bill was written in response to a string of below average fall flights of ducks for Mississippi and elsewhere, leaving duck hunters looking for answers. U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.) will sponsor a House companion bill.
“Effective reproduction rates are essential to the long-term sustainability of any species, especially ducks. Populations will continue to decline if hens continue to lose their nests to predation and/or lack of adequate habitat. We have to reverse this trend,” Hyde-Smith said. “The HEN Act is a common-sense step toward increasing the odds of ducks having successful hatches.”
In order to sustain more healthy waterfowl populations, the HEN Act would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to issue grants to state and local governments, nonprofit organizations and individuals to incentivize the construction and installation of hen houses, establish nesting cover, create or restore brood ponds and other conservation enhancements in the primary nesting grounds of the majority of North American ducks.
Read more from our sister publication Greenhead.
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