Youth duck classes teach sustainability

If crops tend to define Southeast Arkansas in the summer, surely duck hunting is what comes to a lot of people’s minds in the fall and winter when they think about this region. In a big embrace of that aspect, the Five Oaks Agriculture, Research and Education Center was developed. The center, which has a mission statement of supporting and enhancing the ecology necessary to sustain ducks, has formed a partnership with UA Monticello, which allows and encourages students to explore ways to improve habitat.

And then there’s the program for youngsters. On a recent Saturday, youth from 9 to 19 descended on the center, located at Humphrey, to get a broad idea of the different aspects of the world of waterfowl.

The elements were set up in stations, with the first being a primer on identifying the different species of ducks and geese. Then it was go-time, as the youngsters donned waders and headed out into a flooded rice field, all part of the 6,000-acre Five Oaks plantation. In this station, students learned how the different makeups of the different species allow some ducks to “exploit different dietary resources due to morphological differences in their bill/lamellae or toothlike structures,” said Lije Wojohn, a UAM grad certificate student. “Dabbling ducks eat native seeds, invertebrates and grain.”

A spoonbill duck, for instance, the students were told, have large bills that have evolved to filter feed on zooplankton.

Migration routes, banding – yes, they got to band some live ducks – using tiny transmitters to track where ducks go, determining the health of ducks by weighing them and measuring their wing length – you name it and the attendees probably got a taste of it.

“Today is all about the kids to follow in our footsteps in the future,” said Douglas Osborne, associate professor of wildlife at UAM and one of the day’s organizers. “If just two of the 42 youngsters here grow up to be waterfowlers, we all win.”

Said George Dunklin, who founded Five Oaks Lodge: “Sustainability is really what I strive for whatever we do, be it hunting or farming. How do we make it last?”

And no matter how many actually become interested in duck hunting, what that Saturday provided to these young people was a better understanding of waterfowl and habitat and the science that is there to make the best of both. That bit of learning will be invaluable to them and to Arkansas and to a pursuit that has been part of the fabric of this area for generations.