Conservation department to perform major renovations on Duck Creek Conservation Area

PUXICO, Mo. -- For more than 50 years, waterfowl, and the hunters who pursue them, have flocked to Duck Creek Conservation Area north of Puxico.

The 6,234-acre property has served as a gathering place for millions of migrating waterfowl since it was purchased by the conservation department in 1950 for that very purpose. Additionally, the area has become well known for its Pool 1 fishery, a result of intense management and shallow, clear water that allows vegetation cover to persist.

Last year, 5,055 hunters pursued waterfowl on the grounds, while others hunted squirrels and turkeys or bowhunted for deer. Duck Creek's popularity is undeniable, but all is not well there. Aging infrastructure is failing, resulting in levees that leak and water control structures becoming inoperable. Many times there's either too much or too little water, and other problems exist. To tackle these problems, the Missouri Department of Conservation has begun a program called the Golden Anniversary Wetland Initiative, in which they've identified five of their oldest waterfowl areas, including Duck Creek, that are in need of major renovations, and have developed improvement plans.

"Over the years, we've had to repair or replace several water control structures," said area manager Andy West, "and as they get older, they become harder and more expensive to maintain.

"We hope the renovation gets the area where its more maintainable, sustainable and less expensive to operate."

At the same time, said Duck Creek biologist Keith Cordell, officials will strive to keep the integrity of Pool 1 intact.

The renovation, West said, hopefully will be completed in three phases, with funding from federal North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) grants, MDC and other partners, such as Ducks Unlimited, the National Wild Turkey Federation and the Little River Drainage District.

Cordell said several plans still need to be finalized, and he expects the renovations to take at least five years to complete.

When the renovation is completed, West said, visitors will see a different landscape, because renovations will focus on adding hunting opportunities and improving water flow across the basin.

There will be less row crops as more land is converted to wetlands, though food plots still will be planted around the area.

Waterfowl hunters should see more available hunting positions opened up, but plans are in the works to remove some of the current blinds in favor of a walk-in system.

"It takes us about two months of work preparing the blinds, adding the brush and camo, and then taking them down," said West. That time, he said, could be more wisely used for land management.

According to West, Duck Creek will be the most technically challenging of the five Golden Anniversary areas to renovate, "but using technology and the tools we have today, I believe we can find solutions."

Part of the challenge, West said, is trying to keep neighbors on adjoining properties happy, especially when it comes to water flooding their properties.

"Another challenge has to do with Pools 2 and 3," West said.

These areas, on Duck Creek's east and south edges, are composed mostly of bottomland hardwood forest.

"These areas have traditionally been managed as a greentree reservoir," West said, meaning they are flooded each fall to attract waterfowl, which feed heavily on the fallen acorns in shallow water.

But mature trees in the Pool 2 and 3 bottomland forests are dying because of repeated early flooding, and regeneration of the forest isn't keeping pace with the tree loss. Keeping these forests healthy will be a major issue into the future.

Units A and B will require major work, and are expected to be the first areas of Duck Creek to undergo renovations.

Part of the work in those units will be the leveling of the roadside borrow ditches and other unit ditches, which, West said, are too deep when flooded to provide any benefit to puddle ducks and create access problems for hunters.

After the renovations, Cordell said, water still will be pumped into Units A and B from on-site wells.

Later work will focus on Pools 2 and 3, where boat lane berms will be altered to allow water to flow through them and some duck blinds will be moved to lower spots.

The final work phase will concentrate on ditch restructuring and fine-tuning restoration work.

Getting water into Duck Creek is a constant problem, West said.

Ditch 111, which runs along the western edge of Pool 1, is the primary source of incoming water at Duck Creek, bringing in water from the nearby Castor River to fill Pool 1, which in turn is used to flood the other pools. But the system is unreliable and in need of repairs.

Consequently, West said, officials are looking at alternative sources for water delivery, but cost will be a limiting factor.

Regardless, Cordell said, "we'll have to renovate the water delivery system."

Water movement, or the lack of it, across Duck Creek has created other problems, namely poor drainage, West said.

"I think the fact that we're sitting at the bottom of a poorly-drained landscape hurts," said West. "We've created ditches to handle water, but it's not natural." The area's road system, West said, also has created obstacles to natural drainage. "Duck Creek is sometimes too wet, and sometimes too dry, because of barriers our civilization has put into the landscape," West said.

What renovation project designers envision is a return to the days when shallow sheet water moved across the landscape instead of being manipulated through deep ditches.

Designers plan to level the land alongside several levees, including the one between Pool 3 and Mingo National Wildlife Refuge's Pool 8, according to West.

"The road [running parallel to Ditch 1] will be lowered in two places so the water will flow across it," West said.

Several other roads will be lowered as well, and improved water flow, officials hope, will restore more natural water movement and better drainage to the area.

A lower road between Unit A and Ditch 111, Cordell said, would provide flood relief to the Duck Creek and its neighbors during periods, like this spring, when too much water is entering Pool 1.

With several years of work ahead of them, West said he hopes waterfowl hunters can be patient as the renovation work progresses. In the end, he thinks, it will all be worth it.