Why we have the ducks of winter

One of the oddities of writing a weekly column is that sometimes one starts with an idea — the joy that ducks bring to winter bird watching — but ends up writing something entirely unexpected. This is one of those times.

Here’s what I intended to write about: In Thurston County, multiple duck species come here for their winter retreat from the icy cold that has frozen the wetlands of their breeding territories in middle North America.

Mallard male in prime feather.

Liam Hutcheson | For The JOLT News

And, as a visual bonus, these ducks have completed their seasonal molt and their feathers are in prime condition. Anywhere you find water, you’ll find well-dressed ducks. Capitol Lake hosts thousands of ducks, so many that they become part of the scenery and hardly noticed by all the joggers, walkers and Washington State Legislature visitors.

Our local Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge attracts tens of thousands of migratory waterfowl — and tens of thousands of people who want to see them.

Common goldeneye male courting.

Liam Hutcheson | For The JOLT News

And here’s where today’s column takes an unexpected turn: Nowadays, we take conservation of waterfowl and their wetland habitat for granted, but it was not inevitable. Rather, it took sustained governmental action over the past 100+ years.

The late 1800’s were boom times in the eastern United States, and that expanding human population needed to be fed. The extensive commercial animal husbandry we know today did not exist. Instead, the demand for protein was being met by extensive commercial hunting.

Passenger pigeons were hunted to extinction by market hunting, and the same fate was rapidly coming to waterfowl as well. Market hunters used small boats, called punts, and attached huge shotguns to them. These punt guns were 6 feet long and had a barrel 2 inches in diameter. They hunted at night in the bays along the east coast and were able to kill 50+ waterfowl with a single shot.

Canvasback, which was hunted to near extinction in the 1800s.

Liam Hutcheson | For The JOLT News

In this same era wetlands, prime waterfowl breeding territories, were being drained and converted to agricultural lands. Citizens and government officials of both the United States and Canada (these ducks don’t recognize national boundaries, after all) raised the alarm. Lengthy negotiations resulted in a treaty between United States and Canada that established conservation standards. This treaty was implemented by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.

At its core, this 1918 act is a conservation regulation and its implementation, through twists and turns over 100+ years, leads directly to having ducks to enjoy each winter here in Thurston County.

Conservation regulation did not mean there would be no duck hunting; it recognizes the importance of hunting, and resulted in the waterfowl hunting seasons and harvest limits in place today.

In 1934, Congress enacted the “Duck Stamp Act,” which required hunters to purchase a duck stamp and mandated that proceeds from these sales be used for the acquisition of wetlands as waterfowl habitat. The program remains in place and generates substantial conservation income; I purchased my 2025-26 duck stamp at our Nisqually refuge earlier this year. (I don’t hunt, but I still want to support the concept).

A 2025-26 Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp.

George Walter | The JOLT News

Preserving wetland habitats alone, unfortunately, turned out to be insufficient; water pollution was also taking a toll on waterfowl. First in 1948, and later amended and expanded in 1972 by the Clean Water Act, Congress recognized a federal oversight responsibility for the nation’s waters.

Bringing the regulatory power and funding capacity of the federal government to fight pollution was an important additional step. Although protecting ducks was not its primary purpose, the Clean Water Act includes water quality standards that also support the abundance of the waterfowl we enjoy each winter.

It’s not unusual today to hear politicians attack governmental regulation without ever asking why we have regulations in the first place. At its core, the "why" is the inability of people and corporations to “do the right thing” when it is in their financial interest not to. Regulations are necessary to protect the common good against this tendency.

Anytime we hear someone railing against regulation (and both the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act are under attack right now), we need to be skeptical. As a general rule, regulation is what protects our common good. We want a strong regulatory system.

This column focuses on how federal regulations have resulted in protecting and enhancing the winter ducks we appreciate. State and local efforts have also been crucial, and next week I intend to write about them. Let’s see if my intentions match the results.

George Walter is environmental program manager at the Nisqually Indian Tribe’s natural resources department; he also has a 45+ year interest in bird watching. He may be reached at george@theJOLTnews.com

Bird photos for this column are provided by Liam Hutcheson, an 18-year-old Olympia area birder and avid photographer.