Hydemarsh
Six Pointer
The USFWS has spent most of their money on wall to wall carpeting, assistants, and "interpretive" centers. Fish and wildlife is a low priority. If you ask them a question about management the first thing out of their mouths is "no money". My question is if they have no money to do their jobs then why are we paying them to do nothing?
Before Covid i went to the refuge HQ because I needed a permit, was told the administrative assistant was working from home. They get insane salaries for Hyde and do very, very little.
I was referring to the lake. No SAV, no food, no ducks. Especially compared to historical performance when we hunted the lake 30 years ago and actually expected to kill ducks. We would commonly see thousands even on slow hunting days. All relative, of course, 40 years ago my grandfather used to talk about hunting Mattamuskeet (almost 100 years ago now) and his stories are unbelievable by today's standards.
You drive past a refuge-managed impoundment that is a couple miles from the public hunt area on the lake. Couple hundred pintails loafing in there last Tue. Food in the pond = ducks.
Refuge maintains other impoundments that are closed to the public. We got to tour those ponds years ago when I took my son on the youth hunt. You could have walked across the pond on the ducks, geese and swan. Hunted 2 days on the lake and did not kill a duck.
The lake is totally different than well maintained private land - which will involve food of some sort. The contrast is shocking.
the truth is that the Refuge's intended job when it was created was to provide a safe secure place and FEED ducks so they would be healthy and strong for the spring migration and nesting season. An old refuge manager would hammer home to the employees that their job was to feed ducks.. Those managed impoundments starting at Lake Landing used to be full of ducks, 100's of thousands. now they are growing pine trees and wax myrtle. No one is held accountable.