Rehab work gains ground at Ted Shanks CA

A recent hunt points up changes at the once-popular duck hunting destination.

HANNIBAL--Lori Dowil was excited when she left her house Nov. 2. She planned to vote later that day, but that wasn't what got her out of a warm bed hours before dawn. She was headed for her first-ever duck hunt.

Dowil had prepared chest waders, an insulated parka and her new shotgun the night before. Shortly after 3 a.m. she backed her pickup truck out the driveway of her New London home and pointed it toward Ted Shanks Conservation Area (CA).

Although this would be her first hunt there, Dowil was no stranger to the 6,700-acre wetland area. As the Missouri Department of Conservation's construction supervisor for northeast Missouri, she had spent hundreds of hours thinking about Shanks CA and planning for its future.

Dowil was to be the hunting guest of Wildlife Regional Supervisor Mike Jones, who had drawn a reservation to hunt at Shanks CA. Also along for the hunt was Wildlife Management Biologist Mike Flaspohler. By choosing the area south of Hannibal for Dowil's inaugural hunt, the trio was casting a vote of confidence in their own work.

At one time, Shanks CA was among the state's most popular waterfowl hunting destinations. Situated in a bend of the Mississippi River, the area historically consisted of oxbow lakes, river chutes, side channels, sloughs, forests and sand bars. Hundreds of acres were cloaked in bottomland hardwood forest of majestic pin oak, ash, pecan and sycamore trees. It was a magnet for migrating ducks and duck hunters.

That began to change after construction and successive enlargements of a lock and dam complex on the adjacent river. The structures turned the river into a lake and permanently raised water levels in neighboring wetlands. The rising water table gradually drowned out trees that had stood when pioneers settled the area.

Shanks' majestic forests already were in serious decline in 1993. The great flood that year dealt them a fatal blow. Within a few years, the cathedral of living trees deteriorated into a ruin of rotting hulks.

Adding insult to injury, the void created by tree deaths rapidly filled with Reed canary grass, an invasive exotic plant. Rank stands of the 6-foot grass clogged former forest sites, preventing native vegetation from taking root and rendering hundreds of acres all but useless to waterfowl. Ducks shifted their migratory stops to other areas. Many hunters deserted Shanks CA, too, discouraged by the demise of a once-great hunting area.

"Since the Flood of '93, hunters have been impatient to see us do something to reverse the decline," said Jones. "It was a big job and not a simple one. Shanks went from being one of the state's top waterfowl areas to being marginal. It took 10 years to develop plans and implement them."

After taking part in a 4 a.m. drawing to determine where they would hunt, Dowil, Jones and Flaspohler drove to the parking lot nearest their assigned blind near the east end of the area. Launching low-profile "layout boats" specially built for duck hunting, they used long poles to propel the craft down ditches that carry water to the area's many wetland pools.

The three recognized this as a notable change. Until last year, vegetation and debris clogged the channels, reducing their efficiency and hampering hunters on their way to blinds. It took work crews months to clear and deepen the channels for more efficient operation.

When they reached their hunting spot, they found acres of standing corn--high-energy food that ducks adore--flooded to a depth of a few inches to two feet. Quickly setting out seven dozen mallard decoys and a handful of extra-large Canada goose decoys, the three climbed into their boats. After pulling camouflage tarps up to their necks, they settled in to await the morning flight of ducks. While scanning the lightening skies, the conversation drifted to shop talk.

"When I got here things were so spread out administratively that it was difficult for construction management to really focus on the things that needed to be done," recalled Dowil. "Once we got organized, things started to happen."

Looking out over the flooded corn, Flaspohler noted how improvements in water control have allowed area staff to plant crops on 350 acres that previously grew weeds.

The same improvements make it possible to gradually flood corn fields during the hunting season, creating perfect feeding situations for ducks and spectacular opportunities for waterfowl hunters. Spring and early summer water draw-downs have made extra "moist-soil" management possible, fostering the growth of millet, smartweed and other seed-producing annual plants that also attract waterfowl.

Dowil said she was hoping for a souvenir of her first hunt. She had her heart set on a colorful wood duck drake. Lady Luck smiled briefly around 8:30 a.m., as a beautiful specimen zipped from right to left across the decoy spread. The other hunters held their fire, hoping she would realize her ambition, but the bird was gone before Dowil could track it with her shotgun.

Wood ducks are creatures of timber, and timber is scarce at Shanks CA today. The 2,080-acre Horseshoe Unit and the 800-acre Nose Slough Unit used to have lots of trees, but 90 percent now are dead. Rather than attracting ducks, they have become a liability, preventing managers from getting equipment into the area. Meanwhile, Reed canary grass has taken over.

Last year, the Conservation Department and its contractor bulldozed dead trees in a 150-acre section of the Horseshoe Unit. Area staff followed up by disking up beds of canary grass and planting wheat in its place. This experiment to develop canary grass eradication techniques was underwritten by the Mississippi Flyway Chapter of the Missouri Waterfowl Association and the National Wild Turkey Federation. Flaspohler will add 900 acres to this project this year.
Permanent water table changes probably will prevent natural regeneration of trees in much of the Horseshoe Unit.

However, Flaspohler has been working with Resource Forester Kristen Goodrich to discover where trees will grow at Shanks today and which species and planting techniques work best.

Starting two years ago, the Conservation Department planted several thousand specially grown saplings. To date, 95 percent survive. This is encouraging news for hunters who remember crouching beside the trunks of towering oak trees as flocks of mallards filtered in among the branches.

"We won't live to see that in the regeneration areas," said Flaspohler, "But maybe our grandkids will."

As the morning progressed, a north wind picked up, and small flocks of newly arrived birds descended from the overcast sky, drawn to Shanks' patchwork of water, crops and natural vegetation.

Ducks are very particular about where they land, but they always are nearly unanimous in their opinion about the best landing spots. Hunters lucky enough to be in the right place get the lion's share of the shooting.

That was true on this Election Day hunt. Flock after flock of waterfowl swung into a spot occupied by another party a few hundred yards to the west. The sound of their shooting punctuated the morning. Jones and Flaspohler convinced one white-fronted goose to separate from a passing flock, but even that bird eventually joined the ducks pouring into the competing blind.

At midmorning, Dowil got her first shot at a duck, a wigeon hen that answered the biologists' entreaties and passed close overhead. The neophyte hunter had honed her wingshooting skills on clay targets, but the real thing proved more challenging. She clipped the bird and Jones brought it down with a follow-up volley.

Later in the morning, a few pintails and mallards swung around the three boats and their occupants. A few dropped within shotgun range, and Dowil's companions deferred shooting a couple of times, giving her a chance to change her luck. But all these late-flying birds left with little more than a fright and a lesson in choosing landing spots more carefully.

Flaspohler was hired specifically to help rehabilitate Shanks CA. His prior experience at other Conservation Department wetland areas suited him well for the job, and he brought in more expertise with the hiring of Ryan Kelly from Eagle Bluffs CA.

"Their ideas and creativity in recruiting partners for management work created the vision we needed to bring this area back," said Jones. "The team effort with Lori and others from the Design and Development Division are making that vision a reality. It's very exciting to see it coming together. It took 10 years, but this wasn't a situation that had a quick fix. I think the changes that are happening now are going to be obvious to people who use the area, whether they are hunters or birdwatchers."

The work is paying off. Shanks CA once again has three active bald eagle nests, as in the past. A fourth pair of eagles has a nest that could produce young this year.

As noon approached, the three loaded their gear and poled their boats back to the parking lot, one of three created to improve the accessibility of hunting blinds in Shanks CA's wade-and-shoot area. After loading their gear back into trucks and saying goodbyes, the three were off to visit other "poling" places.

Duck hunting season is past, but Shanks soon will be crowded with migrating waterfowl again. The spring migration begins in February and peaks in March, creating spectacular viewing opportunities for hunters and nonhunters alike.

For information and maps of Shanks and other CAs, visit the Conservation Department's online atlas, http://www.mdc.mo.gov/atlas/.

- Jim Low -

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