Arkansas duck hunters may be hundreds of miles from the Prairie Pothole Region, but what happens to those northern wetlands directly affects what we see over our decoys each winter.

If those wetlands and surrounding grasslands are drained or converted, fewer pairs settle to nest, fewer nests hatch, and fewer young mallards enter the fall migration. That means smaller flights reaching Arkansas. Put simply, many of the ducks we hunt here are produced there.

The Department of the Interior, through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), has requested public information on how drain-tile setbacks are calculated on lands covered by federal wetland easements. The review revisits a 2024 rule that codified the setback process while giving landowners greater certainty when installing drainage systems.

Although this may sound like a technical issue in the Dakotas, its consequences could reach every Arkansas duck blind. Allowing drain tile closer to protected prairie potholes could pull water from them before hens finish nesting and raising broods, reducing production in wetlands the public paid to........

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