Water in the West: Snowpack, Alaska, and Duck Conservation (Ep 766)

Water drives everything in the western United States — and right now, it’s increasingly scarce.

In this episode, Ducks Unlimited's senior waterfowl scientist, Dr. Mike Brasher, sits down with Jeff McCreary, director of operations for the Western Region, to discuss waterfowl conservation across the Pacific Flyway. From declining snowpack and drying wetlands to competing water demands from agriculture, people, industry, and fish, Jeff breaks down the realities DU faces — and the solutions they’re working toward. He also introduces the new Alaska Initiative and how it will inform the future of conservation in the Pacific Flyway's most important area for breeding waterfowl.

The conversation spans the Central Valley of California, Klamath Basin, Great Salt Lake, and Alaska, highlighting how DU operates in some of the most complex and water‑limited landscapes in North America.

In this episode:

• Why snowpack is the single most important driver of wetlands in the West
• How declining snow and rising temperatures affect ducks, farms, and cities
• Current wetland conditions in California’s Central Valley and Klamath Basin
• Botulism risk and innovative water management solutions in Klamath
• Why rain helps short‑term but snowpack determines fall habitat
• The drying trend across the western U.S. and climate implications
• Great Salt Lake: why it matters to millions of birds and people
• DU’s $100 million Great Salt Lake Initiative explained
• Controlling “the thirsty three” invasive plants: phragmites, tamarisk & Russian olive
• Alaska’s outsized role in producing Pacific Flyway waterfowl
• DU’s new Alaska Initiative – Born to Fly
• Working with native corporations, agencies, and industry in Alaska
• Why conservation in Alaska is about understanding — not restoration
• Surprising work DU does on endangered fish recovery
• Keeping the Junior Duck Stamp program alive in Washington State

This episode offers a rare behind‑the‑scenes look at how DU operates where water is most precious — and why collaboration, science, and community matter more than ever.

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Whether you're a seasoned hunter or just getting started, this episode is packed with valuable insights into the world of waterfowl hunting and conservation.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Mike Brasher

DUPodcast Science Host

What is Ducks Unlimited Podcast?

Ducks Unlimited Podcast is a constant discussion of all things waterfowl; from in-depth hunting tips and tactics, to waterfowl biology, research, science, and habitat updates. The DU Podcast is the go-to resource for waterfowl hunters and conservationists. Ducks Unlimited is the world's leader in wetlands conservation.

Jeff McCreary: 01:52

When we talk about, climate change, you can kind of see it through this historical data that we've been able to see. And the wet the wet areas in the West are getting drier and drier as time goes on.

VO: 02:08

Can we do a mic check, please? Everybody, welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast. I'm your host, doctor Mike Brasher. I'm your host, Katie Burke. I'm your host, doctor Jerad Henson. And I'm your host, Matt Harrison. Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast, the only podcast about all things waterfowl. From hunting insights to science based discussions about ducks, geese, and issues affecting waterfowl and wetlands conservation in North America. The DU Podcast, sponsored by Purina Pro Plan, the official performance dog food of Ducks Unlimited. Purina Pro Plan, always advancing. Also proudly sponsored by Bird Dog Whiskey and Cocktails.

VO: 02:52

Whether you're winding down with your best friend or celebrating with your favorite crew, Bird Dog brings award winning flavor to every moment. Enjoy responsibly.

Mike Brasher: 03:14

Everyone, welcome back. I am your host on this episode, Doctor. Brasher, and we're gonna have a series of episodes here over the next several weeks where we visit with our directors of operation from on the conservation side for each of our regions, and we're gonna hear how things are going with with all the important work that they're doing, what their priorities are, kinda what what are some of the most exciting things that they're that they're dealing with, and then maybe even some of the challenges they're dealing with and the Ducks may be dealing with. First up is gonna be Jeff McCreery, our director of operations from the Western Region. Jeff, it's great to have you back.

Jeff McCreary: 03:44

Thanks, Mike. It's great to be back and to tell the story of the Western Region, the Pacific Flyway.

Mike Brasher: 03:49

For those that may not be familiar, like I said, we have four regions within our here in DU Inc. In The States within our conservation department. You're out in the Western Region, headquarter location well, I shouldn't say headquarters, but your your regional office for the for that Western Region is essentially Sacramento, Rancho Cordova. But give people an idea if they don't remember, don't know of the of that area, the states that you cover.

Jeff McCreary: 04:17

Yeah. Our headquarters is in a town called Rancho Cordova. It's about twenty minutes East of Sacramento. So we're in the heart of the Central Valley, which is the heart of the Pacific Flyway. The Western region encompasses the nine westernmost states.

Jeff McCreary: 04:32

And so how I like to describe it is Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Alaska, Hawaii, and everything else in between. So it's a massive geography.

Mike Brasher: 04:43

You got a lot of a lot of topics to cover or a lot of topics to think about. You have a lot of different habitat types for waterfowl, breeding waterfowl, wintering waterfowl. We'll we'll sort of jump around to a few places during this conversation. I think where I wanna start, though, is something that has been in the news, at least that I'm seeing. It's it's mid April, and ducks are gearing up to to breed in various locations.

Mike Brasher: 05:09

Ducks that are heading up to Alaska and the Prairies and and the Boreal Forest are still making the trek. You probably have birds that in the Central Valley and some of your other areas in in the Intermountain West that are already on the nest, if not, certainly thinking about it. One of the topics that intersects the breeding and really wintering habitat and wetland habitat management in in your region is snowpack. It's important for so many reasons. Give us an update on what you know.

Mike Brasher: 05:41

I know it's been a tough year. There's been a little bit of relief here lately in some areas, but set the stage for us in terms of an understanding on snowpack.

Jeff McCreary: 05:49

Yeah. Great insights, Mike. Snow is everything in the Western United States. So the the places that waterfowl thrive in are essentially low elevation areas downstream of the mountaintops. And rain is great, and it helps in the short time, but throughout the year, throughout the summer, into the fall, it's really the snowpack that melts over time that supplies the water for our waterfowl habitats into the fall when they start that fall migration.

Jeff McCreary: 06:25

And in some cases, it's critical for even starting the season for for waterfowl reproduction for nesting and brood production. If we don't got a good snowpack, even that can be jeopardized. So snow drives everything out here in the West.

Mike Brasher: 06:39

And it's not just from a waterfowl standpoint. You're talking about agriculture. You're talking about municipal water, all sorts of things. Right? And so it's it really intersects every aspect of human and wildlife in the in the Western Region, and and you get you get involved in all those conversations.

Mike Brasher: 06:55

You have to be at the table and have to be aware of how those issues affect not just ducks and duck habitat, but everybody else that competes for that water.

Jeff McCreary: 07:03

That's exactly right. When we think about where duck habitat is, it's in these little green spaces on an otherwise kind of dry, almost desolate in some places landscape. When you look at the Western United States, there's lots of mountains, lots of desert, lots of forest, and in between these spots are these rivers and low areas and lakes, and that's where all the people live, all the agriculture is, all the commercial and industry is, and all the waterfowl habitat, and all the fish. And we have a lot of fish issues with endangered fish. And all of these uses require that same drop of water.

Jeff McCreary: 07:45

So, you know, Mark Trane famously said water's for water's for fighting over and whiskey's for drinking, and that's absolutely true. And it's gonna be more so this year than probably in any year in recent memory.

Mike Brasher: 08:00

I know California has supports a fairly substantial population of breeding ducks, and the past few years, if remember correctly, you've had some good production out of the Central Valley Of California, maybe the northern part more so than some of the southern areas. Do you have a read on how how wetland conditions are shaping up as they be affected by by snowpack. And then also feel free to talk about what you may know in terms of breeding habitat prospects for any of the other areas. I know you're in Salt Lake City right now, so maybe you might have some perspective on that as well.

Jeff McCreary: 08:39

Yeah. Ironically, I look out the window, and it's snowing here in Salt Lake City, some of the only snow they've been able to get all year, and it's coming at the end of end of winter here in into spring, in fact. So, yeah, breeding habitat is really interesting for the Western Region is nearly every state has some level of waterfowl production that takes place. In in some places, it's more significant than others, of course. But Central Valley, particularly with mallards, 60% or more of the mallards that are harvested in California are born and raised in California.

Jeff McCreary: 09:15

Wood ducks, cinnamon teal, probably the big three birds that nest and breed in California. We've had more than normal rainfall in California, but we haven't had the snowpack. So the spring conditions are going to be really good. It's there's a lot of water out there on the landscape. Klamath, for example, is wetter than it's been in a long time.

Jeff McCreary: 09:40

In fact, it's maybe a little bit wetter than it was last year, and last year was record snowpack in the Klamath Basin. However, there's almost zero snow in the Klamath Basin, so this wet conditions that we're seeing right now, the spring conditions, we're gonna have a lot of great production again this year in Klamath, but we're really concerned about what happens in the fall because that snowpack, like I was saying before, that snowpack is not gonna be there to sustain water into the fall, that's and also gonna be true here in the Central Valley. The habitats that are important are winter flooded rice. Is there gonna be enough water left in the reservoirs to support that winter habitat even though our spring and our summer habitats might look pretty good.

Mike Brasher: 10:23

So in Klamath, when you talk about worrying for the fall, are we talking about even worrying of potential botulism outbreaks? I know people that have paid attention certainly out in your region are very aware of the botulism outbreaks that have occurred, and that area and many of those locations in the Western Western US because of this dynamic water situation, You know, it's not an unusual occurrence. We don't necessarily like to see it when it happens, but it's not something that is that we're unfamiliar with. But does that even the snowpack situation that you're talking about, does it come into play with regard to botulism?

Jeff McCreary: 11:02

Absolutely. That is the concern for the fall in the Klamath Basin. We might have great production, but those burr well, Klamath Klamath is one of these unique places on the continent that provides all of the wintery all of the life cycle needs for waterfowl. Wintering, molting, spring migration, fall migration, breeding, they all happen there in the Klamath Basin. In fact, most of those mallards that California produces go up to the Klamath to molt during the fall, and that is really the big concern.

Jeff McCreary: 11:32

Last year, we had some really creative water management that the Tule Lake Irrigation District and the Bureau of Reclamation and US Fish and Wildlife Service supported by some of the work that DU engineers did, alleviated the botulism risk. And in fact, you can go to ducks.org/klamath and look at our Klamath Basin initiative and learn more about what was going on last year. But that's absolutely the concern. Is there gonna be enough water, or is it just gonna be in, you know, that sweet unfortunate sweet spot for botulism where there's not enough whirly water to support good habitat, and there's not the the there's there's enough water to keep things just slightly moist, which are perfect conditions. Hot, moist mud is perfect conditions in that environment for botulism, unfortunately.

Mike Brasher: 12:23

For people like myself that live back East and don't have a lot of experience with weather patterns in the Western Region, are we nearing the end of the window when you would expect to be able to to to benefit from additional rain or get additional rain or or even mountain snow? You said it's snowing on you right now. Obviously, the window for significant snowpack is coming is coming to a close, but what about just precipitation in the form of rain as we get later into the spring? Is there I suspect we're getting to the dry season there, but provide some color for us there.

Jeff McCreary: 13:00

Yeah. In in terms of color, I described the seasons that we have out west in in in color. So we have a green season, we have a brown season, and then we have a white season. Right? So green is in the spring where things were growing.

Jeff McCreary: 13:16

Brown, you know, somewhere about May, it pretty much stops raining until October, maybe even later if it's a really drought year. And then in some parts of the West, it snows, and so it's white. This year, the white season was nonexistent for the most part in almost the entire Western United States. In fact, Salt Lake City where I'm at right now had a tenth of an inch of snow almost the whole season, a tenth of an inch of snow. This is this is where we had the Winter Olympics in 2002, and we're gonna have them again in 2034, hopefully, if there if there's snow.

Mike Brasher: 13:52

And and and so you I was talking with some folks. I was at a meeting just a couple of days ago and with with some folks that work out in the Western US, and they noted a recent visit that they made to a a ski resort that either all of their runs were closed or they had to close the season early or something of that nature, and, you know, we talk about this from the standpoint of, as we started out, ducks and duck habitat, but there are significant economic and livelihood consequences to this pattern of of decreasing snowpack. And I'm sure the people out there, if they're listening to this, you're they're saying, you're dadgum right it is, and it's probably pretty scary.

Jeff McCreary: 14:34

Absolutely. Like I was saying earlier that everything all the everything happens in the same place and is dependent upon that same drop of water. So when that water becomes scarce, the competition becomes pretty fierce. And and what we're seeing this year, I think everybody across the country can agree that our weather has just been crazy weird everywhere across the country. It's gone from hot to snow to hot to snow back and forth, and that's no been no different.

Jeff McCreary: 15:04

The the weirdness has been no different out west, but it's part of a larger trend that we've seen. And some of our DU science is showing us that over the last thirty to forty years, the West, from The United States in particular, has been in a drying trend. So there's less precipitation in forms of both rain and snow, and then the temperatures are getting hotter. So that means the soil moisture is evaporating up into the atmosphere, and those two things are making temporary wetlands dry up, it's making seasonal wetlands become scarce, and this cascading effect that affects all water users. So it's when we talk about climate change, you can kind of see it through this historical data that we've been able to see, and the wet the wet areas in the West are getting drier and drier as time goes on.

Mike Brasher: 15:55

So, Jeff, maybe an effective transition here relates to this is, like, how do we operate in that landscape knowing the significance of those threats well beyond waterfowl and waterfowl habitat? What kind of programs? What kind of philosophies do we embrace? How do we go about being part of these conversations, and then what are the programs and efforts that we can bring to the table to provide solutions not just to the waterfowl and wetland component, but to the broader concerns for water scarcity?

Jeff McCreary: 16:32

Great question, Mike, and in fact, I'm here in Salt Lake for that very reason. So Salt Lake is essentially ground zero for dryness in the West right now. The lake is shrinking. We can see it happen. It's it's real.

Jeff McCreary: 16:47

It's gonna have consequences for the economy of Utah. The the Utah's got the greatest snow on earth, and in fact, it's being impacted by a dry lake bed. So dust from the lake gets blown up, gets put on top of the snow, it makes the snow darker, that absorbs more solar energy from the sun, it melts faster, and it goes away. And so the ski industry, which is a I don't know how large the ski industry here, hundreds of millions of dollars at least, is is threatened because the lake is drying up. And 2,000,000 people live on the Wasatch Front and rely on the water sources from that snowpack for their for their urban uses.

Jeff McCreary: 17:24

And, of course, the lake is important for 10 to 12,000,000 migratory birds. Millions of those are waterfowl, and the lake of itself in the wetlands are are critically important. So what can what can DU do? Well, DU is an implementer. We implement conservation solutions in places that need help, and Great Salt Lake is one of what we call the big three landscapes in the Pacific Flyway.

Jeff McCreary: 17:51

So Southern Oregon, Northeast California, including the Klamath Basin, Great Salt Lake, Central Valley, somewhere around 80% of all the waterfowl in the Pacific Flyway use one or more of those three areas each year. So that those are significant. We better be paying attention to what's happening in the Klamath, what's happening in the Central Valley, what's happening in the Great Salt Lake, and what's happening is we're we're struggling for water for waterfowl habitat. So Great Salt Lake, what we did is we launched our Great Salt Lake initiative, and if you go to our website, it's there we have a whole page that talks about what we're doing there. Last year, we announced a $100,000,000 action plan to help conserve wetlands and the Great Salt Lake wetland ecosystem.

Jeff McCreary: 18:38

And what this does, what this initiative is primarily focusing on is how do we get more water to the lake and more water to the lake's wetlands? And so that means a variety of different types of activities that we have to do. We have to improve water management systems within wetlands. We have to improve water management systems within the surrounding agricultural landscape. We have to control invasive species such as phragmites, tamarisk, and Russian olive.

Jeff McCreary: 19:04

We call those the the thirsty three. And in fact, we can get significant water benefits to the lake and the wetlands just by controlling these weeds that draw water up from the ground and evaporate it out through their system. That's called evapotranspiration. And then that water goes up in very dry air and then gets out gets taken out of our out of the system. So just by controlling these invasive species, we can significantly increase the water to the lake.

Jeff McCreary: 19:32

But that also requires certain policies that are supportive of conservation programs, that are supportive of in stream flow and changing water law within Utah, and we're engaged in all of these, and it's and everything that we do is founded by science. Understanding where, when, how much we need to do is guided by this science work that we're doing that is tailoring off of understanding how things are drying, where things are drying, and that allows us to prioritize where our investments are gonna be.

Mike Brasher: 20:06

You know, Jeff, one thing that we have not talked about lately, but it's relevant to much of what you're talking about. Well, it's a 100% related to what you're talking about, and it's a an effort that we partnered in to help communicate about the the the majesty of the Great Salt Lake and that ecosystem, but also to educate people about the concerns and threats facing it, but I think it's an iMac another IMAX film. Right? Are you are you able to talk about it a little bit?

Jeff McCreary: 20:38

Yeah. Absolutely. So if folks are familiar, and hopefully we've seen Wings Over Water, the IMAX film that we did about the prairie landscape, and we entered into another relationship with the state of Utah as well as Max McGraw, and we've done a Secrets of the great Salt Lake IMAX movie, and that premiered last year. It's showing at select theaters at this point. The work is being done by the Utah Department of Natural Resources to build an IMAX theater on the Antelope Island State Park, which will feature this film highlighting the incredible value and precious nature of the wetlands in the ecosystem of of Great Salt Lake.

Jeff McCreary: 21:24

And when why why that is significant is because we had 2,000,000 people living between the Great Salt Lake and the Wassess Mountains. And with you know, I like to say that conservation takes a community. This is hard work, and it takes the community in order to make it happen. And Utah is ground zero. Right?

Jeff McCreary: 21:47

This is without the community of of Northern Utah and and the Salt Lake Metropolitan Area, well, we're not gonna be able to save Great Salt Lake.

Mike Brasher: 21:57

That IMAX film is narrated by Mike Rowe of dirty jobs. The the previous one, Wings Over Wings Over Water, was narrated, I think, was who was it Huey Lewis? That Mike Michael Keaton. That's right. Huey Lewis, one of his songs was featured in it.

Mike Brasher: 22:13

That's right. Yeah, encourage folks to look that up. I have not seen it yet, but I certainly look forward to doing so. That's Secrets of the Great Salt Lake. Jeff, we're gonna take a break.

Mike Brasher: 22:25

I know you have some other things to talk about. Wanna give you an opportunity to to speak on other programs and projects that you're particularly proud of and and all the people working on them. There's an Alaska initiative that I know we wanna talk about and a couple of additional questions. So stay with us. We will be right back.

VO: 22:50

Stay tuned to the Ducks Unlimited Podcast sponsored by Purina Pro Plan and Bird Dog Whiskey After these messages.

Mike Brasher: 24:56

Welcome back everyone. We are here with Jeff McGrary, our director of operations for the Western Region, and we're gonna shift gears and talk a little about an area that's a a smidge to the North, Alaska, to be exact, that is in your region. You mentioned that. It is incredibly important to breeding waterfowl. It is an absolutely, spectacle in terms of the beauty of that place.

Mike Brasher: 25:19

Encourage people to get there one way or another if you have not already in your life. But, Jeff, tell us why Alaska is so important to Ducks, continentally, the Western Region specifically, and what y'all have going on now.

Jeff McCreary: 25:32

Yeah. Alaska, the last frontier, and and indeed it is. It's it's a it's massive. It's almost as big in and of itself as the rest of the Western Region is. So it it's it's hundreds of millions of acres.

Jeff McCreary: 25:48

These birds that are leaving the wintering grounds here in the southern part of the flyway, they're headed to Alaska, or a lot of them are. In fact, I'd say Alaska produces, for some species, almost half of our wintering population, wigeon, teal, green teal, shovelers, and even a substantial number of our mallards in the Pacific Flyaway come from Alaska. So it is critical. When we think about Alaska, it is this massive landscape, and I don't know how what the percentage of it is actual wetlands, but it's a massive landscape. But within that landscape, we know that there are several key areas for waterfowl, and those particularly are on the national wildlife refuges that have been established within Alaska.

Jeff McCreary: 26:34

And these are you're not your run of the mill average wildlife refuges. These are massive hundreds of thousands of acres size wildlife refuges that are largely remote, largely wilderness, and purely for the birds in some cases. Out in Bethel, Alaska, on the West is the Yukon Flats or Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. In the interior of Alaska, pretty much right in the middle is Yukon Flats. We've got the North Slope, which also includes the petroleum reserve.

Jeff McCreary: 27:08

We've got Mendenhall, which is a state area. These are these are key landscapes that produce many of the Pacific flyway birds, but also about a third of the continent's waterfowl too. So Alaska supplies not only the Pacific flyaway, but all of North America with with birds. And the Arctic, as we may have seen in in in the news over the years, is one of the fastest warming places on the planet. It's one of the fastest changing places on the planet.

Jeff McCreary: 27:37

How is that gonna affect waterfowl across the continent? That's the question that we wanna know. What what is going on up there, and is it happening in places that are important for waterfowl? So what we did is we started what's called the Alaska initiative, Born to Fly. And this December, we hired our first conservation staff, Brandt Meixel, who lives in Cordoba, Alaska.

Jeff McCreary: 28:00

And so he's our Alaska initiative coordinator, and he is spearheading our effort to build our understanding about what's happening on the landscape, build our understanding about how bird distributions are changing, what's happening with waterfowl populations, and then also to build relationships with a variety of different partners. And in Alaska, what that means is there's a significant federal land base, so building relationships with the Bureau of Land Management, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Forest Service, as well as Alaska Department of Fish and Game. And critically, the two other critical partners in this are the oil and gas industry, so and the mining industry, so the natural resource extraction industry is critically important. How can we help them support our nation's needs, but also do it in a way that's that's compatible with wildlife? And then the other significant group of partners are the native corporations, so both village corporations and regional corporations.

Jeff McCreary: 29:06

And working with a variety all of these partners is going to be absolutely critical to understand how can we work together on this vast landscape to support North America's waterfowl. So that's been one of the most exciting things that has happened in the last twelve months is finally getting to Alaska, building a serious program, getting the staff person up there, and and really trying to put our shoulder to the wheel and help out however we can.

Mike Brasher: 29:29

You know, you guys had well, I I think yeah. One of your staff members, Mark Petrie, doctor Mark Petrie, your director of conservation science and planning, was part of a series of episodes on the on DUTV, I think. I don't know if all of those are out yet. Maybe they were all out last year where they sort of put a spotlight on Alaska and its importance for waterfowl and waterfowl hunting, and that's part of the sort of the start of the communication around what we're doing through the Alaska Initiative, and you described that it's probably gonna involve a lot of research, a lot of data gathering to understand what's going on there, and then developing those partnerships. It's not like we're going to be doing the same, you know, traditional, what we call direct programs where you're working on a 500 acre parcel or something of that nature or protecting small wetlands from agricultural development or protecting grasslands from agricultural conversion, not those types of direct programs.

Mike Brasher: 30:40

Right? It's learning about what the threats are, learning what the drivers of those are, and then perhaps once we develop that understanding, is it fair to say that a good chunk of the guidance that might result would be centered around this idea of sustainable land use or compatible land use, given all the things that all all the potential partners that you mentioned?

Jeff McCreary: 31:03

That's right, Mike. Alaska is different. It has not lost the wetlands base that most of the lower 48 states did. So restoration and enhancement, while some of that may occur, and actually some of it is occurring in a couple key spots, for the most part, that is not what our conservation programs are gonna be focused on. It is focused on understanding.

Jeff McCreary: 31:26

We are not coming to Alaska with a list of solutions that we say this is what you need to do. No. We are coming to understand, to build our understanding, to build our collective understanding, to be able to inform how do we go about doing this thing here in Alaska that balances the needs of people, balances the needs of wildlife. You know, the definition of conservation is wise land use, and that's true everywhere. But everywhere has its own recipe, its own way that we implement wise land use, and Alaska is no different from anywhere else.

Jeff McCreary: 32:02

What that looks like in Alaska is not gonna be what it looks like in Utah. It's gonna be its own thing that's tailored to meet the needs of the community and the birds.

Mike Brasher: 32:12

Jeff, is there a place on our website where people can go to learn more about the Alaska initiative right now, or is that something that's still in development?

Jeff McCreary: 32:19

It they we have an Alaska initiative web page ready to go. So if you type Ducks Unlimited Alaska into your search engine, it'll come up.

Mike Brasher: 32:28

Okay. Cool. Well, I encourage folks to go check that out. Jeff, out of in consideration of time, I wanna move on to another couple of questions, but I don't wanna cut you short in terms of saying other things that you wanted to highlight about the Alaska initiative. So any anything else that we wanted to feature there?

Jeff McCreary: 32:46

I I think it's important to note that, you know, in in this situation, Ducks Unlimited is not an organization that says no. We're an organization that says, how can we do this better? How can we collaborate to find a solution that benefits wildlife and people? And if conservation takes a community, well, we have to have a community that's interested and willing to do conservation work. And that's what the point of our Alaska initiative is, is develop that community and develop an action plan for conservation that we can all agree upon.

Mike Brasher: 33:19

Jeff, I also wanna kinda prompt you to kinda give a shout out to all of your staff there. How many how many staff do you have in the Western Region? And it runs from biologists to engineers. We got, like, you're under conservation, so I realize as I'm saying this now, that's a bit of a tricky question because we have staff in the Western Region, well, in the Western US, let me just say that, that are in our fundraising and development side of things, and then there are folks in the Western Region that are within our conservation department that are our biologists, our engineers, all of our additional essential support, those types of things. So how I I know you're tremendously proud of your staff, but just sort of give people an idea of of what you deal with there and and where those folks work.

Jeff McCreary: 34:07

Yeah. Our team is growing every day, and in fact, we just hired two new people this week. So I think we're up to 87 now, and there's more positions. You know, go to if you're interested, www.ducks.org/jobs, and you might find your dream job on the website out in the Western Region somewhere. But we've got biologists.

Jeff McCreary: 34:26

They are responsible for building relationships and finding projects and writing grants and bringing the money in. We've got engineers that help build and contract the projects and do the design work to the actual implementation of what we do. We've got financial support staff that help keep the numbers straight. We've got environment. We have a whole team because we're in some of the most regulated states in the country.

Jeff McCreary: 34:51

We have a whole team that all they do is help us comply with environmental regulations. If you want to build a parking lot somewhere, well, you have to get a variety of permits. If you wanna build a wetland, you have to get pretty much the same permits that that person who wants to build the parking lot is. So we have a full team of people helping us with that. We have scientists.

Jeff McCreary: 35:11

We have waterfowl scientists. We have geographic information specialists. We have agricultural specialists, we've got ecosystem services specialists, we have a whole suite of experience and talent to be able to help us meet the needs whatever community we happen to be working in and what their conservation vision is and what their conservation needs are. So it's a very diverse team to meet the needs of our diverse landscaping communities in the West.

Mike Brasher: 35:38

All right. So here are the two questions that I gave to you I'm gonna give to all the directors of operations that we have on these episodes. The first one, what would people be most surprised to learn about with respect to the work that you do in your region?

Jeff McCreary: 35:52

That's a good question, and I thought a lot about that. And I think that what I would say is that Ducks Unlimited is a leader in the recovery of endangered fish, salmon, and in the Klamath, two suckers, the Chuam and the Kopto, the the short nose and lost river suckers. And it just so happens that those species also need the exact same habitats that waterfowl need. So waterfowl essentially come along for the ride. So we could do projects that are funded and targeted on recovering these species, and and waterfowl just happened to be the benefit, and we're super happy with that.

Mike Brasher: 36:32

I I would not have guessed that. That that would have been your response, but whenever you said it, I'm like, yeah. You're on the money there. It's pretty cool. And and so that's a story that we wanna tell someday.

Mike Brasher: 36:42

We haven't really covered that much on any of our podcast episodes, but that's an exciting one. We wanna wanna try to get the right people on to discuss that, the intersection of of fish with waterfowl and and the wetland work that we do. Final question here for you. What is your favorite story to tell? Like, you you have a lot of friends outside of your professional space.

Mike Brasher: 37:03

You meet a lot of different people that aren't in our that don't work in the waterfowl wildlife conservation arena. What's your favorite story to tell those people with regard to things that, let's say, something that has happened within the Western Region this past year?

Jeff McCreary: 37:21

Well, I got two that come to mind, and and one of them I mentioned earlier is launching our $100,000,000 action plan here in the Great Salt Lake landscape. And then another one happened just recently this spring, and we all know that the federal government is downsizing, and and staff are being laid off or taking early retirement, and this is having ripple effects across, you know, many aspects of our lives in general, but also in the waterfowl world. So one of those places that's having an effect is in Washington and the junior duck stamp competition. All right? So all we're all familiar with our duck stamps, and there's a competition for the artwork on that duck stamp, but there's also a junior duck stamp, that competition that all the states participate in.

Jeff McCreary: 38:07

And this is bringing in the next generation of of waterfowl conservationists and waterfowl supporters. So it's it's really important when we think about the future of how do we sustain this junior ducks damp competition. Well, we were approached by the Fish and Wildlife Service to help lead and organize the Washington State junior ducks damp competition, and our staff volunteered and did it this year, and it was amazing. And the winner the winner's artwork was just this was a fabulous picture that you're surprised that a kid did that. It's professionally done.

Jeff McCreary: 38:41

And so we're keeping that junior duck stamp competition alive in Washington and and making sure that our future generation of conservationists are are are still engaged, are still admiring waterfowl, and are still part of our community.

Mike Brasher: 38:55

That is a wonderful story, and and having had some intersection with Ducks Stamp, you know, the first day of sale or whatever the the other situation might be, seeing the intersection of that art community with the critters that we love so much and have dedicated our career and our organization to trying to conserve. It's it's waterfowl are cool for so many reasons, and that's just one of the more unique ones, just the prominence of art within it. I was not aware that you guys played a role in that Washington Junior duck stamp contest, and and I'm happy to hear that. Are you gonna be are you can are you gonna have the opportunity to do that again either next year or in the future?

Jeff McCreary: 39:40

Yeah. We're we agreed to to lead it again next year, and I think this year it was it was kind of short notice, and I think what we're looking at next year is how do we engage our volunteer community a little bit more in helping run the program and and to kind of take it to the next level. So we're we're super excited about continuing the program and our partnership with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington and state of Washington and and bringing this community together through art.

Mike Brasher: 40:08

But, Jeff, I'm gonna let you go and and get back to the rest of your day. I appreciate you joining us, especially on such short notice when we're trying to trying to line this up. You always bring great information, and I I think it's good to provide these periodic updates from our regions. I think we did something like this a few years ago, maybe when we were first introducing each of our regions to our audience. I think it's something that we should strive to do every couple of years because we're always advancing with new programs, new ideas, and working in new areas as we identify the need to do so.

Mike Brasher: 40:42

So there's always good things to share. So Jeff, appreciate so much you joining us. The other thing that I will say is to encourage folks a plug for one of the other parts of our organization, our fundraising part. If you are looking for something to do as we get into late winter and spring, you haven't been to a Ducks Unlimited event anytime in the recent past, encourage you to do so. Even if you have, go to another one.

Mike Brasher: 41:08

You can find an event near you at www.ducks.org/events. Jeff, I'm sure you get to many of those. It's always great to interact with our volunteers and our people. But again, we thank you so much for being here and for bringing great information to our audience.

Jeff McCreary: 41:23

Happy to do it, Mike.

Mike Brasher: 41:24

A very special thanks to our guest on today's episode, Jeff McCreery, our director of operations for Ducks Unlimited's Western Region. We also thank our producer, Chris Isaac, for the wonderful job that he does getting things connected and then getting everything out to you. We thank you, the listener, for your interest in what we do. We thank you for your support and commitment to wetlands and waterfowl conservation.

VO: 41:48

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VO: 42:10

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