Troubles with Minnesota’s shrinking duck habitat have led to slow hunting, may require controversial solutions

Like many other Minnesota waterfowlers, I monitor several of the Midwest’s waterfowling social-media pages. This year, even more so than any other year I can recall, users are consistently bemoaning a lack of birds in their area.
As of this writing, I am right there with them. We just experienced a nice cold front replete with 20-degree temperatures and 20-mph northwest winds that normally would have ushered in a day or two of frantic shooting at new-arriving birds.