Brent Sullivan shows the results of a successful hunt at a commission game land impoundment in the northeastern part of the state (Goose Creek Impoundment). Sullivan has a bag of widgeons and ringnecks. Photo by Mike Marsh.

At one time or another, most of North Carolina's waterfowl hunters visit public game lands or wildlife refuges. Some have their initiations into waterfowl hunting at these public game areas and after learning all they can, go on to graduate to hunting other large bodies of water, private ponds and other places with fewer restrictions on times and dates they can hunt than public impoundments. Some only hunt a few days per season at an impoundment near their homes or, drawing a couple of lottery permits for far away impoundments, they participate only those days of hunting before calling it a season.

Still others take pleasure in hunting at as many different public game lands as possible. One hunter, who falls into the latter group of adventurous waterfowl enthusiasts, should come as no surprise: He is Doug Howell, the North Carolina Wildlife Commission's waterfowl biologist.

"Our impoundments fall into several categories as far as the type of habitat management and hunter management plans go," he said. "One impoundment area may even have several different units with different types of management."

As an example of the different types of habitat management, Howell detailed the management at J. Morgan Futch Game Land. The 600-acre commission game land is located in Tyrrell County and consists of a system of ditches and water control structures.

"Several units at Futch used to be commercial catfish ponds," Howell said. "They are ideal for management as an aquatic unit. They are flooded all year 'round and produce aquatic plants utilized by waterfowl, such as sago pondweed. Some aquatic impoundments also have other aquatics, such as widgeon grass."

The second type of habitat management consists of moist soils management units. In moist soils management, water is held up within the root systems of wetlands plants naturally utilized by waterfowl. Once the growing season is finished, these units are flooded to provide feeding conditions for waterfowl.

"With moist soils management units, we are trying to promote species of plants that have tubers, seeds or other plant parts, which are beneficial to ducks," Howell said. "Smartweeds, sedges, grasses and rushes are the important seed producers. If you were to let the soils dry out, you would get different types of plants, such as old field species like broom sedge and cattails that are not beneficial to waterfowl."

The third type of habitat management consists of agricultural plantings that are flooded in the fall and winter. This is the most expensive and intensive type of management. Few areas that have wetland and flooding capabilities are actually available for this type of management. The types of soils available with the potential for flooding with water after planting can also prohibit this type of management, because they do not support the growth of cereal grains, such as corn, millet or grain sorghum.

"The kinds of management we conduct on any property depend upon how much control we have over the water," Howell said. "We look at whether we can get enough water on a certain area and whether the soils will hold water. In many of the places we've purchased, there were existing ditches in place and all we had to do was put water control structures in place. Others required more extensive modifications, including the addition of pumping systems and wells."

Howell said perhaps more important to having quality hunting than habitat management is hunter management. The commission has several different types of management options. The least restrictive is a six-day-per-week game land without posted waterfowl impoundments (or at least six-day-per-week hunting allowed outside the areas of posted waterfowl impoundments). The management menu is complicated and subject to change every season, so hunters should always consult current regulations for the particular impoundment they would like to hunt.