Imagining Duckland: Postnationalism, waterfowl migration, and ecological commons

Abstract

Foreign place names reflecting the names of American hunter‐conservationists and places mark the geography of Western Canada. This exogenous place naming dates to the 1930s when one of Canada's most successful NGOs—Ducks Unlimited Canada—launched “The Lake that Waits” project. Emerging out of the Dust Bowl and declining waterfowl populations, the project combined geographical imagination, foreign toponyms, and ecological knowledge to incite American waterfowlers to invest in the rehabilitation of Canadian wetlands. It is insinuated that this renaming re‐colonized in the name of nature conservation. When theorized within a postnational ecological and historical context, however, the use of foreign toponyms may be interpreted as a means to positively influence perceptions of identity and sense of place. It was a social construction of nature encouraging recognition of the shared ethical responsibilities of continental waterfowlers who needed to re‐envision waterfowl migration within an ecological common—Duckland. Renaming was a means to effect both environmental and cultural change resulting in the conservation of millions of acres of waterfowl habitat, leaving an enduring mark on North American geography. Imaginer Canardia : le postnationalisme, la migration de la sauvagine et le collectif écologique Les toponymes étrangers inspirés des noms de chasseurs‐écologistes américains et de lieux américains sont un trait caractéristique de la géographie de l'Ouest canadien. Cette façon exogène de désigner les lieux remonte aux années 1930, à l'époque du lancement du projet « The Lake that Waits » par Canards Illimités Canada. Le projet a débuté lors des années du Dust Bowl et du déclin important des populations de sauvagine. Il conjuguait l'imaginaire géographique, les toponymes étrangers et les savoirs écologiques afin d'inciter les sauvaginiers américains à investir dans la réhabilitation des milieux humides canadiens. Certains font allusion au fait que ces changements de nom représentent une forme de recolonisation. Toutefois, en prenant une perspective théorique postnationale, l'utilisation de toponymes étrangers serait alors vue comme un moyen d'influencer positivement les sentiments d'appartenance aux lieux. Il s'agissait d'une construction sociale de la nature qui favorise la reconnaissance du partage des responsabilités éthiques des sauvaginiers qui devaient réimaginer la migration de la sauvagine au sein d'un collectif écologique — Canardia. Grâce aux changements de toponymes, les conditions environnementales et culturelles ont pu évoluer, ce qui a permis de conserver des millions d'acres de l'habitat de la sauvagine et de laisser une marque durable sur la géographie nord‐américaine.

Ecosystem service flows from a migratory species: Spatial subsidies of the northern pintail

“…As an example of a nongovernmental organization heavily involved with trilateral waterfowl habitat conservation, Ducks Unlimited (DU) has affiliates in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico dedicated to waterfowl and wetland conservation. Since its inception in 1937, DU has supported transboundary conservation funding (Hatvany 2017), working with partners to conserve 5.6 million hectares of habitat throughout North America (Ducks Unlimited 2017). Given this history of international cooperation on North American waterfowl conservation, quantitative information about pintail-driven ES flows between regions can help to inform more rigorous decisions on pintail conservation, both within and between nations.…”

Linking landscape-scale conservation to regional and continental outcomes for a migratory species

“…Study system for case study. The PPR of Canada and the northcentral U.S. comprises the formerly glaciated and wetland-rich region serving as the primary breeding area for many North American waterfowl [83][84][85] (Fig. 4).…”

Sources and dynamics of international funding for waterfowl conservation in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America

“…Recognising multiple funding sources for the USA PPR, trends in proportional contributions may differ from trends in magnitudes and provide insights about shifts in dominance among sources (Prediction 4). Prediction 5 is that any trend in funding is similar among provinces receiving funds from states and is similar across the border, because the Canadian PPR is recognised as an entire ecoregion critical for waterfowl populations irrespective of the political border (Hatvany 2017;Doherty et al 2018). Under Prediction 6, trends are divergent because sources of funding differ across the border (Anderson and Padding 2015) or among provinces.…”

“…The formerly glaciated region of central North America, also known as the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR), is an excellent system for examining spatial and temporal patterns of funding for waterfowl conservation. Breeding habitat in this region plays a crucial role in supporting migratory duck populations wintering in the southern and western USA (Batt et al 1989;Hatvany 2017;Doherty et al 2018). Despite containing only 10% of the continent's breeding habitat, the PPR is thought to produce 50-80% of North America's harvested duck species (Batt et al 1989;Baldassarre and Bolen 2006).…”