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In 1936 the season was closed on canvasback, redhed, bufflehead, wood duck, ruddy duck and brant. The great drought that caused the dust bowl combined with predation, fires, disease and a lack of best practices had annihilated the duck population. From S. Kip Farrington Jr.’s 1945 book “The Ducks Came Back: The Story of Ducks Unlimited”:  

Duck hunters all over the United States were putting their fowling pieces in mothballs or attempting to sell them. … Duck clubs were closing or else folding all over the United States. …Ornithologists, bird lovers and others interested in our waterfowl population of North America were also racking their brains to find a cure. 

Many hunters were giving up and with a heavy heart, sure that the season would also close on scaup, which had a bag limit, and all then other species– never to open again. After all, a 1935 census showed the duck population to be 1/5 of what it had been at the turn of the century.

“It just isn’t worth my while to go duck hunting these days –having to get up early in the morning or sit out in hard weather for a shot or two all day. I wouldn’t want my son to pursue a sport that I love so well that has sunk to such a how level after the way I have known it.” 

Yet four anglers lamenting the coming duck season at Fishing Camp, had an idea. If they could assist nature by making the Prairie Potholes more amenable to ducklings, raise funds from sportsmen, create a system of refuges and manage all these works, maybe they could save the ducks.

Maybe wasn’t an option. They simply did. And most of us were never told or have forgotten. We only hear of doom and gloom, of inevitable loss, but what we should hear is that four men had passion, persistance and a plan. They saved my Canvasbacks once. I believe that the major border-crossing conservation organization that those men have become, the organization that was willing to believe in me, will save my Canvasbacks again. We rescued the Duck Factory once as four, surely we can do it again as 700,000.

10 Little Canvasbacks Grew to 24
by Tom Main (published 1945) 

10 little Canvasbacks feeling mighty fine
     Their home lake dried up…and then there were 9 
9 little Canvasbacks avoid their brother’s fate
     A hungry coyote met them… and then there were 8 
8 little Canvasbacks thought they were in heaven
     A crow made a swoop… and then there were 7 
7 little Canvasbacks doing diving tricks
     A lurking Jackfish guzzled one…and then there were six 
6 little Canvasbacks glad to be alive
     Fire caught them in the grass… and then there were 5 
5 little Canvasbacks grew a little more
     Botulism poisoned one…and then there were 4 
4 little Canvasbacks flying wide and free
     A duck hawk spotted one…and then there were 3 
3 little Canvasbacks arrived in Kalamazoo
     A hunter got a bead on one…and then there were 2 
2 little Canvasbacks each a husky drake
     With their mates few northward to a D.U. lake   
There killers, drought and fire
     and countless other dangers 
Are checked by D.U. engineers
     and naturalists and rangers.          

SO-O-o 2 little Canvasbacks, saved from dangers plenty 
With D.U.’s help fly south again 2+2+20.