Not many duck hunters have laid eyes on the “duck factory”, they just listen to what the biologist says. In addition to what hutch noted, it takes more consecutive wet years to boost duck numbers. Everybody, biologist included, chants”hopefully the snow melts and they get big rains to fill the ponds”. I have watched with my own two eyes farmers/ranchers baling cattails and other vegetation around ponds that was dry enough in the fall. I have also returned to a pothole(45 acres) I hunted the previous year to find it dried up, broke and planted in canola. We need a prolonged wet period of a few years to promote cover, while staying wet enough to keep farmers out....and that is a lot to ask in that part of the world.