Artificial Nest Boxes Save the Wood Duck from Extinction

The Friends received a generous grant award from The Norma & Stanley DeBoer Quiet Trails Fund of the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin for additional interpretive signage at the Beaver Hollow Outdoor Education Area. This funding was instrumental in developing a 24”x36” sign that will be installed in spring on a boardwalk platform overlooking a mounted wood duck box. The sign relates one of the greatest conservation success stories in the United States—the return of the wood duck.

Wood ducks were once the most abundant waterfowl in North America, but by the early 1900s, they were near the brink of extinction. Wood duck populations were decimated primarily by market hunting for their meat and brilliantly colored feathers, and secondarily by the extensive clear cutting of mature forests containing large trees for the nesting cavities that wood ducks require.

Fortunately, wood ducks will readily use constructed duck boxes, and the installation of these artificial cavities has been a major factor in their successful recovery. Beginning in the 1930s, a program started by the U.S. Biological Survey (now the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) to place wood duck nest boxes in woodland habitats grew rapidly across the nation. During this period, the preferred habitat of the duck—beaver ponds—expanded as beaver populations increased due to the reduced demand for their pelts.

The dedicated work of a nationwide network of thousands of volunteers building and mounting duck boxes over the past century, and continuing today, has saved Wisconsin’s most beautiful duck from disappearing from the landscape. Visitors to Beaver Hollow are often rewarded with a glimpse of this colorful wetland resident. When you see wood ducks at Beaver Hollow, thank the many volunteers who have brought these ducks back from the brink.