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Parched Rice Farms Stir Concerns Over Migrating Ducks

The drought conditions and water restrictions that have hurt rice farms in Texas have also cut the amount of available wetlands habitat for migrating ducks.

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Jose Avila, left, and Hilario Luna on June 13, 2011, repair an overflow damaged by crawdads on a levee of Mike Burnside's rice fields, flooded with water from the Colorado River, near Bay City.
Credit: Michael Stravato

Environment & Energy reports that the drought conditions and water restrictions that have hurt rice farms in Texas have also cut the amount of available wetlands habitat for migrating ducks and threatened the state's multimillion-dollar waterfowl hunting industry. The restrictions, according to E&E, have wiped out about 50,000 of the Central Texas region's 145,000 acres of rice. 

 

 

 

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