This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released its 2016 Trends in Duck Breeding Populations and the news is mostly good for hunters and wildlife watchers.

The report, conducted in May and early June by the Utah Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service, estimated that there are 48.4 million ducks found in the traditional survey area.

That is similar to last year's 49.5 million bird estimate and 38 percent above the 1955-2015 long-term average.

Ducks rely on wetland and upland habitat conditions, mostly in Canada and the northern U.S., and those areas were poorer than a year ago.

"In light of the dry conditions that were observed across much of the northern breeding grounds during the survey period, it is reassuring to see that the breeding population counts were little changed from last year," said Ducks Unlimited Chief Scientist Scott Yaich. "But, with total pond counts similar to the long-term average, and with hunting season and winter mortality being a relatively small part of annual mortality, it's not surprising to see that populations largely held steady."

Yaich said the report did not reflect improvement in habitat conditions after the surveys were completed.

"Watching the changing habitat over the spring and summer this year underscores the importance of two things," said the biologist. "First, we must simply accept that habitat and populations are going to vary over time. They always have and they always will. Second, that's why we need to keep a steady hand on the course of our conservation efforts. Our job is to steadily make deposits into the habitat bank account so that when the precipitation and other conditions are right, the ducks will do the job that they do so well, which is to produce more ducks and provide us all a nice return on our investments."

To view all of the data or get a species-by-species breakdown, log on to http://www.ducks.org/DuckNumbers.