Every spring and summer, for the past 50 years, teams of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pilot-biologists take to the skies to survey North America ’s waterfowl breeding grounds. Flying more than 80,000 miles, crisscrossing the country just above the treetops, they and observers on the ground, record the number of ducks, geese and swans, and assess the quality and quantity of waterfowl breeding habitats. From the wide-open bays and wetlands of the eastern shores of North America to some of the most remote regions of Canada and Alaska, they are documenting an important part of our wild heritage.

Thirteen of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's pilot-biologists gathered at the Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport in Martinsburg, West Virginia, on April 16 to mark the upcoming 50th anniversary of the North American Waterfowl Survey in 2005. Credit Todd Harless/USFWS.

The Waterfowl Population Survey Program represents a 50-year legacy of standardized cooperative surveys performed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Canadian Wildlife Service, state and provincial biologists, and non-governmental cooperators. The survey program being celebrated in 2005 is believed to be the most extensive, comprehensive, long-term annual wildlife survey effort in the world.The results of these surveys determine the status of North America ’s waterfowl populations; play a significant role in setting annual waterfowl hunting regulations; and help to guide the decisions of waterfowl managers throughout North America .