Southern California Duck Country: History, Habitat, Tradition

Waterfowl historian Yancey Forest-Knowles joins Jeff and Carson to map the rise and fall of Southern California’s coastal duck country—from the artesian-fed ciénegas of the Los Angeles plain to the estuaries of Ballona, Bolsa Chica, and Newport, and on to the Salton Sea and the San Diego reservoirs. It’s a guided tour through clubs that once dotted the coast, the culture that filled their cookhouses, and the policy and development pressures that eventually shut most gates. We close with what’s still huntable today and the conservation lessons worth carrying forward.

Topics include

• How artesian water and heavy winter rains built a maze of natural marshes across the L.A. basin
• The Orange County era of managed wetlands—and why city growth and water rules ended it
• Coastal club culture: famous names, strict house rules, and why Point Mugu still matters
• Salton Sea 101: accident to flyway magnet, depredation history, and what changed on the landscape
• San Diego’s reservoir hunts and old-school duck-boat drives
• What remains today (San Jacinto, Wister, select coastal/military marshes) and the takeaways for modern habitat work

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