Experimental testing of cookie cutter in the Maritimes / J.A. Waugh and A.J. Macaulay.

In the Maritimes, approximately 80% of the area developed for waterfowl by Ducks Unlimited (Canada) is around the Bay of Fundy. These land areas, former tidal marshes, have been slowly built up by deposits of rich mineral soil left after each receding tide. After very few years of freshwater flooding, these soils support a flourishing growth of emergent and submergent vegetation (Figure 1). Although providing excellent waterfowl habitat initially, emergents eventually overgrow the entire area, greatly reducing its potential for waterfowl production. In areas where sufficient water level control cannot be achieved to cope with this problem, other means of altering the vegetation must be found.One option is to employ some mechanical means of destroying the emergent vegetation in order to create the necessary interspersion of cover and open water areas required by waterfowl. The physical conditions prohibit the use of conventional types of equipment such as draglines,bulldozers, or the