The strategy of flooding farmland did not keep migrating ducks out of coastal marshes contaminated by oil from last year's spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but it did give the birds needed habitat during a drought, a Louisiana waterfowl expert said.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture hatched the idea in the hope that ducks, geese and other birds would flock to the wetlands rather than to oily marshes. Fish and Wildlife spent $3 million in BP PLC money on the program in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, while USDA spent $20 million in the five Gulf states and Arkansas, Georgia and Missouri.

Through the program, BP funded the flooding of 50,000 acres of farmland in Louisiana. In Texas, 28,800 acres were flooded, and 71,000 acres were flooded in Mississippi.

As for keeping birds out of coastal marshes, "it was a miserable failure. And it really had no chance of keeping substantial numbers of ducks from southeast Louisiana," said Larry Reynolds, waterfowl expert at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

"Whatever damage occurred to the habitat, from the oil, it did not keep birds from using that habitat, at least on a large scale," Reynolds said.

But the ponds did give migrating birds habitat during droughts last year. The program will be available for at least two more years because many farmers have three-year contracts.

"There still was the value to the birds overall," said Tom Kelsch, director of conservation for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. "So even though we didn't need to rely on it as truly alternative habitat, to replace or compensate for oiled marshes, it was nonetheless providing really valuable habitat and food for shorebirds and should have lasting impacts hopefully" (AP/New Orleans Times-Picayune, March 19). -- AP