NEW ORLEANS (AP) — There are many events during the year that a Louisiana duck hunter can count on to bring joy, satisfaction or disappointment.And then there is one moment that carries inescapable anxiety. It’s the first time you pole onto your lease after the long offseason looking for one thing: Submerged aquatic vegetation, plants that grow from the bottom of shallow marsh ponds and lagoons.Everyone knows ducks need water, and our marshes have plenty of that. But duck hunters know these birds also need food. The type and amount of food produced during spring and summer goes a long way in determining the success of a hunter’s season. The flyway can be choked with birds, and stiff cold fronts can push them southward in massive numbers. But if your marsh doesn’t offer fuel after the long journey, their visit will be painfully short.That’s why the key words to a good duck season in southeast Louisiana are not Browning or Beretta, Robo Duck or Mud Buddy. They are Potamogeton pectinatus (sago pondweed), Najas guadalupensis (southern naiad), Ruppia maritima (widgeon grass), Myriophyllum heterophyllum (water milfoil), Ceratophyllum demersum (coontail), and Vallisneria americana (wild celery).These are among the plants that grow from the bottom of our shallow marsh ponds and lagoons. They may create headaches for summer anglers, but they’re absolutely essential for duck hunters.”There’s no question the big value of our marshes to ducks is those SAVs — the submerged aquatic vegetation,” said biologist Larry Reynolds, waterfowl study leader at the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “There are plants in the marsh itself that also contribute — millets and rushes that have seeds which drop into the water and ducks certainly feed on.”But the big value for ducks is those SAVs. They are the key. The fact we have those mixtures of plants is what makes this area so attractive to wintering waterfowl.”The plants are a good food source. Most SAVs grow seeds that are tiny packages of protein for ducks, and waterfowl also find nourishment eating the leaves, stems, rhizomes and tubers of the plants. But there is another benefit ducks derive from SAVs. Large concentrations of the plants provide a home to an entire food chain beneficial to waterfowl. They are the reef communities in the waterfowling world.Dense mats of SAVs — from their stems to their roots systems — harbor very large concentrations of macro invertebrates such as damselfly and dragonfly nymphs, midges, beetles, aquatic worms, snails and crayfish. All of these are rich protein sources for waterfowl and are especially important for early migrants that land in our marshes while still engaged in the energy-demanding job of molting.”If you take your hand and just sweep it through a mat of SAVs, you’ll be amazed at how many living things you end up with,” Reynolds said. “So having concentrations of those plants is also a big bonus.”That’s one reason outboards are bad news for duck leases — and mud motors are even worse.”Cutting them up with a prop doesn’t help them grow,” Reynolds said. “And mud motors basically dig them up by the roots. So, yes, it’s smart to just pole your boat through those areas with SAVs.”Last year, the storm surges associated with Hurricanes Gustav and Ike had ripped the SAVs out of the marsh bottom by their roots and carried them onto the shore — and beyond. The season that followed was one to forget.”It’s all about the SAVs,” Reynolds said.- – – -Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]