The Yukon Waterfowl Management Plan (Yukon Waterfowl Technical Committee 1991) identified the lack of information on the trends in Yukon waterfowl populations as a problem which should be addressed. At that time, the only long-term information on waterfowl populations in the Yukon was provided by an annual aerial survey conducted since 1955 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the Old Crow Flats as part of their annual Alaska-Yukon Waterfowl Breeding Population Survey (Conant and Groves 1998). Thus a new survey program in the Yukon was initiated in 1991 modelled after a program begun in British Columbia in 1987 (Breault et al. in progress). Both the Yukon and B.C surveys attempt to estimate the numbers of waterfowl breeding in a large number of wetlands adjacent to the road system each spring. Field work is carried out co-operatively by various groups having interest and expertise in waterfowl management. The estimates derived from the surveys provide an ongoing indication of the trend (increasing, stable, or decreasing) in waterfowl populations over a period of years in large portions of B.C. and the Yukon Territory. When combined with the results of surveys from other parts of North America, they help assess the trend in continental populations of waterfowl.

This year (1998) was the eighth year of the Yukon survey.