‘There’s no water’: This duck hunter in Fort Smith, N.W.T., went out and found no ducks [Video]

Earl Evans has been duck hunting in the springtime around Fort Smith, N.W.T., for 50 years. 

This past week, he and a friend went out to their usual spot, about 15 kilometres west of the community in the Slave River wetlands. And for the first time, Evans returned home from that hunt without a single duck. 

“We stopped and looked around and everything was just still, just dead,” Evans said. “It felt like we were on the moon.”

“That’s the most devastating feeling in the world for a person that likes to go out in the bush.”

Fort Smith was forced to evacuate for five weeks last summer as a wildfire threatened the community and burned much of the land around it. 

Evans also lost two cabins in the fire. 

Normally, Evans said, his hunting spot is “teeming with wildlife,” with three feet of water in some places. Now, it’s dried up, with burns still obvious on the trees and ground.

“We never saw a single thing,” Evans said. “The only …