Major Changes in 2015-16 Area 2A / 2B Goose Seasons

[CP]

WDFW WILDLIFE PROGRAM
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
wildthing@dfw.wa.gov
Dear Southwest Washington Goose Hunters:
MAJOR CHANGES IN 2015-16 AREA 2A / 2B GOOSE SEASONS
The Washington and Oregon Departments of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have restructured the 2015-16 SW Washington / NW Oregon goose seasons to reduce complexity, save costs, conserve dusky Canada geese, and assist with agricultural damage control.  Major changes include:
•   More season days and longer hunting hours
•   All hunters can now participate in February / March seasons on private lands (with landowner permission)
•   You do not need to bring birds to check stations or record harvest
•   The season for dusky Canada geese is closed and hunters will be cited for taking a dusky Canada goose
•   You are required to comply with directions from authorized WDFW personnel regarding field checks of harvested geese
•   If you take a dusky Canada goose or do not comply with field checks of harvested geese, in addition to other penalties you will:
o   have your Area 2A / 2B authorization invalidated for the rest of the season
o   need to pass the goose identification test before getting a new authorization
•   All of Clark and Grays Harbor counties are now part of permit zones
Please review the revised goose identification training program at http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/canada_goose/ prior to hunting this season, and see the 2015-16 WDFW Migratory Waterfowl & Upland Game Seasons pamphlet (http://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/01744/wdfw01744.pdf) for more information.  If you have already purchased your 2015-16 Area 2A / 2B authorization, please cut off and discard the lower portion (showing date and time of harvest).  We are relying on SW goose hunters to make this new season format successful, so that goose hunting will remain open in permit zones.
Please take a brief survey about the SW Washington Goose season at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SWGooseSurvey
________________________________________

[Tealer]

Pretty awesome. Watch the dusky population spiral.


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[pianoman9701]

This is a bad move. I have no problem with increased hours, but making taking a dusky a violation is ridiculous. Hunters will either not shoot or they'll break the law. The 2 million geese which now winter down here, will increase because people are afraid to shoot them. The farmers will suffer, the hunters will suffer. The only things that won't will be the steadily increasing goose populations.

Protecting dusky geese is a no-win opposition to natural selection. They lost their breeding area because of an earthquake, not because of man. Left to nature, they'd be gone now. There are 6 other subspecies that are doing just fine and they should let nature take its course. It's incredible how egotistical some humans are to think that we should change what nature has in store. 

[chester]

When I talked with the biologist last year checking geese she admitted that the dusky population has been federally de listed for over ten years. It's the pacific flyway commission or something like that , that keeps them protected on a state level. I see it as a money thing , they don't want to spend money on check stations and trying to write more citations to increase revenue. Idk if the wardens could even past the goose test. Had one last year trying to claim the three cacklers we had in the blind were for sure dusky. Basically told him to piss off and learn his species. Then thanked him for busting birds that were working our setup on his walk to the field.


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[Boss .300 winmag]

This is a bad move. I have no problem with increased hours, but making taking a dusky a violation is ridiculous. Hunters will either not shoot or they'll break the law. The 2 million geese which now winter down here, will increase because people are afraid to shoot them. The farmers will suffer, the hunters will suffer. The only things that won't will be the steadily increasing goose populations.

Protecting dusky geese is a no-win opposition to natural selection. They lost their breeding area because of an earthquake, not because of man. Left to nature, they'd be gone now. There are 6 other subspecies that are doing just fine and they should let nature take its course. It's incredible how egotistical some humans are to think that we should change what nature has in store. 

Earth quake lost breeding grounds?

Keep in mind I don't hunt waterfowl, just curious about this earthquake. 

[chester]

That's what happened it shifted the river and took the nesting areas away . Over 30 years ago


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[pianoman9701]

This is a bad move. I have no problem with increased hours, but making taking a dusky a violation is ridiculous. Hunters will either not shoot or they'll break the law. The 2 million geese which now winter down here, will increase because people are afraid to shoot them. The farmers will suffer, the hunters will suffer. The only things that won't will be the steadily increasing goose populations.

Protecting dusky geese is a no-win opposition to natural selection. They lost their breeding area because of an earthquake, not because of man. Left to nature, they'd be gone now. There are 6 other subspecies that are doing just fine and they should let nature take its course. It's incredible how egotistical some humans are to think that we should change what nature has in store. 

Earth quake lost breeding grounds?

Keep in mind I don't hunt waterfowl, just curious about this earthquake. 

It was the 1964 earthquake. The dusky had breeding grounds on one of the big islands up. It's either Middleton Island or that's where they relocated them eventually. Anyway, the earthquake raised the level of the marshes by 6'. This drained those marshes and made it easy for predators like foxes and coyotes to access the nests and eat all the eggs. So, the USFWS decided to play God and swoop in to save the dusky goose. Had we left it to nature to sort out, they'd be gone by now for that and two other reasons. 1. They're mentally challenged and will fly straight into a spread without scoping it out and circling like all of the other species do, and 2. they breed with several of the other 6 subspecies of Canada geese, diluting their breed.

As a result of the attention on this one breed and the protections it has received, the other populations have over-populated here in SW WA and NW OR because hunters are much more reluctant to shoot until they're sure of the exact subspecies, when all of them look very similar on the wing. They should've just let nature do what it does when a population of animals naturally goes extinct. Instead, they've wasted millions of dollars on a recovery program that has reflected minimal returns in 45 years. It's a ridiculous waste of resources and because of the overpopulating of the other species, has cost farmers an untold fortune in lost crops. Incidentally, 3 geese eat as much as one adult pig. Think of the damage that adding 750,000 adult pigs to farmers fields would do in this area. It's staggering.

[Tealer]

When I talked with the biologist last year checking geese she admitted that the dusky population has been federally de listed for over ten years. It's the pacific flyway commission or something like that , that keeps them protected on a state level. I see it as a money thing , they don't want to spend money on check stations and trying to write more citations to increase revenue. Idk if the wardens could even past the goose test. Had one last year trying to claim the three cacklers we had in the blind were for sure dusky. Basically told him to piss off and learn his species. Then thanked him for busting birds that were working our setup on his walk to the field.


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It's not to raise fines. Oregon who has most of the permit zone was tired of flipping a 250,000 dollar tab for the dusky monitoring/check stations. Money the Feds used to provide. This last year the counts on dusky hit 14,000 ( 3rd straight year) allowing Oregon to write this new proposal up. Washington is merely following suit. It won't change much other then repeat offenders will shoot more dusky geese.


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[chester]

That's probably true. Why did the Feds take away funding?


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[Tealer]

That's what happened it shifted the river and took the nesting areas away . Over 30 years ago


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It actually raised the copper River delta like 6 feet. Changing a flooded delta to a maze of poplars and predators. Dusky geese can't seem to best anywhere else, they are literally to dumb.


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[Tealer]

That's probably true. Why did the Feds take away funding?


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Budget cuts I believe.

I work for an outfitter in Oregon. We have been watching this situation pretty closely.


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[chester]

The states should push to lift restrictions. The reason I found out the weren't federally protected was when shoal water bay tribe collected a piece of land that holds a huge number of them in pacific county they asked the Wdfw biologist to look into the listing. So they can knock the piss out of the across the highway from a chunk of Wdfw land. I do not see the benefits of the extra restrictions.


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[pianoman9701]

That's what happened it shifted the river and took the nesting areas away . Over 30 years ago


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It actually raised the copper River delta like 6 feet. Changing a flooded delta to a maze of poplars and predators. Dusky geese can't seem to best anywhere else, they are literally to dumb.


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Right and then the new nesting area was the island. Thanks. 

[pianoman9701]

The states should push to lift restrictions. The reason I found out the weren't federally protected was when shoal water bay tribe collected a piece of land that holds a huge number of them in pacific county they asked the Wdfw biologist to look into the listing. So they can knock the piss out of the across the highway from a chunk of Wdfw land. I do not see the benefits of the extra restrictions.


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There has to be money in it for the state somewhere. Always follow the money.

[sakoshooter]

This is a bad move. I have no problem with increased hours, but making taking a dusky a violation is ridiculous. Hunters will either not shoot or they'll break the law. The 2 million geese which now winter down here, will increase because people are afraid to shoot them. The farmers will suffer, the hunters will suffer. The only things that won't will be the steadily increasing goose populations.

Protecting dusky geese is a no-win opposition to natural selection. They lost their breeding area because of an earthquake, not because of man. Left to nature, they'd be gone now. There are 6 other subspecies that are doing just fine and they should let nature take its course. It's incredible how egotistical some humans are to think that we should change what nature has in store. 

Earth quake lost breeding grounds?

Keep in mind I don't hunt waterfowl, just curious about this earthquake. 

Pianoman is correct on the earthquake. It raised up the areas around their breeding ground to allow brush to grow. This allowed for predation to take it's toll on the dusky population.

Also, according to the WDFW, a dusky killed carries the same punishment it has only there won't be any check stations.