I wanted to pass along some information about Brant Season status for next year. After several long phone calls, emails, and a meeting this is what I’ve heard.
I have talked several hours to the WDFW waterfowl manager, a member of the Waterfowl Advisory Group (WAG), and a member of the Game Commission. . The manager believes he has tried hard to keep Brant season going even though numbers have dipped below the flyway management framework that says if below 3,000 count (2,750) the season should be closed. He kept it open the last 2 years while below that by using a 3 year average count. But that won’t work anymore, so as of now he plans to recommend closure next year if the count is again below 3,000. If over 3,000 we will have 2 days, and maybe another day for each 500 bird increment higher. His concern is here in Skagit as it has the most hunters, most harvest, and where the Gray Brant are concentrated. He also opened Whatcom & Clallam counties back up for Brant after many years of closure to provide more opportunity and spread pressure to other areas with more Black birds, and increased the number of days in Pacific county (Willapa). The usual standard in harvest management is not to go over 5% of the huntable population. Even with the report cards it’s hard to get an exact harvest tally as about 20% usually don’t report, but he thinks it is at least double what he would like.
We discussed all this thoroughly and tried to come up with some possible suggestions for management. One idea was to press for a later season in Feb as new birds usually start moving up from the south about then, which would be Black, to help reduce pressure on Grays here. The season used to go to late Feb here in WA many years ago. But DFW says Federal rules have changed and there is no regular season hunting after Jan 31, only special hunts such as Snow Goose Depredation. I pointed out they still hunt in Feb in Mexico and even in March in BC, but he said they don’t have to follow US rules. We need to come up with something to lower harvest without a full closure. We discussed some type of a draw tag as they do with big game, or only allowing hunters one hunt day in Skagit Co, or a season limit card of 2 birds in Skagit, and Skagit Co residents only. Most of these would require more notice to implement, maybe not easy to enforce, or discrimitory. At one point we would even be satisfied with a one bird limit if it could stay open. After some thought I suggested to the manager to have a 1 bird limit in Skagit and keep it 2 in Whatcom and Clallam, and maybe even raise it to three in Pacific. This would reduce harvest in Skagit and give some hunters incentive to hunt more in other areas. He said it was an interesting new idea and would think it over. His concern has always been high harvest in Skagit, as more birds are shot there in a day than in all the other areas combined. Another idea was to have the season a little later in January to give more time to get the count and maybe have more birds come down from Alaska. Black Brant population in the entire flyway is doing very well, it is a more recent problem of many wintering over in Alaska rather than migrating south as usual.
I also met with a new recently appointed game commission member from Anacortes. He is a retired marine mammal expert that was at one time in charge of the total US Marine Mammal Program in Wash DC. He told me right up front that he knew very little about waterfowl and was picked to deal with Orca/Salmon issues.
In SUMMARY - The best thing we can do is make our voice heard by submitting comments to the WDFW website. I tried earlier to have the manager come up and do a public meeting. He said those usually end with him getting beat up all night and no one else ever hears what people say there. When comments are put in through the website it becomes public record and goes before members of the Game Commission, so has a bigger impact. Some issues involving Sea Duck guiding and harvest have more urgent deadlines so have been a priority lately with management. There is still a couple months for final decisions on Brant, but comments have to be sent in NOW.
So go to this link, scroll down to the comment box and type in your thoughts, and then click on COMMENT, which will send it. Also you can look below that and see a lot of the comments that have been submitted. I would try to keep it positive and does not have to even be an elaborate idea – maybe talk about how much of a tradition this has been in your family, how important it is to keep it going for another generation, or you want to teach this to your kids as one of the best examples of hunting over decoys, or use some of the above ideas, what is on your mind, etc. I think we are all hoping to keep it going in any form possible, rather than have it closed and have to fight to get it back. We want to show it matters to a lot of people.
https://publicinput.com/I4577#4IMPORTANT- Public comment site closes March 19th at 11:59 pm. So this needs to be done this week!
