Thursday, July 27, 2006 10:55 AM EDT
By Tim Spielman Associate Editor, MN Outdoor News
Bemidji, Minn. ? It?s all but official: For the 10th consecutive year, duck hunters in Minnesota will be able to enjoy 60 days afield. The bag limit likely will again be four daily, though federal officials are expected to allow states to set the limit at six. Further, hunters should expect a one-hen mallard limit.
And, per state legislation, the season will open Sept. 30.
About the only question mark remaining is how many scaup will be included in the daily bag. State officials in the Mississippi Flyway want that limit to remain at two; federal officials have proposed decreasing the limit to one. The deadlock was expected to be broken this week as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reviewed flyway and federal proposals.
Once federal officials have approved flyway proposals, state officials must sign off on the final regulations for the waterfowl seasons.
Members of the Mississippi Flyway Council, including the Minnesota DNR?s Steve Cordts, recently broke camp in Missouri after submitting a list of proposals to the USFWS.
The duck season proposal includes several items similar to what USFWS waterfowl biologists proposed, including:
a 60-day ?liberal? duck-hunting season;
a six-bird daily bag limit;
a one-bird bag limit for canvasbacks and pintails, but a full season for those species (instead of a ?season within a season,? which has been used in the past for those ducks);
Minnesota DNR officials have indicated the state likely will opt for greater restrictions than what?s allowed by the USFWS. A four-bird daily bag (first used last year during a liberal season framework) and a one hen mallard bag are candidates for adoption by state brass.
Cordts said Minnesota is the only state in the flyway - perhaps in the nation - to opt for a four-bird bag. Several states in the flyway, including Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio, probably will have a one hen mallard limit, something he believes may contribute greater to increasing overall duck numbers than the four-bird bag.
Scaup
It?s with scaup where state flyway representatives and federal officials have had a difference of opinion. Federal biologists have suggested dropping the daily scaup bag from two to one; state flyway officials are fighting to keep the limit at two - at least until there?s a management plan in place, or it?s been established that harvest is contributing to the steady long-term decline in scaup numbers.
?We?re working on developing a scaup management strategy, and we?d like to have that before we get to a one-bird bag limit,? Cordts said. ?There?s a huge difference from two to one.?
Cordts said scaup are still ?relatively abundant compared to other species.? This year?s federal survey estimated 3.2 million scaup.
?There are diving species with a lot lower numbers but higher bag limits,? he said. Ring-necked ducks are one species where there are fewer in the population, but more are harvested by hunters.
An estimated 300,000 scaup were harvested last year, about 10 percent of the total breeding population this spring, Cordts said. By comparison, there have been instances in the past where more green-winged teal were harvested than what were counted in the spring, he said.
Further study might indicate a need to further reduce harvest, Cordts said, but there?s not information to support a bag decrease at this point, he said. More scaup banding would help, but that?s difficult due in part to the remote locations the species nests, he said.
Reducing the scaup bag to one also would raise the issue of duck identification, Cordts said. With pintails and canvasbacks, duck ID isn?t nearly as difficult as it would be with fast flying divers, including scaup.
Further, Cordts said that during the drastically reduced seasons from 1988-1993 (30-day seasons, three-bird bags), the decline in the scaup population - even with an estimated 60-percent reduction in harvest - was mostly unaffected.
In 1999, the scaup limit was lowered to three a day. It remained that way until last year, when the bag was dropped to two daily.
Liberal seasons at end?
Following the USFWS proposal for a liberal season, Ducks Unlimited said hunters should enjoy them while they last - which may not be much longer, because of loss of habitat.
?Continued loss of critical habitat threatens to reduce the capacity of prairie breeding areas to produce the ducks necessary for liberal hunting seasons in the future,? DU said in a press release this week.
Grassland conversion is one of the greatest areas of concern, according to DU.
?The ongoing conversion of native grassland to cropland and impending loss of millions of acres of Conservation Reserve Program grassland across the Prairie Pothole Region doesn?t bode well for continued duck production at high enough levels to support liberal seasons,? said Scott Stephens, DU director of conservation planning.
According to DU, more than 4 million acres of CRP land could ?disappear from the PPR landscape over the next eight years? because of expiring contracts and more profitable options for the landowners.
Goose seasons
Pending final approval from the USFWS this week, Minnesota goose hunters will see a boost in opportunity this fall.
The flyway council approved state plans to add days to the season and increase the limit in some parts of the state.
Changes for the regular goose season are likely to include:
The Northwest Goose Zone effectively will be eliminated, increasing hunting days from 40 to 70, and raising the goose limit from one to two;
The West Goose Zone hunt will be extended from 40 to 60 days, and the limit will increase from one to two birds daily;
Hunters in the West-Central Goose Zone probably will be able to harvest more birds (from one to two daily bag), but will retain the 40-day hunt, with a delayed commencement of the hunt.
Cordts said there was some concern by members of the flyway council about raising the bag limit and increasing the number of hunting days in the West-Central Zone. The area supports a large number of the Eastern Prairie Population of migrating geese, which are shared with other states in the flyway.
Other points of interest
Cordts said the motorized spinning-wing decoy was again this year a discussion point for flyway members. So far, only Arkansas has banned the decoys. Minnesota has a limited ban (statewide ban the first week of the season this year, and a season long ban of the decoy on state WMAs).
Cordts said it was offered that all the states in the Mississippi Flyway ban the devices; the proposal was rejected.
Cordts said the group discussed at length a proposal by the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission to allow a take of 40 ducks and to allow baiting by Indian tribal members in parts of the Midwest, including Minnesota. GLIFWC has forwarded the proposal to the USFWS.
Cordts said state agencies? concern mainly center on baiting, and the possibility that set bait could exclude state-licensed hunters from hunting an area; it?s illegal for state hunters to bait waterfowl. He said the flyway council is sending a letter regarding this issue to USFWS officials.
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Topic: ?Liberal? likely for 2006 duck season (Read 1939 times)
