Giant Canada numbers grow

[JohnWester]

The expansion of the giant Canada goose population in recent years has allowed for the change in management. Last year, the state population was estimated at 376,000. The EPP geese used to make up much of the Canada goose harvest in Minnesota. But as the giant Canada goose population has increased, the EPP birds have comprised a much smaller proportion of the harvest.

These days, about 90 percent of the 200,000 to 250,000 Canada geese that are killed by hunters in Minnesota each year are giant Canada geese; the remaining 10 percent are EPP birds.

The giant Canada goose population is expected to buffer the harvest of EPP geese.

Said Cordts: "If we tried this even two or three years ago, through the flyway there would have been no support for it.

"It just has taken a while for people to change their way of thinking how we manage Canada geese."