A longer September goose hunt for NW mn ?

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A longer September goose hunt for NW?
Geese gaining acceptance in farmland

Thursday, June 14, 2007 10:23 AM EDT
By Tim SpielmanAssociate Editor, MN Outdoor News
http://www.outdoornews.com/articles/2007/06/14/news/news1.txt

Glenwood, Minn. - Perhaps some of the various means for limiting crop depredation by Canada geese are proving more effective. Or, maybe goose hunters in September are having an impact, bringing goose numbers to a more 'manageable' level. Or it could be farmers are just getting 'used to' the birds.

Either way, tolerance for the large waterfowl appears to have increased in southern Minnesota's farm country, says Dennis Simon, DNR Wildlife chief. That, he believes, is due largely to hunting and ways to reduce depredation made available by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

'(Hunters) are having an effect during the September (goose-hunting) season,' Simon said. 'They're having a big impact on chronic depredation areas.'

One of the more popular methods of discouraging geese from mowing down the new crop of beans, corn, or small grains has been food plots - more accurately, short-stop food plots, located on the edge of a crop field, between the field and the nearest water basin. Often, Simon said, they're used in association with electric fencing that keeps geese from wandering at will across crop fields.

Food plots have been a part of the DNR's repertoire for limiting goose damage to crops for the past five years, according to Kevin Kotts, DNR wildlife manager in Glenwood, an area within the goose depredation 'hotbed' of Minnesota.

Food plots, and electric fencing, have made life better for farmers, as well as DNR personnel and the geese themselves, he said.

'It's worked pretty well,' Kotts said. 'I think we've made geese easier to live with for farmers.'

Food plots are almost exclusively on private land, and typically they start out at five acres, but if crop damage is limited to a portion of that, payment is only made for what's lost to geese.

Simon said farmers typically call to report damage, and information - type of crop, etc. - is gathered. A site visit is made by DNR personnel, and feasible options for limiting depredation are discussed. He said if the problem includes broods of adult and young geese, options are fewer, partly because harassment is less effective.

Permits to shoot geese in the spring are still available to landowners, but Kotts said that's a less-favorable option for most farmers.

'Most people want to scare geese off, or shoot one or two; they're not intent on wholesale killing,' he said.

Kotts said his area was allotted $8,000 to use for goose-depredation food plots this year; the average cost is about $125 to $150 per acre, he said. Sixteen food plots have been established, according to Jason Strege, a DNR wildlife technician in Glenwood.

Considerably more could be spent in the Fergus Falls area, where Mark Papesh, DNR wildlife technician, said about $18,000 will be put toward such food plots this year.

It's become standard procedure in the area, which sees most of the goose depredation in Otter Tail and Clay counties, as well as some in Wilkin County.

'We always get ?sold out,' so to speak,' Papesh said. '(The plots are divvied) pretty much within certain clientele.'

Usually, those are the farmers nearest the most popular Canada goose roosting areas. Which, Papesh said, are quite numerous in the area. Thus, so are geese.

Papesh said landowners still participate in the shooting of depredating geese; about 50 permits (20 geese permitted to be shot with each permit) were issued last year, but about 30 have been issued this year, he said.

In the Glenwood area, Strege has issued 16 shooting permits this year, where in the past that number has been near 30, he said.

Longer September hunt possible in northwest

About five years ago, when Canada goose numbers were on the rise and food plots to discourage depredation came to be, the estimated resident giant Canada goose population was about 300,000 birds.

The population today? About 300,000 birds, 'plus or minus a few,' said Steve Cordts, the DNR's waterfowl specialist in Bemidji. According to the DNR's counts, however, the population has been as high as 370,000 in past years.

A high number of resident geese, coupled with good production of the Eastern Prairie Population of Canada geese (those that migrate through western Minnesota) mean hunters across the state might experience three weeks of September goose hunting this year.

In the past, the Northwest Zone was limited to Sept. 1-15 (instead of Sept. 1-22, like the rest of the state), but Cordts said the state has proposed adding an extra week of hunting for Northwest hunters. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in coming weeks, will decide whether or not to allow the change.

Cordts said there still would be differences in bag limits for some areas of the state, as well as discrepancies in areas where hunters may hunt over water.

A few years ago, the DNR's stated population goal was about 175,000 resident giant Canada geese; that goal has increased to 250,000, Cordts said.

That change, he said was 'reflective of the times. Hunters are accustomed to having a lot of geese around and (hunting) opportunity around.'

Geese now are surveyed via a special helicopter survey in April. They're also counted via the May duck survey, Cordts said of the long-running survey that covers about 40 percent of the state.