ESPN Hunting

After a decade of increased hunting opportunities to lower the numbers of snow geese, populations are nearing sustainable levels for maintaining quality habitat in areas snow geese use for migration and breeding.

According to Kathryn Dickson, Senior Waterfowl Biologist at the Canadian Wildlife Service, populations of greater snow geese that winter in the eastern United States are down near the target levels, while the lesser snow geese that winter in the south-central part of the United States remain at adversely high levels.

"The lesser snow geese continue to remain very abundant and have negative effects," Dickson said. "There are still too many to be sustained by their breeding grounds. The damage caused by snow geese is significant and with the population not controlled, we imagine the habitat damage would spread to a number of species and a greater part of the landscape."

People doing research in the arctic region in the early to mid-1990s noticed a change in the quality of the habitat occupied by snow geese, especially during migration and breeding. Without major controls, the population had increased dramatically and the snow geese feeding habits were having a noticeable impact on the surrounding environment.

"Cities with a local overabundance of Canada geese often destroy nests and oil eggs, and this is seen as an acceptable way of controlling the population," Dickson said. "For snow geese, there is no practical way to affect the number of nests needed to really have an effect on the population.

"Modeling demonstrated conclusively that the best way to slow population growth of snow geese would be to reduce the survival rates of adult snow geese."

The U.S. and Canada worked together to create regulations that would curb the damage as a result of the feeding habits of the snow geese. What emerged for the U.S. was the Light Goose Conservation Order, when, in 1999, the president signed a law that, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, "reinstated interim population control measures for mid-continent light geese."

In effect, for the last 10 years, hunters have been allowed increased opportunities to target and harvest light geese. Special regulations permitted by the Conservation Order include using electronic callers, extending shooting hours to one-half hour past sunset, removing the bag limit and creating special hunting seasons for light geese.

"The overabundance of light geese is harming their fragile arctic breeding habitat," said H. Dale Hall, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in a statement from the USFWS. "The damage to the habitat is, in turn, harming the health of the light geese and other bird species that depend on the tundra habitat.

"Returning the light goose population to sustainable levels is necessary to protect this delicate habitat, and every species dependent on it."

The most cost effective and practical way to return the population to adequate levels was determined to be through hunter harvest, and according to Dickson, primary surveys of greater snow geese show that harvest has been successful.

"The greater snow goose spends time in the eastern Canadian arctic, migrates through Quebec and then winters in the eastern United States," Dickson said. "We can count the birds on their return in the spring because they all spend time in the St. Lawrence area. The population had stabilized around 800,000 to 1 million birds, which was the target."

Some initial surveys over the past few years, however, have shown that the population might have started to increase again.

"We are quite pleased that the eastern United States had come in to conservation measures — hopefully, both hunting practices put together will have a lasting impact," Dickson said. "We have done some modeling that showed conclusively that if you took away spring harvest, the population would start growing again, especially with favorable environmental conditions such as milder winters and good breeding conditions."

The lesser snow goose, which spends time in the center of the Canadian arctic, migrates through the Prairie Provinces and winters in the south-central United States, offers a less optimistic forecast of population levels.

"It is too early to draw conclusions because we have just begun to study the effects of the measures of conservation taken, but we know that harvest targets have not been met in any year," Dickson said. "We are not sure whether or not hunters are going to be able to take enough snow geese to actually effect the population. They continue to remain very abundant and have a negative effect because there are still too many to be sustained by the breeding grounds."

In the end, much of the conservation success rests on the shoulders of hunters harvesting greater numbers of snow geese. According to Dickson, a number of other solutions would mostly be expensive and unpleasant.

"Everyone is really hoping that we can dream up ways for hunters to take more," Dickson said. "Give away birds to people that would love to eat them but don't hunt, so we can encourage hunters to take as many as possible and that will be enough."