re: duck season interesting read from up north...

Dennis Anderson is a long-time waterfowl alarmist. In the mid-80's it was illegal harvest in Louisiana that was driving waterfowl populations down, and he did a big piece that generated enough donations to buy a helicopter and send it to LE in Louisiana to "save the ducks". In the early-90's he was part of the "we're killing too many ducks" crowd and implored the USFWS to close the season (as did Delta Waterfowl) to "save the ducks". This is more of the same.

We use the same data to set the waterfowl seasons now as we always have. There are planes/observers in the air and crews on the ground to estimate the Bpop and ponds. You can read their reports yourself at www.flyways.us while they conduct the largest, most scientifically sound wildlife survey on the planet. The July brood survey was discontinued nearly 30 years ago because it didn't provide any additional value for the season-setting process, but we still use the pond counts affected by the drought.

The only thing new in the article is that we set the seasons using past year's data now. But that is because of limitations in federal law making (NEPA compliance, public comment periods, and review by federal Solicitor's Office) that we used to be able to short-cut but have faced legal challenges. Canada has set seasons a year in advance for decades, and now they set them for 2 years at a time. And as we all know, duck populations have never responded to changes in hunting regulations, much less in 1 year, so is it really a big deal?

The real BS in the article is that 1) some waterfowl managers are considering being done with harvest regulations altogether because they don't influence waterfowl populations and 2) that we continue to set liberal seasons to keep hunters in the field. First, it's only hunting regulations within the historic bounds that we know have little effect on populations. We have no experience with unlimited or completely closed seasons, so no manager anywhere thinks we should get rid of hunting regulations. Second, we now have firm evidence that liberal hunting regulations don't keep hunters in the field, and that hunter satisfaction increases with their kill until you get to 4 ducks; that 5th or 6th duck doesn't lead to any real increase in satisfaction. So why a bag limit of 6?

Because it's scientifically defensible, that's why.

Lastly, you all know the score ..... large-scale population estimates/habitat conditions do NOT dictate local hunting success. It seems that nothing is working FOR us in Louisiana, but many forces are working AGAINST us. Coastal wetland loss, loss and emigration of rice agriculture, advances(changes) in agricultural practices, climate change, invasive aquatics, etc. are all reducing the attractiveness and capacity of Louisiana habitats to support waterfowl. Some, like climate change and agricultural practices, are driving similar changes in birds wintering further north in Russia, Europe, the Middle East ..... everywhere in the northern hemisphere. I'm sometimes surprised at the ducks I continue to count from the plane every fall/winter, and what we have is still pretty special.

Sorry for the long-winded rant, but the "rules" for setting the season are clear, and the data is the same as it's always been. I'm going to a flyway meeting in August, and using the BPop, ponds, harvest, and banding data, we are going to set the framework for the 2018-19 season. I'll be giving a presentation on that and other Waterfowl Section stuff to the Commission the first Thursday in September.