TP&WD releases 2008-2009 waterfowl season proposals

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TP&WD releases 2008-2009 waterfowl season proposals

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Published: 08.11.08

Each year the US Fish and Wildlife Service will set a framework for the states to follow as they adopt their waterfowl seasons, including the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. This framework is a set of dates where the feds stipulate the earliest opening date and the latest closing date. They also tell the states how many days will be allowed in the season as well as harvest quotas for each specie. That is the easy part. The hard part is trying to determine what those quotas will be.

The US Fish &Wildlife service, in cooperation with state and Canadian wildlife officials, conduct surveys each spring to determine the size of the breeding populations of each species and their nesting habitats. The results of these surveys (I wrote about those last week) are what are used to determine those quotas. As I said earlier, getting those numbers is no easy task. The surveys are conducted using fixed wing aircraft and covering over 2 million square miles that encompass the principal breeding areas of North America. These surveys have been done since 1955, allowing biologist to establish a long term average for each species of duck and geese. It’s these long term average numbers that are important. If the long term figures are low, the Feds will cut back on that particular specie. A good example is the pintail.

Pintail nesting grounds have been plagued by drought conditions for several years and the pintail breeding numbers dropped so low that hunting was suspended for that specie until breeding numbers rebounded. Those numbers have rebounded, but not to numbers that would allow more than a very limited harvest of pintails.

Now that I have explained how all this works, I’ll get to the season structure proposed by the US Fish & Wildlife Service for the 2008-2009 waterfowl seasons.

Duck season will be a liberal package of 74 days (same as last year) and a five-bird limit in the north and south zones and an 89 day season in the High Plains Mallard Management Unit. Even with the liberal proposals, all is not well in the duck world.

Scaup populations have fallen to record low numbers the past two years for the specie. As a result, the bag limit for scaup will be limited to two per day here in the central flyway. In other flyways, the season will be more restricted and the canvasback season will be closed altogether.

Texas will be allowed to finish the three year pilot program called Hunters Choice, where hunters will be allowed to shoot five ducks, only one of which may be a pintail, canvasback, mallard hen or dusky duck. The ducks that are considered as a “dusky duck†are mottled ducks, black duck or Mexican-like duck.

According to the federal guidelines, The Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. has adopted the following season dates.

• South Zone – Youth only season Oct. 25-26, regular season Nov. 1-30 2008 and Dec.13-Jan. 25, 2009

• North Zone - Will be Identical to the south zone seasons.

• High Plains Mallard Unit will run Oct. 18-19 for youth only and regular season dates of Oct. 25-26, 2008 and Oct. 31-Jan. 25, 2009.

The proposed daily bag limit shall be five ducks with the following specie and sex restrictions- 2 scaup, 2 redheads, 2 wood ducks, 1 mallard hen, 1 pintail, 1 canvasback, and one dusky duck. All other ducks not listed will be a limit of five.

As for geese, the eastern zone white-front goose season will run Nov. 1 through Jan. 11 The Canada goose and light goose season will run Nov. 1 through Jan. 25, 2009. Daily bag limits will be three Canada geese, two white-front geese and twenty light geese.

In the western Zone, The proposed dates are Nov. 8 through Feb. 8, 2009 with a daily bag limit of four Canada geese, one white-front and twenty light geese.

Once again this year the light goose conservation order will be in effect and will start at the close of the regular season and run through March 29, 2009.

Now keep in mind, these are the proposed dates and bag limits that have been adopted by the TP&WD. Public comment is now being accepted on these proposals by e-mail to [email protected] or by regular mail to Dave Morrison, TPWD Waterfowl Program Leader, 4200 Smith School Rd. Austin, TX 78744. Final approval will be at the commission’s Aug. 21 public meeting in Houston.