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Geese galore: From none to No. 1

Canada geese nearly disappeared from Minnesota, but the population bounced back. Now a September season accounts for a large portion of the harvest.

August 28, 2011 at 7:59PM
This Canada goose was one of many that landed in decoys during a late-season hunt near Hutchinson, Minn.
This Canada goose was one of many that landed in decoys during a late-season hunt near Hutchinson, Minn. (Doug Smith/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Mike Schwartz has witnessed the remarkable transformation.

Giant Canada geese, once nearly extinct in Minnesota, have rocketed to No. 1 in the bag for waterfowl hunters the past seven years -- supplanting mallards as the state's top waterfowl.

"I remember in the 1970s I had to go to Lac qui Parle to shoot a goose," said Schwartz, 54, of Excelsior, an avid waterfowler. "You got one and were happy."

Instead, he and friends will happily be in a field not far from his home at dawn Saturday -- the September Canada goose season opener -- scanning the sky for geese. The daily bag limit: five. He'll almost certainly see birds and will likely shoot some.

"We'll shoot 70 percent of our geese in September," he said. "It's kind of taken the place of duck hunting [for me]."

Schwartz isn't alone. He's one of about 25,000 hunters who hunt the early Canada goose season.

Harvest climbs

Of the quarter-million Canada geese that Minnesota hunters are expected to kill this year, 100,000 of them will be taken in the September season, which runs through Sept. 22. And hunters will shoot an estimated 25,000 just this weekend, said Steve Cordts, Department of Natural Resources waterfowl specialist.

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The September hunt was launched in 1987 to try to reduce the burgeoning Canada goose population.

"This year we have a 107-day season," Cordts said. "Eighty-five days in the regular season and 22 days in September. That's the maximum number of days we can be open under the Migratory Bird Treaty."

And last year, the DNR made it even easier for hunters to thin the population during the regular waterfowl season. It eliminated restrictive goose zones, boosted the daily bag limit to three and added hunting days.

Hunters shot more geese.

According to DNR hunter surveys, the harvest climbed 12 percent to 258,000. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also surveys hunters, and it estimated the Canada goose harvest at 188,000, a 27 percent increase from 2009.

Minnesota has long been one of the top states in the nation for Canada goose harvest. Last year we were No. 2, behind Maryland, where 200,000 geese were killed.

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Still, the DNR spring helicopter survey estimated Minnesota's Canada goose population at 370,000 this spring, statistically about the same as 2009. The DNR's population goal is 250,000.

But the Canada goose's exponential growth has subsided.

"I would say the population is high but stable," Cordts said.

An August hunt?

Given the healthy goose population and the increased hunting opportunities, Cordts is surprised that only 25,000 of the estimated 82,000 waterfowl hunters partake in the September hunt. And the number of active goose hunters has remained stable, despite the increased hunting opportunities.

The DNR estimated there were 53,000 goose hunters last year, down a tad from the 56,000 in 2009. The federal survey showed about 52,000 goose hunters last year, a slight increase from the previous year.

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"It seems we should have a whole lot more people hunting geese in September," Cordts said. "They're big. They're fun to call. They're relatively easy to hunt, you don't need a lot of decoys, you can get permission [to hunt private land] throughout most of the state pretty easily."

The problem is that no matter what the DNR does, it may not be able to boost harvest much higher. Increasing the bag limit likely won't help, Cordts said. Hunters can only eat so many.

"One big goose is a lot [of meat]," Cordts said.

South and North Dakota allow special hunts starting in mid-August to reduce goose numbers, and that idea has been discussed here.

"All that may do is shift the harvest," he said.

Cordts said the DNR decided to wait and see how last year's liberalized regulations affect goose harvest over several years.

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Doug Smith • dsmith@startribune.com

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DOUG SMITH, Star Tribune

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