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Snow goose hunting is becoming more available
By TIM RENKEN, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
02/15/2003
Snow goose hunting can be great fun, in some ways as good as goose hunting can be.
And because of snow-goose overpopulation, it's now available to everybody - or at least those who have from $120 to $200 to pay for a day of hunting.
The spring season is 1 1/2 months long and there are no limits. In Missouri it runs through April 30 in all zones. In Illinois the statewide close is March 31. Unplugged shotguns and electronic callers are legal.
Hunting is the only practical way to reduce the unnaturally high number of snow geese. The big birds are destroying fragile Arctic nesting habitat.
Snow goose meat is great eating if prepared right. Well, maybe not great, but . . .
Those prices of $120 to $200 are fairly modest as guided hunts go. The growth of pay hunting for snow geese was stimulated by the opening four years ago of the so-called Conservation Order seasons. Federal waterfowl officials issued the order in response to what they deemed a crisis of small goose overpopulation. The light geese population was bloated by improved habitat and agriculture in the Midwest.
Spring hunting was legalized and the regulations loosened to increase the harvest. The liberalized regulations were deemed necessary because snow geese are difficult to hunt - so difficult that few people did it. Snow geese in migration fly high, too high to call, and descend unpredictably to feed. They never linger long and seldom return to the same fields twice.
Hunting them successfully required measures most hunters can't take, such as leases, hundreds, even thousands, of decoys, multiple electronic callers and an intelligence-gathering system to rival The Agency.
In the last three years, though, hundreds of hunters have made their first snow goose hunts and many have had memorable shoots. The snow goose kill in Missouri has risen from 20,000 before 1997 to some 200,000 last year. In Illinois, too, the kill has increased substantially, though the total hasn't been released yet by the Department of Natural Resources. And the continental light goose population has been reduced from a high of about 3 million to 2.6 million.
Dave Graber, waterfowl biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said a kill of about 1.4 million a year for several years will be needed to get the goose population down to its ideal level of 1.5 million.
Snow goose hunting during the Conservation Order seasons in Missouri centers around three regions in the northwestern quarter:
One is around the Swan Lake Refuge, Fountain Grove Conservation Area and the Grand Pass Conservation Areas.
Another is about 45 miles north of Kansas City near the Pony Express Conservation Area and Smithville Reservoir.
The third region is located approximately 45 miles north of St. Joseph near the Squaw Creek Refuge and the Bob Brown Conservation Area.
Missouri's Bootheel also has some good snow goose hunting in the spring. In Illinois the primary area is around the Crab Orchard and Union County areas of the extreme south.
Most goose hunting outfitters advertise in the outdoor magazines, including Ducks Unlimited. The major operations have Web sites that can be found with a search of "snow goose hunting."
Reporter Tim Renken
E-mail: trenken@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-849-4239
By TIM RENKEN, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
02/15/2003
Snow goose hunting can be great fun, in some ways as good as goose hunting can be.
And because of snow-goose overpopulation, it's now available to everybody - or at least those who have from $120 to $200 to pay for a day of hunting.
The spring season is 1 1/2 months long and there are no limits. In Missouri it runs through April 30 in all zones. In Illinois the statewide close is March 31. Unplugged shotguns and electronic callers are legal.
Hunting is the only practical way to reduce the unnaturally high number of snow geese. The big birds are destroying fragile Arctic nesting habitat.
Snow goose meat is great eating if prepared right. Well, maybe not great, but . . .
Those prices of $120 to $200 are fairly modest as guided hunts go. The growth of pay hunting for snow geese was stimulated by the opening four years ago of the so-called Conservation Order seasons. Federal waterfowl officials issued the order in response to what they deemed a crisis of small goose overpopulation. The light geese population was bloated by improved habitat and agriculture in the Midwest.
Spring hunting was legalized and the regulations loosened to increase the harvest. The liberalized regulations were deemed necessary because snow geese are difficult to hunt - so difficult that few people did it. Snow geese in migration fly high, too high to call, and descend unpredictably to feed. They never linger long and seldom return to the same fields twice.
Hunting them successfully required measures most hunters can't take, such as leases, hundreds, even thousands, of decoys, multiple electronic callers and an intelligence-gathering system to rival The Agency.
In the last three years, though, hundreds of hunters have made their first snow goose hunts and many have had memorable shoots. The snow goose kill in Missouri has risen from 20,000 before 1997 to some 200,000 last year. In Illinois, too, the kill has increased substantially, though the total hasn't been released yet by the Department of Natural Resources. And the continental light goose population has been reduced from a high of about 3 million to 2.6 million.
Dave Graber, waterfowl biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said a kill of about 1.4 million a year for several years will be needed to get the goose population down to its ideal level of 1.5 million.
Snow goose hunting during the Conservation Order seasons in Missouri centers around three regions in the northwestern quarter:
One is around the Swan Lake Refuge, Fountain Grove Conservation Area and the Grand Pass Conservation Areas.
Another is about 45 miles north of Kansas City near the Pony Express Conservation Area and Smithville Reservoir.
The third region is located approximately 45 miles north of St. Joseph near the Squaw Creek Refuge and the Bob Brown Conservation Area.
Missouri's Bootheel also has some good snow goose hunting in the spring. In Illinois the primary area is around the Crab Orchard and Union County areas of the extreme south.
Most goose hunting outfitters advertise in the outdoor magazines, including Ducks Unlimited. The major operations have Web sites that can be found with a search of "snow goose hunting."
Reporter Tim Renken
E-mail: trenken@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-849-4239
