ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 21, 1996 TAG: 9607220142
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-12 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Outdoors
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
Which of the following statements is correct?
A. The Canada goose population is growing so rapidly that the birds are becoming a nuisance and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries is expanding the hunting season and urging sportsmen to get out and kill geese.
B. The Canada goose population is in an alarming decline, so much so that there won't be a season anywhere along the Atlantic Coast this year - including Canada - nor will there be one in the near future.
This is a can't-miss quiz. Both answers are correct.
What you have is one of the most fascinating paradoxes of wildlife management.
All of a sudden, we have two races or families of Canada geese. There is the traditional one, which nests in Canada and wings southward to spend the winter. Then there is the resident group, which recently seems to have decided, ``Why bother flying all that distance twice a year. Why not just stay in Virginia year-round?''
The resident Canada goose population in Virginia is estimated at 150,000 to 200,000 birds and is growing at a rate of 15 percent annually. These birds favor golf courses (as golfers whose spikes have been clogged with goose poo know only too well), parks, fancy suburbs, old-folks homes, anywhere there are ponds and grass. They also like farm crops. Agriculture officials estimated goose damage at $236,000 this year, more than twice what it was in 1995.
This past fall, according to game department estimates, hunters killed 6,000 resident geese during a 10-day, September hunting season. That didn't put much of a dent in the population.
``We are emptying the bathtub with a thimble; we aren't harvesting enough,'' said Bob Duncan, chief of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries' wildlife department.
Officials have added an additional week to the season this fall. The statewide season will be open Sept.3-21 and the bag limit will be a hefty five birds daily.
What's more, state wildlife officials will petition federal wildlife officials later this month for permission to establish a late-season hunting segment that would be open Jan.21-Feb.8.
Here's the challenge. Remember, while the population of the resident birds swells, the migratory population is declining and must be protected. So the hunting dates for the resident birds must be set at a time when migratory birds are in the north country.
Board members of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries debated extending the resident season through Sept.25, but backed down when staff biologists expressed concern that the migratory birds would be arriving about Sept.20.
``We can't put any more pressure on the migratory population,'' Duncan said. ``We have a big challenge to bring back those birds.''
There is no way anyone can tell the difference in the two birds, because they are the same species.
``A resident bird is a migratory bird that just hasn't gone home for a while,'' said Leon McFillen, a board member from McLean.
OTHER SEASONS: State game officials have set a three-way split fall dove hunting season that has changed little from last year. The first portion will be open Sept.2-28, which means hunters can be afield during the Labor Day weekend. The other segments of the season are Oct.4-Nov.2 and Dec.23-Jan.4. The daily limit is 12.
There will be an Oct.28-Nov.23; Dec.18-Jan.4 woodcock season, but officials warn that this species continues to decline and the season likely will be sliced by 15 days next year. The bag limit is three per day.
The rail season is Sept.1-Jan.20, and the snipe season is Sept.1-Jan.31.
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