SNOW GEESE OVERRUN PROMPTS SPRING HARVEST PROPOSAL

A proposal aimed at reducing the mid-continent population of snow geese by about 4 million would allow hunting of the geese throughout the spring and give hunters extra tools.

The proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service recommends allowing hunters to use unplugged shotguns and electronic calls and would permit snow geese to be hunted beyond the March 10 end of the season.

The mid-continent population of snow geese has exploded to four times the historical population of 1.2 million to 1.8 million birds. The extra 4 million birds are overgrazing their breeding grounds in the Arctic. In some areas, goslings are dying from starvation, and some are not maturing enough to fly south in the fall, according to the government agency.

Snow geese feed by sticking their beaks into the soil and pulling out plant roots. "It takes so much time for the habitat to rejuvenate that it's not able to with a large population," says Steve Wilds, regional chief of migratory birds for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

It's estimated that more than one-third of the breeding grounds have been destroyed and another third are badly damaged.

The geese generally travel south along a flyway that brings them through northern and western Missouri, but many more come through Southeast Missouri on the return north.

The explosion of the snow goose population is attributed to a number of factors, including:

-- Agricultural changes that provide more grain along the migration route and wintering areas. Survival rates have increased dramatically and the birds are in very good shape when they begin their trip back north.

-- Refuge systems protect the geese. "They have learned to use them very effectively," Wilds says.

The geese also fly in very large flocks that include adults that have seen decoy spreads before. "They are very wary birds," Wilds said.

The proposal to dramatically increase the harvest of snow geese is opposed by the Humane Society of the United States. Dr. John Grandy has called the plan to reduce the population this way "brutal" and "scientifically preposterous."

The Humane Society is expected to seek an injunction delaying the hunt if the regulations are approved.

Dr. John Batt, chief biologist for Ducks Unlimited, leads a team of 14 American and Canadians scientists and waterfowl managers who have been studying the problem for the past two years. He says other alternatives to control the population were considered but were distasteful.

"Our group adopted the principle of respect for these birds," he said. "We didn't want to treat them like vermin or a scourge on the landscape."

"We wanted them to be used as food."

They concluded that hunting is the most socially acceptable method of controlling the snow geese population. "Society has to buy into what's done here," he said.

The proposal consists of "extraordinary measures," he said. "Nobody in the group wanted this conclusion to be what it is."

Some have suggested that controlling the snow geese population might require a change in farming methods, but Batt said that idea is naive.

"We're not going to change farming," he said.

Reducing the population to a level that can be sustained by the Arctic ecosystems and then managing the populations through traditional hunting means is a more realistic solution, he said.

This could be accomplished in seven or eight years if the annual harvest of birds is increased from the current 900,000 to about 2 million, Batt said.

In most states, the daily limit on snow geese is 20. Hunters currently average one a day.

Using unplugged shotguns will enable hunters to load five shells instead of the usual three. And a study found that the use of electronic calls increased the harvest by hunters eight times.

The Memphis-based Batt points out that the Humane Society is the only dissenting wildlife group and criticizes their view that "Mother Nature should be allowed to take her own course. The way Mother Nature does it is she starves goslings," he said.

It takes four to five weeks for a gosling to starve to death. "That is a far more inhumane way to die than to be shot," Batt said.

This proposal comes as the overall Southern Illinois goose count, which is based primarily on Canadian geese, is declining and expected to be down as much as 40 percent this year. The control action would occur only after all other migratory bird hunting seasons have closed.

State agencies that manage wildlife and migratory birds would oversee the hunt. The states affected are Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming.

Public comment on the proposed action is being taken until Jan. 8. To comment, write the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Migratory Bird Management, 4101 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, Va. 22203.