By Bruce Ross, Executive Director bross@wisducks.org
This article originally appeared in Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s February, 2022 Newsletter edition.
Every January, Taylor Finger, Waterfowl Migratory Bird Biologist for the DNR, rounds up all the usual duck-hunting suspects that comprise the Migratory Advisory Committee for an update on what’s waterfowl happening in the state.
Taylor will be presenting at our annual meeting this Saturday, but for those not making it, here’s the outline and some of his slides. Fair warning, this is a longish article with arcane details that not all readers will appreciate – but for those who live waterfowling, even after the season, there’s a lot of good information to chew on:
- Report from the flyway meeting:
- Expect next year’s season structure to mirror this year’s (60-day, 6 bird limit). That’s despite the drought that much of the breeding continent experienced over the past year. Without breeding surveys last spring (COVID-cancelled) by the USFWS, no federal changes are expected, as they could not be supported by hard evidence. Although they will be conducting counts this spring, that will be too late to inform 2022 season structure. DNR will likely follow suit by adopting similar guidelines as last year. (Ross note: Other states and conservation orgs (like WWA) have expressed concern that poor nesting conditions last year, without adjustment of harvest levels this year, may have an adverse impact on overall duck populations. But scientists believe it would be transient and they may be able to glean important information from such a one-year “experiment” without long-term impacts, believing that habitat, not hunting, drives overall population swings.)
- DNR has approved the Wisconsin spring flights to gauge nesting numbers which should better inform managers.
- At the state level, despite COVID restrictions eliminating volunteer help, the state met most of their goals for banding, at least for blue wing teal and geese, less so mallards.
- Waterfowler feedback from both online and hard-copy surveys:
- Respondents reported hunting nearly 30 days, which is quite a bit more than the average WI waterfowler (11 days). So either “average” waterfowlers hunted longer, or (more likely) the respondent demographic edged towards the more hard-core hunter.
- North Zone: Generally happy with season dates – no real over-crowding, zone-hopping complaints about opening earlier than south zone (at least in these surveys). Colder season than normal meant the last few days (weeks) of the season saw more ice-fishing than waterfowling.
- South Zone (and new this year, Mississippi folded into this zone): General satisfaction with dates. Mississippi reported satisfaction with bird numbers, variety, while rest of state saw good numbers of woodies and teal early, disappointing mallard (and other species’) numbers through mid-end of season. Big temperature gradient east -west across the state meant the eastern boat ramps/ponds froze well before the Big Muddy was put out of commission.
- Open Water Zone (new this year):
- A last-minute legal determination that the zone boundary would start 500 feet from the mainland Mean Low Water level led to some implementation confusion. This determination excluded islands, meaning Green Bay hunters who had for years hunted Longtail Point as South Zone, now had to consider it as the “open water zone” because record high waters now made Longtail an island. That meant Longtail could only be hunted when the Open Water zone started two weeks after the South Zone. Wardens focused on educating, not violating hunters in such areas, and this issue will be the subject of a policy review/public input for next year.
- Hunters indicated they were satisfied with bird numbers and season length, but almost universally switched their support to having the two-bird scaup limit at the front of the season, not the end (which they had almost universally supported in the lead-up to the season).
- Eastern coastal hunters were able to get out on the big water through the season, which ran two weeks later into December, justifying the later start date for that zone (at least this year).
- 2022 season regs will be formulated in March (expect a WWF and WWA survey on the various questions in late February), go to the Natural Resources Board in April, then submitted to the USFWS for approval end of April. The USFWS has been running late on their approvals, but don’t expect that to impact seasons here in Wisconsin (hopefully).
- Because there are not a lot of structural changes to waterfowl seasons year-to-year (last year being an exception with the introduction of the Open Water zone), the DNR is looking to streamline the annual rule-making process and will be proposing to extend the duration of its rule-making to five years, with options to be implemented annually, based on the annual guidelines from the USFWS. This would allow the stretched DNR staff to focus on issues of greater impact to WI waterfowling – like implementing its Waterfowl Management Strategy. (Ross note: There will be more details forthcoming on this proposal, but when we asked this question in our last survey tool in 2019, 4 out of 5 said it would be okay.)
- The DNR worked with the USFWS and implemented new technology to improve the quality of fall waterfowl counts. Using a high resolution camera onboard a USFWS aircraft which preceded the DNR counting plane by ½ mile, they captured high-resolution images of what the DNR observers were indeed seeing. By comparing the photos to what the observers counted, they can validate or adjust current practices for greater accuracy.
- Taylor noted the moisture in Prairie Canada is improving over last year’s significant drought conditions, but has a ways to go to make up for the conditions seen last spring. Conversely, Wisconsin is showing drier conditions prior to spring nesting this year as opposed to last year. (I can’t believe I’m typing this, but let’s hope for more snow.)
- WWA gave an overview of where the sandhill crane hunt proposal currently is at (see separate article by Todd Schaller. Note that the DNR’s official position is to await legislative direction to establish a hunt).
- The implementation of Wisconsin’s Waterfowl Management Plan (that came out two years ago) needs to be actively implemented so that it doesn’t collect dust on the shelf. Several organizations, including your WWA, helped develop the goals and objectives – now we need to collectively develop and execute the tasks needed to make it real. (Ross note: Work to be done, fer sure…. But know that your WWA has provided strong input to this process and feels a sense of responsibility for making sure the plan is more than a paperweight.)
- Finally, Taylor closed with a brief but enthusiastic review of August’s Waterfowl Hunters EXPO. The DNR sees this as a great way to engage waterfowl hunters in everything from data collection, to information sharing on duck stamp project work, waterfowler recruitment and education (at all levels of hunter experience). The DNR has committed official work hours of employees to this effort. (Ross note: We would not have had the success we did, nearly 3,000 attendees, without the DNR – and particularly Taylor’s active engagement (he leads the Programming Committee, responsible for all patron-focused activities). Kudos to the Department for seeing the potential, and investing in it at this early stage. Taylor’s new assistant, Allicyn Nelson, is joining the effort this year too!)
