Let's solve Guy's issue for him. Start all the seasons later, kill the splits. Thus in fact saving the lives of many mosquito's. <<<<<<<Conservation.
Email response from Zenner
I emailed Guy and asked if he could explain somethings about the season dates and he sent me a detailed email on why things work like they do. Here's some of the literature and he also sent some graphs.
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With regards to closing the season the week of Christmas â€"
The first constraint is that our Canada goose season can only be 90 days long. To accommodate hunters that want to hunt geese the first week of January in either the north or south zones, we need to split the season at some point in December. I say “December†for 2 reasons. First, 73% of respondents to the 2006 Iowa Waterfowl Hunter Opinion Survey said they preferred the duck and goose seasons overlap as much as possible (18% had no opinion). Second, the vast majority of hunters in the 2006 Iowa Waterfowl Hunter Opinion Survey said they wanted to hunt geese throughout November (see the graphs below). So to accommodate the wishes of the majority of hunters, we are left with closing the goose season sometime in December. Some goose hunters have told us not to close the season during the first 2 weeks of December as there is always a big migration during those weeks. Others have said that they can’t get out around Christmas due to family obligations, so that would be a good time to close if we had to split the season. Closing waterfowl seasons the week of Christmas is a tradition in some southern states in the U.S., so we thought closing the season for 5 days around Christmas would be a reasonable way to accommodate the late-season hunters’ desires and allow them to hunt into January. If I can get the Mississippi Flyway Council and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lengthen our goose season this year, which I am going to attempt to do, the Christmas week closing may be eliminated.
In regards to the duck season dates and late season mallard hunting â€"
You mentioned that the duck seasons run later in South Dakota and Nebraska. Those 2 states are in the Central Flyway, where the duck season was 74 days long. In the Mississippi Flyway, the duck season was only 60 days long. So it is not too surprising that SD and NE season’s would stay open later than ours. MN’s season closed on Dec. 2 last fall, which was 9 days before our season closed. Again, the majority of duck hunters in Iowa appear to prefer to hunt in November and late October as opposed to December (see the graphs below). Hard core duck hunters like yourself do not comprise the majority of the people that pursue ducks in Iowa each year. In fact, only about 25% of the persons that registered with the Harvest Information Program (HIP) in Iowa during 2001-05 registered every year. More than half only registered one or two years during that 5 year period. When selecting duck season dates, we try to consider what the majority of license buyers want, as well as the more ardent hunters. As you can see from the graphs, those desires do not always match up perfectly. We also look at the weekly waterfowl counts I mentioned earlier, which are conducted through December each year. That information indicates that the vast majority of ducks have migrated through Iowa nearly every year by Thanksgiving. Yes, we can have some mallards migrate into the state after that time, but that late flight usually consists of a few mallards with some late season divers like goldeneyes and mergansers. After Thanksgiving, only a small number of very ardent duck hunters are still hunting.
Selecting waterfowl hunting season dates is always a compromise. In my experience, it is simply not possible to select the best dates for everyone. However, we do our best to provide the majority of Iowa’s waterfowlers with a reasonable opportunity to pursue ducks and geese when those birds are moving through the state. Lacking a “crystal ball†to see what the weather will be like this coming fall, there is always a little guesswork involved.
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Guy Zenner
Waterfowl Research Biologist
Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources
1203 N. Shore Drive
Clear Lake, IA 50428
phone: 641-357-3517
e-mail: [email protected]
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**********
With regards to closing the season the week of Christmas â€"
The first constraint is that our Canada goose season can only be 90 days long. To accommodate hunters that want to hunt geese the first week of January in either the north or south zones, we need to split the season at some point in December. I say “December†for 2 reasons. First, 73% of respondents to the 2006 Iowa Waterfowl Hunter Opinion Survey said they preferred the duck and goose seasons overlap as much as possible (18% had no opinion). Second, the vast majority of hunters in the 2006 Iowa Waterfowl Hunter Opinion Survey said they wanted to hunt geese throughout November (see the graphs below). So to accommodate the wishes of the majority of hunters, we are left with closing the goose season sometime in December. Some goose hunters have told us not to close the season during the first 2 weeks of December as there is always a big migration during those weeks. Others have said that they can’t get out around Christmas due to family obligations, so that would be a good time to close if we had to split the season. Closing waterfowl seasons the week of Christmas is a tradition in some southern states in the U.S., so we thought closing the season for 5 days around Christmas would be a reasonable way to accommodate the late-season hunters’ desires and allow them to hunt into January. If I can get the Mississippi Flyway Council and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lengthen our goose season this year, which I am going to attempt to do, the Christmas week closing may be eliminated.
In regards to the duck season dates and late season mallard hunting â€"
You mentioned that the duck seasons run later in South Dakota and Nebraska. Those 2 states are in the Central Flyway, where the duck season was 74 days long. In the Mississippi Flyway, the duck season was only 60 days long. So it is not too surprising that SD and NE season’s would stay open later than ours. MN’s season closed on Dec. 2 last fall, which was 9 days before our season closed. Again, the majority of duck hunters in Iowa appear to prefer to hunt in November and late October as opposed to December (see the graphs below). Hard core duck hunters like yourself do not comprise the majority of the people that pursue ducks in Iowa each year. In fact, only about 25% of the persons that registered with the Harvest Information Program (HIP) in Iowa during 2001-05 registered every year. More than half only registered one or two years during that 5 year period. When selecting duck season dates, we try to consider what the majority of license buyers want, as well as the more ardent hunters. As you can see from the graphs, those desires do not always match up perfectly. We also look at the weekly waterfowl counts I mentioned earlier, which are conducted through December each year. That information indicates that the vast majority of ducks have migrated through Iowa nearly every year by Thanksgiving. Yes, we can have some mallards migrate into the state after that time, but that late flight usually consists of a few mallards with some late season divers like goldeneyes and mergansers. After Thanksgiving, only a small number of very ardent duck hunters are still hunting.
Selecting waterfowl hunting season dates is always a compromise. In my experience, it is simply not possible to select the best dates for everyone. However, we do our best to provide the majority of Iowa’s waterfowlers with a reasonable opportunity to pursue ducks and geese when those birds are moving through the state. Lacking a “crystal ball†to see what the weather will be like this coming fall, there is always a little guesswork involved.
Guy Zenner
Waterfowl Research Biologist
Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources
1203 N. Shore Drive
Clear Lake, IA 50428
phone: 641-357-3517
e-mail: [email protected]
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