In some cases, within a few weeks of these ponds creation, resident geese will take up residence, build nests and lay large clutches of eggs. It's not at all unusual to see entire families of geese basking in the sun along the shores of these ponds throughout much of the year. Because of this, the USFWS has consistently expanded bag limits over the past decade in an effort to control resident goose numbers. The goal is to hopefully reduce the resident population to approximately 625,000 geese, if at all possible.

"Until we get some additional tools, I'm not sure we can do that," said veteran waterfowl biologist Larry Hindman when asked about reducing the non-migratory goose population. "Even if we get some additional tools, I'm not sure we can achieve those numbers. The population of resident geese is very strong and healthy, and they have been very resilient," Hindman added.

"The Atlantic population of Canada geese (migratory stocks) last spring had a very early and strong nesting effort. Birds on the Hudson Bay coasts made up the lion's share of those nesting, and the nesting pair numbers were up about 15 to 20 percent over last year, and maybe slightly higher than the high number of 2004," Hindman said.

"The birds around Ungava Bay made up about 20 percent of the population, and nest densities were lower and there seemed to be quite a bit of predation from black bears," Hindman added.

He believes the combination of harvest levels and predation by bears, plus some gull predation, is having a greater impact on nesting in this particular area. "These birds get hit pretty hard in southern Quebec, where hunting regulations are fairly liberal, so this group of birds seem as if they're not doing nearly as well as the Hudson Bay coastal birds during nesting season."

Hindman said he does not anticipate any change in hunting regulations for migratory Canada geese during the upcoming season. However, there is a proposal in to the USFWS to permit portions of some New England states to allow an earlier opening day, but this still must fit within the 45-day season and two-bird daily bag limit in all major harvest areas.

SNOW GEESE
Snow goose populations seem to have stabilized throughout their range. While some of the population stabilization can be attributed to hunting in the United States, the major factor is the use of electronic calls, which were legalized in southern Quebec. Add on a spring hunting season for the species in Quebec as well and you have some containment of burgeoning snow goose numbers. Hindman said conservative hunting regulations, both in the United States and Canada, is keeping the birds in check, but the overall population of snow geese is still not near the target level.

"We hope to have those same conservation measures, such as electronic calls, unplugged guns, hunting a half-hour after sunset and spring hunting, allowed in some U.S. jurisdictions. This should help drive the population closer to the population objective, which is approximately 500,000 birds. The current population is approximately 800,000 snow geese."