Since the winter of 1996, Canada geese (Branta canadensis) have been harvested in a special late season hunt. The objective of the late season is to alleviate goose damage to agricultural crops by giving landowners an additional means of hazing geese from their property. About 20,000 Canada geese winter in southwestern Washington, and their activities are largely concentrated on privately owned agricultural lands in Goose Management Area 2A. The late season hunt was initiated to address this concern.

Geese get accustomed to many hazing techniques (e.g., pyrotechnics, streamers, etc.), even when used in combination. By adding the late season hunt to these hazing tactics, biologists and landowners believe that hazing becomes more effective. By harvesting a few geese, the others are deterred from concentrating on a landowner's property. Indeed harvesting geese in one area will even benefit landowners where hunting is not allowed, because the flock will be more responsive to other hazing. Besides providing extra support to the hazing program, the late season also provides some additional recreational hunting opportunities.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (Department) is responsible for coordinating and monitoring the late season. Department staff coordinate hunts by placing hunters in contact with landowners requesting assistance with goose damage. Biologists and staff also monitor hunter effort, the goose harvest at check stations, and help monitor the number of dusky Canada geese that winter in southwest Washington.

Historically, hunters that completed the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Advance Hunter Education Program (AHE hunters) and have a southwest Washington goose authorization card are eligible to participate in the hunts during the late season. In addition, youth hunters (up to 15 years old) with a southwest Washington goose authorization card are eligible to accompany AHE hunters during the late season.

Summary of the 2002 Late-Season

The 2002 late season consisted of 30 hunt days: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, from 19 January to 10 March 2002. Hunts were scheduled on 25 of the 30 potential hunt days.

Prior to the 2002 late season, the coordinator contacted the landowners and sent a follow-up letter to assess their need for depredation relief and interest in participating in the late season. A letter was also sent out to participating AHE hunters. The letter provided instructions and assisted in improving compliance with late season guidelines and procedures.

An effort was made to contact landowners who had previously participated in the program. The 12 landowners who responded, were given the opportunity to list reasons for not participating in the program this year. Nine out of the 12 landowners stated that extensive hazing by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Wildlife Services reduced goose depredation. However, 12 out of the 12 landowners reported that they observed smaller concentrations of geese this year than in 2001.

According to the USDA Wildlife Services, as of March 21, 2002: over 500,000 geese have been hazed (per occurrence and possibly including some of the same geese), approximately $4,500 in agriculture damages was verified, and over 5,000 acres of agricultural land has been protected (primarily in the Woodland Bottoms area).

A new procedure was implemented in the 2002 late season to assist the hunters in reporting their daily harvest. If hunters were unsuccessful, they could contact the check station attendant by pager or by cell phone to report their lack of harvest for the day. This procedure was widely appreciated by the hunters, because it saved them the time of driving to the check station just to report that no birds were harvested.

The check station operating hours for 2002 late season was 9 a.m.-5 p.m. A suggestion was made by ten hunters and two check station attendants to change the check station hours to 10 a.m.-6 p.m. for the 2003 late season. This would allow hunters extra time to pack up and drive to the check station to check out. The hunters expressed that this change would have minimal impact during the late season since typically they did not check out before 10:00 a.m.

Fewer landowners participated in the 2002 late season than in previous years (Table 2). The decrease in participation directly affected the number of hunting opportunities for the 2002 late season. A total of four landowners participated: two from Clark County, one from Cowlitz County, and one from Wahkiakum County (Table 1).

The 2002 late season harvests were distributed with 47% of the harvest occurring on the Fazio property in the Vancouver Bottoms, 1% on the Morgan property in Ridgefield, both in goose management zone 3; 16% on the Phelan property, and 35% on the Youngquist property, both in goose management zone 4 (Table 1).

A total of 88 hunters applied to hunt during the 2002 late season (Table 2). Most of the hunters were either offered an opportunity to hunt by the coordinator or hunted as a partner with another hunter who was contacted during the late season.

The total number of geese harvested for the 2002 late season was 228, including one dusky goose from Wahkiakum County (Table 2).

Protecting Dusky Canada Geese

Regulations designed to protect dusky Canada geese extend to the late season goose hunt. Protection of the dusky Canada geese was successful, with only one dusky taken out of 228 geese harvested during the late season. This represents 0.4% of the harvest (Table 2).

Discussion and Conclusions

As previously stated, the objective of the late season hunt is to provide landowners an additional means of hazing geese from their property. The 2002 late season was successful for both the landowners and hunters. The participating landowners reported that they were pleased with the additional hazing support. The hunters enjoyed a success rate of 52% (Table 1). By combining hunts with other hazing tactics, landowners reported having more success in deterring geese from concentrating on their property.

Based on surveys conducted by Department biologists throughout the fall and winter, the number of geese present in Area 2 has declined since November 2001 (Figure 1). The observations may possibly suggest that the number of geese present were more widely distributed throughout southwest Washington. This distribution may have contributed to the reduced landowner participation in the 2002 late season.

No major problems were reported by the participating landowners during the late season. They were pleased with the hunting and hazing efforts on their properties. Good communication between landowners, hunters, and Department staff are key to successful operation of the late season.

The Department continues to support the use of the Late Season Depredation Hunt. We believe that having hunts in combination with hazing contributes substantially to reducing goose damage on privately owned agricultural land in southwest Washington.