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This Website is Dedicated to  Alvin Alexander Cheyne January 10, 1921 - June 17, 2005

    They have responded and, in 2006, the estimated population is 440,000. 

    The managing agencies, including the FWS and ODFW and other state wildlife agencies have set a management objective for the flyway of 300,000 on a three-year average. That means currently specks have a surplus of 140,000 birds. It is that surplus that is causing local farmers and ranchers a great deal of economic loss. 

    Last fall, California increased its bag limit in the Sacramento Valley where the birds winter. Estimates are that an additional harvest ranged from 30 to 50 thousand birds. 

    Our season will be closely monitored to determine just how many birds we take. 

    We have to share the harvest with all the states from California to Alaska, and, in Alaska, the indigenous tribes have sustenance rights to the birds and eggs during the nesting season.

Waterfowl management 

    All waterfowl are managed in accordance to an international treaty that includes almost all of the Pacific Rim. Each U.S. state is allotted 105 days to hunt waterfowl. 

    Oregon’s special season is 15 days long, days which were taken from the middle of the regular fall season. Not all local hunters are happy with that and some expressed themselves at the recent public presentation by ODFW and OSP at the Klamath County Fairgrounds. 

    Others were looking forward to the hunt, most specifically farmers and ranchers, but hunters are excited about the hunt, too. It will be a chance to take white fronts that many of us never get in the fall. 

    It is well known by waterfowl hunters that flocks do not necessarily take the same path traveling north that they do on the southern trip. 

    I never see a speck in the fall. Yet, in the spring, there can be as many as three to four thousand on my six acres of pasture at one time. 

    The daily bag limit is only two birds, with four in possession after opening day. Many farmers expressed dissatisfaction with a small bag limit when they are being preyed upon by thousands of hungry beaks. 

    Tom Collom reiterated that we are experimenting and, next year, we can make adjustments based on results and survival rates of the flocks. 

    The birds traditionally arrive in mid-February. Last year they began showing up in late January. This year, I have yet to see one land in my pasture, although there have been some small flocks flying up and down Lost River. 

    As can be expected, most depredation is close to waterways where birds can rest during the day. Private fields along the Lost River, near places like Spring Lake and Ewauna Lake, seem to take the brunt of damage. 

    There are plenty of public forage areas, but the surplus in recent years has pushed the birds off areas like Lower Klamath Wildlife Area and Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge, places where they are wanted and their eating does not cause problems. 

    There are many other factors that will be closely monitored and patrolled by ODFW, OSP game enforcement and FWS enforcement. 

    Private land only 

    This hunt is on private land only. Officials will be watching for lost hunters on public lands. There are almost no waterways or marshes where hunting will be legal. 

    The purpose of the hunt is to drive the birds off crop lands, which are private. Not all private land owners want hunters on their property. 

    It is important hunters respect private property rights and not trespass or shoot over land they do not have permission to hunt. Hunters do not have the right to retrieve downed birds on private land unless the owner agrees, whether it is before or after you drop a bird. 

    Another problem that was anticipated and has raised its ugly head is the leasing of private lands by guides and/or groups of hunters to the exclusion of non-attached hunters. This hunt was not set up specifically to generate extra hunting opportunities. 

    Landowners might recover some of their economic loss by accepting money from guides but, in the long run, they might cut their own throats when the season is curtailed next year. 

    The hunt will be reviewed and is not a sure thing for 2008. Their financial gain might be short-lived when the geese return next year and there is no season. 

    Landowners with grain or pasture to protect should think hard before allowing exclusive hunting rights to any individual. 

    At the recent meeting, I saw him taking names from eager hunters so he can call them when the fields are unguarded. 

    With a two-bird bag limit, hunters will have to be careful when shooting into the large flocks. OSP will be watching and, while it will not venture out into a field just to check licenses, it can watch from a distance. 

    If they are watching two hunters in a set and they witness five or six birds fall at one time, officers will give the errant nimrods a citation. They do not have to get a warrant to trespass when they have witnessed a violation. 

    That brings up the problem of quarry identification. Only white-fronted geese are legal. No Canada geese, snow geese or Rossí geese may be taken.