Population boost thanks to hunting regulations from the late 1980s

With the exception of youth days on Feb. 3 and 10, North Carolina's duck season ended Jan. 27. However, hunters can set decoys for resident Canada geese through Feb. 10. Cody Davis and I have given them some effort when time and tidal conditions allow.

One recent day, we set our decoys and waited until falling tide forced us from the marsh. After picking up the decoys, we watched three huge birds fly over our vacated hunting spot.

"Those look like geese," Davis said. "Listen!"

As I throttled down the outboard, we heard them honking. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "That's hunting."

I had set goose decoys along with duck decoys during duck season. One day, I heard a Canada goose calling a mile away. I called back, gaining the flock's attention. My heart pounded with excitement as three decoyed. My shooting was true and, as my Lab, Tinker, retrieved them, I thought about how big a mouthful a 12-pound Canada goose is for a 58-pound dog swimming against heavy current. Such are days that make cherished memories.

They were probably non-migratory geese. However, with abnormally frequent freezing conditions this winter, I noticed more geese than usual. They could have flown in from Canada. I remember when shooting any goose in local marshes was noteworthy and, if the opportunity came, it was likely a migratory goose.

In yet another wildlife success story paid for by hunters, that situation changed dramatically. People see geese at parks, campuses, golf courses, farms and stormwater ponds. While the state still receives migrants, areas where most of them spend the winter, the Southern James Bay and Northeast Hunt zones, have more restrictive seasons than the Resident Population zone.

Prior to 1987, hunting regulations treated migratory and non-migratory Canada geese identically. From 1987 through 1991, a winter season had a one-bird limit. When the population began increasing, a movement among hunters and biologists sought to take advantage of the expanding resource without hurting migratory flocks that had suffered declines thought to be attributable to short-stopping in northern states and an overall population drop for unknown reasons.

The first non-migratory Canada goose season opened in 1989 west of I-95 with a two-bird bag limit. In 1994, non-migratory goose season included the rest of the state west of I-95 with a three-bird limit. Now, a four-segment season begins Sept. 1 and ends Feb. 10, with a 15-bird limit in Sept. and a five-bird bag limit afterward.

The non-migratory goose population started when the Migratory Bird Treaty Act banned live decoys in the 1930s and hunters freed their semi-tame and captive-bred geese, which had lost their ability to migrate to traditional breeding grounds. From 1983 until 1988, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission moved 4,600 non-migratory geese from other areas and released them in North Carolina, mostly in the coastal plain. The goal was stocking non-migratory geese as a way to supplement migratory flocks in the areas where hunting still occurred. Those geese came from Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ontario, Canada. Other people acquired non-migratory geese and released them in and near piedmont cities including Raleigh and Greensboro. Other non-migratory geese flew into the state as a byproduct of birds stocked in other states.

The problem with hunting resident geese is they are at least as adept as migratory geese at avoiding hunters. The places where they occur in numbers so large people may consider them nuisances are typically places where hunting them is prohibited. However, these de facto sanctuaries serve as reservoirs from which they make occasional flights over waters where hunters can set decoys.