MWA at it Again......

[Fish Felon]

Feds will set duck seasons months earlier, under major changes underway


By DOUG SMITH, STAR TRIBUNE
September 19, 2015 - 5:52 PM


Some laud advanced notice, but opinions are mixed on the shift.

This year — as in decades past — dates, season length and bag limits of Minnesota’s waterfowl season were announced just weeks before the season was set to open.

That’s because federal officials don’t set the regulations until after a complex process that involves spring duck surveys, assessment of last fall’s harvest data, numerous meetings with state officials and publishing of the final regulations in the Federal Register.

“That’s how we’ve done business for 50 years,” said Steve Cordts, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources waterfowl specialist.

Now, in a major shift, federal officials are changing the process and will set waterfowl seasons nationwide a year in advance … which means details of Minnesota’s 2016 season will be decided and posted online by spring.

Instead of waiting for results of this fall’s harvest and next May’s continental breeding duck survey to set the 2016 regulations, federal officials will use the 2015 survey and last year’s harvest results.

“We’re essentially using last year’s information,” said Cordts.

In 2013, the Fish and Wildlife Service did an environmental-impact statement, which concluded using year-old data won’t harm the waterfowl population, Cordts said.

“There’s very little risk. If a breeding duck population drops a bunch, that will result in a restricted season the following year,” he said. “Canada has been doing this for decades.”

Said Jim Kelley, Mississippi Flyway representative for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: “We think we’ll be able to account for any impacts to duck populations fairly quickly. We think [the new system] will be sensitive enough to safeguard populations. And we still have the emergency ability to change a season if dire events occur.”

Officials from some states were concerned that the new system might result in more conservative duck seasons, Kelley said. “The bottom line is we don’t think it will have an impact on the frequency of liberal seasons.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service says the change will give biologists more time to analyze bird survey data, will give the public more time to weigh in on proposed regulations and will ensure that administrative procedures don’t delay opening of hunting seasons.

For those who like to plan their hunting trips or vacations months in advance, the change will be helpful, Kelley said. “We think it will be better in the long run,” he said.

Paul Schmidt, Ducks Unlimited chief conservation officer, said the conservation group has no major concerns with the new process, as long as the spring duck survey and harvest information continue.

“I’m not concerned at all from a scientific perspective, as long as we’re diligent in collecting that data,” he said. Schmidt said he believes the Fish and Wildlife Service will be able to react, if necessary, to changing duck populations or habitat.

“We are OK with it,” Schmidt said.


But some question whether the change will benefit ducks.

“It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in my life,” said Jim Cox of Cologne, a former member of the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council and former president of the Minnesota Waterfowl Association. “It makes no sense at all. Why even do the yearly counts?”

Added Cox: “I’m concerned the Fish and Wildlife Service is losing all credibility in how it counts ducks and uses that information, and I think they’re losing the confidence of duck hunters.”

Dave Zentner of Duluth, who headed Capitol duck rallies and is a member of the Concerned Duck Hunters Group, which believes the regulations now are too liberal, also is skeptical.

“It sounds like convenience for the bureaucracy,” he said.

Kelley said the change is being done mostly for administrative reasons. The legal requirements for setting migratory bird hunting seasons are complex.

“We’ve always gone down to the wire to get documents published in time so seasons can be opened,” he said. “Sometimes those documents haven’t been published until the day before a season opened. That’s just not a tenable framework to keep in place. Some year a delay will occur, and it would be a nightmare if we couldn’t get the documents published in time.”

When the waterfowl season framework was moved up a week in 2002, allowing duck seasons to open on the Saturday nearest Sept. 24 instead of the Saturday nearest Oct. 1, that added to the deadline pressure, Kelley said.

Meanwhile, because officials will be looking at last May’s breeding duck survey — which showed a record number of ducks — to set the 2016 regulations, next year’s season almost certainly will be the 20th consecutive “liberal” season, meaning a 60-day, six-duck bag limit.

The Fish and Wildlife Service will publish the 2016 season framework in December to allow for a 30-day comment period. The final framework will be published in late February, and states will have until April 30 to select their season regulations.

Cordts said that although Minnesota now could publish its waterfowl regulations in the regular hunting regulations booklet, the DNR is likely to continue to publish a separate waterfowl regulations booklet.

Doug Smith • doug.smith@startribune.com

[Fish Felon]

WTF is wrong with these M-Effers!? Why do douche bags like Jim Cox, Dave Zentner, and the other 6 active MWA members think they have the right to speak on behalf of all duck hunters in this state?! The 'Concerned Duck Hunters' IS Dave Zentner!!! Him and Roger Strand...That's It! Two phucking guys damn near 80. Jim Cox is that...Jim Cox.

This is the problem with the media in this state. They make it sound like there's tens of thousands of people backing them in print, which leads your casual duck hunter read this BS and feel like there's some big uproar...causing a big uproar.



I'm unhappy to see DU quoted even though they said the right things. I'm sure they were asked for a comment, I wish they had responded, "No comment. None of our business."

[Bullet21XD]

Loves the cock.



Rapes himself nightly with 12 inches of black latex.





Tossed h2ofoulers salad yesteday.

[Bullet21XD]

Yep...all phags.

[gimpfinger]

Bet those guys shot over their limit many times back in the day.

Pretty sad these guys want to limit what everyone can shoot because they can't hardly get out there and do it themselves anymore.

Team Power Dump

[get-n-birdy]

I don't know any of these guys and am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.

The biggest rub for me is being conservative, with regards to regulations, when there's no factual reasoning. It seems feeling based to me, but don't know?

I'd really like to sit down with them off the record, with some truthful communication.

My dad is in his 80's, and wants to give back, I get that. But he has no problem with young guys wanting to pile up birds, that's fun when you're young, he understands that. There's stages, hills, valleys and long plateaus in all stages of life. There's no saying, just cause you're on one or the other, that you're in a spot everyone else should be.

We gave up on, what we nick named the hour glass slough, east of Wendell, south of Fergus Falls. If you want GPS coordinates, I'll give them to you. It was a royal pain to get into. Was brutal to walk around in. But we shot pickup loads of birds off it. It crapped out because of tile, flooding, minnows and pesticides.

We moved on, happy it was there while it lasted.

Drives us nuts guys complaining about no birds in mn. There's still plenty of birds. And as always, you can't anchor yourself to one spot just because that's where they were ten years ago, a week ago or even yesterday. Any hunter worth his salt knows this. Things ebb and flow. Always have, always will.

You can't hunt, fish, clean and eat memories.

These guys want others to get stuck on the waste land they are stuck on, and don't understand there's others who deserve opportunities, if and when they present themselves, even if it's not in their idealistic wheel house.

The scientific, factual and sustainable end of it is very controllable with the modern day season structure. In my mind there is no doubt of that. But people, especially older males, get stuck in their own thought process as being the one, true and only gospel. That's the crux of it, they are stuck mentally, that it's their way or nothing. That's the really sad part to me.

[lanyard]

There you go GnB, preaching the mediocrity again. If it wasn't for the militant saviors we'd be giving hen houses to kids that would just turn them into death boxes, and if we shoot birds, there ain't none to fill a nest.

Just a bunch of blood thirsty masochists out to destroy everything that flies!

[Trigger]

Does Cox and the rest of the blue hairs realize how stupid they sound when they are talking? If they would live and function in reality, even just a little bit, I would take them a little more seriously.

I bet he thinks we are one bad year away from a catastrophic crash in waterfowl numbers.

[Fish Felon]

I don't know any of these guys and am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.

The biggest rub for me is being conservative, with regards to regulations, when there's no factual reasoning. It seems feeling based to me, but don't know?

I'd really like to sit down with them off the record, with some truthful communication.

By all means go for it.

Please don't assume I didn't go that route first. What I found is there is no such thing as truthful with these guys.

Honestly I would love for a half dozen people on here to give these guys the benefit of the doubt and ask them,

"You've been raising concerns about the 'liberalization' of duck regulations for over a decade and it's supposed impact on MN ducks.

You have consistently questioned virtually every duck related piece of data produced by the USFWS or DNR.

With your obvious and considerable available resources why haven't you gathered independent research to back up your claims?"


Seriously, why can these guys get a free pass when questioning others credibility? What have they earned to do that?


If you ask for some credibility the only answer you might get if you're lucky to get any will be complete bullshyte and misdirection. They'll cite research about hens ability to home each year to nesting sites, which is known by all of us and pretty irrelevant when the issue isn't a lack of hens it's a lack of quality nesting sites. There's a surplus of ducks that migrate across this state each spring. They don't stay because the quality nesting sites are taken. The ones where a hen occupied it but is now vacant because she was shot, eaten by an eagle, hit a power line or moving vehicle, or nested happily elsewhere, get filled quick. If you watch the spring migration and claim there's a shortage of hens you're seeing something different than me I guess. We don't have a 'local duck' concern, we have a 'local nesting habitat' concern. These people fail to see the distinction.

They might also cite the bullshyte study from the 70's Landwehr referred to in his email that lead to the 4pm closure the first week. I still can't find it. I personally don't believe it exists and if it does it was of such low merit it's buried in a file cabinet collecting dust somewhere.

Just want you to know their canned answers and that you'll get nothing remotely truthful from these people...on or off the record. They're not into truth. That's why they push emotional based opinions with no factual information to support them.

Please don't take my word for it. At the very least tell Doug Smith to quit printing their propaganda without showing the other side. Read the article? It's seriously one of the most blatantly biased things I've ever read in a newspaper. The manner it's written just let's these idiots shyte on Cordts and Kelly.

There's no reason he should be printing their quotes without printing some quotes of hunters in support of the USFWS and the change. No wonder the hunters in this state are so biased...look at how their media 'informs' them. Everything waterfowl related is a hatchet piece on the agencies in charge.

doug.smith@startribune.com

Tell him you support the changes, the DNR and USFWS, and don't want these guys speaking on your behalf if you agree.

[mulefarm]

These guys are future Hall of Famers! Why wouldn't we take their word as gospel? They should know that hunting and limits have very little effect on the population and you can't stockpile wildlife.