Louisiana waterfowl season dates 2014

[Lreynolds]

As per the press release, please send an e-mail or make a phone call with your comments. I won't be collecting any comments from forums, facebook, or other websites.

Thanks,

Larry Reynolds

[grizzon30s]

Originally Posted by Lreynolds

As per the press release, please send an e-mail or make a phone call with your comments. I won't be collecting any comments from forums, facebook, or other websites.

Thanks,

Larry Reynolds

Mr Reynolds, as always, thank you so much for participating in these public forums. I think we are lucky to have such easy access to you.
My question is, what benefit is there to setting the season dates earlier? I understand you have work within the federal framework and there is a 6 week lag time at best. Setting it early based on previous season data seems a little pointless. We all know that so much changes one season to the next. Maybe I'm missing something.

[Lreynolds]

Originally Posted by grizzon30s

My question is, what benefit is there to setting the season dates earlier? I understand you have work within the federal framework and there is a 6 week lag time at best. Setting it early based on previous season data seems a little pointless. We all know that so much changes one season to the next. Maybe I'm missing something.

I don't believe there is much benefit, except as you mentioned in another post, it gives some hunters more lead time to plan vacations from work. I get a number of calls every year from guys that have to schedule their vacations early in the year. Also, it would streamline the process if we could use the same Notice-of-Intent, public meeting, and public comment period process and time-line for ducks/geese that we use for resident game.

However, there probably isn't much of a cost either because 1) populations don't change so much in 1 year that it affects regulations, and 2) the effects of hunting regulations on populations is so minimal that one year of too liberal or too conservative won't make any difference. Note the long periods of regulatory stability, both liberal and restrictive. We already use 3-year averages for our goose harvest strategies, and current-year population information for say speckle-belly geese (late-September survey in SK) comes after we have set the season.

The pressure to set the seasons earlier is coming from the USFWS legal staff who are constantly worried about lawsuits from anti-hunting factions. I'm not a legal expert, but evidently the comment period for federal waterfowl hunting regulations is so short as to be indefensible as a functional mechanism for comments to be collected, summarized, and responded to.

The issue isn't biological; it's administrative.

[noodle creek]

Originally Posted by Dogface

What would be wrong with 30 days in first split and 30 in second split?

If we had 30 days in first split and 30 days in second split and the season begins on Nov. 15th, then the second split would not be open on Christmas and Christmas eve should we still have a 12 day break in between. These are holidays that most people are off on and may be some of their only times to hunt besides weekends. I think a 12 day break is much much better than a 5 days break. 5 days is not a big enough break for the ducks and specks to catch a little rest. I would like to have a 12 day split no matter when the season starts.

[grizzon30s]

Originally Posted by Lreynolds

I don't believe there is much benefit, except as you mentioned in another post, it gives some hunters more lead time to plan vacations from work. I get a number of calls every year from guys that have to schedule their vacations early in the year. Also, it would streamline the process if we could use the same Notice-of-Intent, public meeting, and public comment period process and time-line for ducks/geese that we use for resident game.

However, there probably isn't much of a cost either because 1) populations don't change so much in 1 year that it affects regulations, and 2) the effects of hunting regulations on populations is so minimal that one year of too liberal or too conservative won't make any difference. Note the long periods of regulatory stability, both liberal and restrictive. We already use 3-year averages for our goose harvest strategies, and current-year population information for say speckle-belly geese (late-September survey in SK) comes after we have set the season.

The pressure to set the seasons earlier is coming from the USFWS legal staff who are constantly worried about lawsuits from anti-hunting factions. I'm not a legal expert, but evidently the comment period for federal waterfowl hunting regulations is so short as to be indefensible as a functional mechanism for comments to be collected, summarized, and responded to.

The issue isn't biological; it's administrative.

Lawyers.....burn em all!

[MarshRat89]

Originally Posted by Smalls

I do understand the reasoning behind why they do it.

BUT, being a biologist, I don't think its the right way to go about it at all. Seasons and limits should be based more on biology than on politics or public opinion. Grant it, public opinion is important and should be considered, but if public opinion is steering the management in the wrong direction, then management decisions should revert to being based on the biology.

Agreed



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[Smalls]

Originally Posted by MarshRat89

Agreed



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk mmm

That being said, I did not fully understand the process.

Larry's post brought to light some information I did not know.

Even so, it does not change my view on the matter. However, I don't want any of that to be construed as criticism of Larry. Mr. Reynolds does a great job for our state, and I know that there is only so much he can control when working with a federally regulated season such as waterfowl.

I have the utmost faith that Larry does what is best for waterfowl hunting in our great state, whether or not others agree.

[MarshRat89]

Originally Posted by Lreynolds

I don't believe there is much benefit, except as you mentioned in another post, it gives some hunters more lead time to plan vacations from work. I get a number of calls every year from guys that have to schedule their vacations early in the year. Also, it would streamline the process if we could use the same Notice-of-Intent, public meeting, and public comment period process and time-line for ducks/geese that we use for resident game.

However, there probably isn't much of a cost either because 1) populations don't change so much in 1 year that it affects regulations, and 2) the effects of hunting regulations on populations is so minimal that one year of too liberal or too conservative won't make any difference. Note the long periods of regulatory stability, both liberal and restrictive. We already use 3-year averages for our goose harvest strategies, and current-year population information for say speckle-belly geese (late-September survey in SK) comes after we have set the season.

The pressure to set the seasons earlier is coming from the USFWS legal staff who are constantly worried about lawsuits from anti-hunting factions. I'm not a legal expert, but evidently the comment period for federal waterfowl hunting regulations is so short as to be indefensible as a functional mechanism for comments to be collected, summarized, and responded to.

The issue isn't biological; it's administrative.

Speaking of specklebellys, what is the estimated mid continent population? I have no data to support, but it seems to me we are seeing more and more birds each year. Do you expect more liberal bag limits to come? If I'm not mistaken Alberta and other areas allow 3 birds a day.


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[Super Spook]

Originally Posted by Paulox86

What about Teal season?

it's set per last commission meeting-
Blue-winged, green-winged and cinnamon teal season would last from Sept. 13 - 28 with a daily bag limit of six (6) and a possession limit of eighteen (18). Federal and state waterfowl stamps are required to harvest teal.

[Super Spook]

Welcome Larry!

[gasdad]

Thanks Mr Reynolds for all of your great input. It's a great benefit to all of us for you to take your valuable time to educate us about how all the hunting seasons, etc are determined. It makes LDWF much more transparent and we actually get an inside look at how some of the bureaucratic processes work. We may not agree on the final decisions that are made but are better informed as to how this all works. Please keep up the good work.

[jchief]

Is there a possibility that squealers might be added to teal season somewhere down the road?

They seem to disappear earlier than the teal do.

[Lreynolds]

Originally Posted by MarshRat89

Speaking of specklebellys, what is the estimated mid continent population? I have no data to support, but it seems to me we are seeing more and more birds each year. Do you expect more liberal bag limits to come? If I'm not mistaken Alberta and other areas allow 3 birds a day.

Let me provide some data:

[Lreynolds]

So what we see with specklebellies is that most of our monitoring data show them to be increasing markedly. Both the mid-winter aerial waterfowl surveys in January each year, and a Lincoln-Peterson index calculated from band-recovery data show that increase. Only the annual aerial survey of fall-staging specklebellies in Saskatchewan shows the population to be constant or maybe slightly decreasing, and we don't know exactly why. However, THAT is the population index that is used in the harvest management plan.

That plan is being re-written by the Central and Mississippi Flyway Technical Committees, and we are making a strong push for the Lincoln-Peterson index as the management metric, which will likely lead to some increase in bag limit. The daily bag limit in the Pacific Flyway is 6 per day.

However ........... Remember what is happening in our state regarding specklebelly numbers:

[Lreynolds]

The population may be increasing, but a smaller % of the population is migrating to Louisiana.

That is actually a quandary that Texas and Louisiana find themselves in regarding goose harvest regulations. The populations are in great shape; snow geese and Canada geese are actually over-abundant at the Flyway and continental scale, but the estimates of birds in our states is declining. So what do we do?

Do we reduce season length and bag limit in hopes that more birds will return to our states?

Is it just uncontrollable changes that we have to live with?

[Lreynolds]

Originally Posted by jchief

Is there a possibility that squealers might be added to teal season somewhere down the road?

Probably not.

The USFWS will not allow ANY additional species in the teal season bag limit. Although Florida, Tennessee, and Kentucky are allowed a teal/wood duck season, albeit a much shorter (5-day) season, those seasons are grandfathered relics of the past. No other state will be allowed to open a multi-species teal season into the foreseeable future.

[jchief]

Thanks for the response sir.

[louisianaoutfitters]

The season dates are fine with me as they are projected for this upcoming season. I'm in a unique position of having to balance, and work with over 500 hunter's schedules. Hunting and fishing is how I support my family. So the earlier in the year the season dates are announced tentatively and then ratified is best for me. I'm sure there are others who would be in favor of finding out the season dates earlier in the year. We all seem to get busier each year, the earlier people can schedule vacation to hunt and also arrange schedules with their buddies would be helpful. As Larry mentioned earlier, there is a possiblility for next year of our tentative dates being set at the march commission meeting. I am in strong favor of this if it's possible. FYI. Larry Reynolds, who is the waterfowl study leader for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries posts on these forums on his own time in order to keep an open line of communication with waterfowl hunters above and beyond his job duties. He takes a lot of grief from uninformed "experts" on these forums. Just remember, he is trying to balance lots of information and opinions. I think he's doing a very good job of that.

[speck-addict]

To me it's simple.
Start opening the east and west zones mid and late November open the coastal zone in December. Look at doing a 5 day split. And bleed the season into February.
I hunt 95% of the time in the coastal zone and last year I only missed a handful of days including the added speck season. I hunt in a great area and it's known for the amount of birds killed there each year. However, I never saw the bulk of the birds till at least December. And as the season progressed it just got better. My whole month of November was centered around shooting anything and everything (legally allowed to shoot) just so that I could see my dog work. With that said, I'm not Pointing fingers at the WLF Board Members but after last year, they would be foolish to start the season this earlier. I understand the winter that we were looking for didn't show up till very very late. But even the season before that I noticed a huge difference in the amount of birds being here in November. Call me crazy but I strongly believe that the coastal zone should be the last area in the Mississippi flyway to open...it's literally the most southern part.

[redaddiction]

Originally Posted by speck-addict

To me it's simple.
Start opening the east and west zones mid and late November open the coastal zone in December. Look at doing a 5 day split. And bleed the season into February.

Federal law doesn't allow for hunting after Jan 31st.