Extended goose hunt likely will be best in years

Canada goose hunters could enjoy some of the best hunting in years. The reason is the Utah Wildlife Board voted to close the 107-day Canada goose season for two weeks in December and then reopen the season and allow it to run until late January 2006.

To become official, all of the rules the board adopted must meet federal guidelines established by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is expected to approve its final waterfowl season frameworks in late September.

In addition to extending the Canada goose season, board members also approved another 107-day duck hunting season. The season will begin Oct. 1 to Jan. 14.

Because the pintail ducks are doing well, there will not be a split season for pintails this year. The daily pintail limit will remain at one bird, but pintails may be taken throughout the season.

Extending Utah's Canada goose season into late January could provide hunters with some of the best goose hunting they've seen in years.

The first part of the goose season will run Oct. 1 to Dec. 1. The season will then close, but it will reopen Dec. 17 and run until Jan. 29.

"We think Canada goose hunters, especially those along the Wasatch Front, will be excited about the change," said Tom Aldrich, waterfowl coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources.

Aldrich said as soon as the hunting season starts in October, many of the Canada geese head for urban areas where they spend most of the season. In January, the geese begin moving back to the marshes in preparation for breeding. Data the DWR has collected from four independent harvest surveys across the state shows the number of Canada geese taken by hunters starts to climb in early January.

"Even more geese will leave the urban areas later in January, and we think hunting will get better and better as the month progresses," he said. "Canada goose hunters should enjoy some great hunting this season, and I think they'll take more geese."

Aldrich said there are four times as many geese in Utah now as there were 30 to 40 years ago. Many are causing problems at golf courses and other urban areas where they spend much of the fall and winter and where they can't be taken by hunters.

For more information call the nearest DWR office or the DWR's Salt Lake City office at 801-538-4700.