All I want for Christmas … Is a duck survey
December 9, 2011
Watch your mailbox.
Fresh on the heels of a duck season that featured some of the most noteworthy regulatory changes the DNR has made in some time, the agency plans to survey hunters as it decides what the 2012 season will look like.
The agency has surveyed waterfowl hunters several times over the past decade as it tries to learn more about duck hunters and what makes them tick.
In the upcoming survey, hunters all around the state will be asked for their input. While it’s always good to have diverse perspectives, it’s especially important this time around because the regulation changes the agency made affect hunters in different parts of the state differently.
The season opened at the same time throughout the state, but closed earlier in the northern part, where there was a continuous, 60-day season. In the south, the season opened for two days, closed for five, and reopened for 58.
The survey could answer a variety of interesting questions, including to what extent people who live in the northern part of the state traveled to the southern part to hunt the final five days of the season. It also likely will offer some insight into people’s perception of the season, including whether it closed too early. There’s a distinct possibility folks in the southeast have that feeling, given there were still large numbers of ducks on the river when the season closed.
Which brings up something else the DNR plans to ask about: the possibility of a third duck zone.
Presumably, that could encompass the extreme southern or southeastern portion of the state, and a split could be used there to extent the season later than usual. It could make some really late-season hunting available those people willing to brave the elements.
But we’ll have to wait and see.
