Minnesota duck-hunter numbers stabilizing?

Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Anyone else feel like the summer just blew right by?

That’s not a complaint. Just a statement. After all, hunting is just around the corner (though some people already have hunted geese during the special August season).

The dove season kicks off Sept. 1, followed by the early Canada goose season on Sept. 6. Youth Waterfowl Day is set for Sept. 13, and the regular duck opener is Sept. 27.

But before we look ahead to those seasons, let’s look back to last year. The DNR recently released its annual small-game hunter survey report, which includes a variety of data about license sales and hunting success.

Hunters last year killed 782,810 ducks, which is down slightly from 2012, but the second-highest harvest since 2003. One piece of information that’s especially interesting is the estimated harvest per hunter, which was 10.2 ducks. That’s the highest number in more than a decade, and indicative of a pretty good hunting season.

There was good news, too, in the number of duck stamps the state sold. The 2013 total was 90,483, which marks the third consecutive year that number has increased. While it’s nowhere near the number we’ve sold in the past, it at least seems to be stabilizing.

Finally, there were 76,950 duck hunters in the state last year, according to the report. That’s the second-highest in the past five years. Like stamp sales, it’s well below what we’ve seen in the past – there were about 140,000 duck hunters each year in the 1970s – but it does seem to be stabilizing at right around 80,000 or so. Would we like to see that number grow? Of course. On the other hand, stable is better than declining.