# Will The CO End?



## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

Other than for reasons that are political, do you think the spring conservation order (CO) will end in the next ten years? Do you think it is possible to reduce the snow goose population enough to close it?


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## burltealrugerlegs (Mar 15, 2012)

Personally I don't think hunting pressure has anything to do with the population. What do some of you think??


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

The population IS prime for a crash...... storms on the breeding grounds or severe drought in the wintering areas could cause that. Hunting isn't going to bring it down but it will help keep it from growing too fast.

The majority of the harvest in the CO seems to be juvenile birds. The harvest of mostly mature, breeding birds would be far more effective, but not attainable.


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## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

I've always said that it'd be very easy to reduce the population if the USFWS really wanted to.

We've all seen when there's millions of snows, and nothing but snows packed onto a lake or refuge at the front line of the migration. Just fly a plane over them and drop bombs. If you really wanted me to I could kill millions of snows in one spring for minimal cost and minimal loss of other species, and the vast majority of them would be adults.


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## PJ (Oct 1, 2002)

Anas Strepera said:


> I've always said that it'd be very easy to reduce the population if the USFWS really wanted to.
> 
> We've all seen when there's millions of snows, and nothing but snows packed onto a lake or refuge at the front line of the migration. Just fly a plane over them and drop bombs. If you really wanted me to I could kill millions of snows in one spring for minimal cost and minimal loss of other species, and the vast majority of them would be adults.


Wow. Don't just ban this guy.....lock him up and throw away the key! Hahaha.

Anyways...I am waiting for someone to respond....What about all that wasted meat? :run:


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## burltealrugerlegs (Mar 15, 2012)

Anas Strepera said:


> I've always said that it'd be very easy to reduce the population if the USFWS really wanted to.
> 
> We've all seen when there's millions of snows, and nothing but snows packed onto a lake or refuge at the front line of the migration. Just fly a plane over them and drop bombs. If you really wanted me to I could kill millions of snows in one spring for minimal cost and minimal loss of other species, and the vast majority of them would be adults.


They wont bomb.... And this time of the year there is always specks,canadas,pintails,and alot of other birds mixed in!.. plus. what a WASTE that would be!!


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## SkunkNipples (Jul 13, 2012)

Simple solutions for a simple mind, bomb em, that's rich. You realize that the States and the Canadian provinces along with both US and Canadian federal regulators decide on a unified hunting policy to maintain all waterfowl species. Everyone seems to be a biologist these days. Those birds are not all going to crash and burn, some colonies might take a pounding but there will be lots up here to shoot and lots down there to shoot for many years to come. Stop typing and start killing em! That reminds me, some snows finally made it in Canada, too bad our western Saskatchewan season ends April 30th, might get one decent weekend in.

Bombing, that is brilliant.


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## MinnesotaStyle (Apr 20, 2013)

I think Anus can stop talking. Are you just out to bad mouth the Spring Conservation Order or what? It will never end. At least not in my lifetime. I think we can all agree on that. Plus you cant kill em sitting on the couch or web surfing!


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## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

MinnesotaStyle said:


> Are you just out to bad mouth the Spring Conservation Order or what?


Why wouldn't I bad mouth it? It has been a colossal failure.

This spring marks the CO's 15th year. The mid-continental population of snow geese has not gone down, it has increased. What was the goal of the CO again?

It has been a complete failure. When the government says they are going to reduce the federal defecit and it goes up instead of down people are going to bytch, and rightfully so. When the government (USFWS) has the president sign an executive order so they can supposedly effectively manage a species so overpopulated that there is a huge concern over it destroying its (and other species) habitat, and the population goes up instead of down, how is that any different?

When the government says they're going to decrease something (be it the deficit or snow geese) and they fail to do so and it increases, why shouldn't the people be critical?

Don't be a sheep. It's time we rethink our strategy in the war versus snow geese and start making some tough decisions and take some drastic measures.


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## SkunkNipples (Jul 13, 2012)

I think we should ask all farmers in Canada and US to not plant crops for 4 years. Sure it will require great sacrifices on our end but we will starve out our enemy the snow goose, but war is hell soldier. Sure the economies of thousands will collapse, people around the world will starve but they will of course will be made to understand that their common enemy the snow goose will be reduced to manageable numbers. I suggest we also release thousands of coyotes and wolves in the artic to attack the birds as they nest. They should all be frozen out come winter, but those are the risks we must all take.

Perhaps we should release Mustard-Gas to reduce the numbers. At this point we must all take some serious, drastic, over dramatic steps to control the scourge of the tundra.


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

I wouldn't call the CO a complete failure.......... Think of how many more geese we MIGHT have if not for the CO......It may not be stopping the population growth but it is helping to slow it.......


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## tilley (Jul 28, 2011)

Anas is completely correct. It is and has been a total failure and should be stopped. I could list many many other related problems with this but will not so as to not get into the predictable arguement. Suffice to say is a joke and a scam that a few of us saw coming years ago.


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## Duckslayer100 (Apr 7, 2004)

How it is a scam??? There's an overabundance of a given species, so to help possibly curb their numbers and offer hunters a chance to play a hand in conservation, they allow a spring hunting season.

You guys make it sound like some big conspiracy theory. By whom, pray tell? The FWS? Why???


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## Anas Strepera (Nov 10, 2004)

Who said it was a scam?

I, and others, said it was a failure.


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## tilley (Jul 28, 2011)

It is a scam because it is predicated on a totally false premise that the snow geese were going to somehow eat up the tundra. Anyone who has even the most basic knowledge of their breeding areas realizes how utterly ridiculous this concept is,yet this was used as the excuse for this sorry CO nonsense. On one hand we are told they are going to destroy the tundra by eating it and grubbing up plant roots and on the other we are told one of the limiting factors in banding mid continent snow geese is the vastness of the tundra?
I believe the constant pressure on these birds for nearly 9 months every year actually is making them more wary,smarter and even harder to kill as evidenced by the continual whining on this site and others about the lack of "juvies" so as to find a bird that can be killed. This it would seem is counter productive to the stated goal of reducing the population.
In that same line of thinking,why are there limits in the fall and not the spring,if in fact the goal is as stated. I know about the federal laws and so forth but these are only a few of the reasons this is and continues to be a bad idea and a scam.


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## DUCKWHISPERER (Aug 20, 2009)

I don't understand why anyone would bad mouth the CO Season, does it help reduce population...yes...not to mention stimulate the Economy, but thats a whole other argument I would rather not get into. Anyways I personally would be very sad to see it end, and look forward to each year, like a kid on Christmas morning.


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

My recollection is, not that the geese are destroying the tundra itself, BUT habitat on the coastal marshlands within that tundra. There is specific plant life along those marshlands that the geese feed on that are a fragile sub-ecosystem of the tundra that has a very slow recovery time. While the tundra is vast, the plant life in those specific areas is not as abundant.
This is the information I remember from when the CO season started. I did a google search on the subject and what I found only made reference to the tundra itself, though it did reference breeding habitat which suggest specific areas of the tundra. Seems like some information has been lost over the years giving people the impression that the tundra as a whole is threatened when that is not the case.

Snow geese were hard to kill when I started hunting. 35 years later I don't think they are really that much harder to hunt..Thats just an excuse...................


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## SOTA'N'KOTA (Sep 9, 2004)

MinnesotaStyle said:



> I think Anus can stop talking. Are you just out to bad mouth the Spring Conservation Order or what? It will never end. At least not in my lifetime. I think we can all agree on that. Plus you cant kill em sitting on the couch or web surfing!


Another blatant personal attack on Anas.

How does he respond? Very cordially frankly.

Why was Anas banned again?

Something stinks around here.


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## Big rig (Apr 16, 2013)

SOTA'N'KOTA said:


> MinnesotaStyle said:
> 
> 
> > I think Anus can stop talking. Are you just out to bad mouth the Spring Conservation Order or what? It will never end. At least not in my lifetime. I think we can all agree on that. Plus you cant kill em sitting on the couch or web surfing!
> ...


I have a feeling we are talking to the big brown stink hole again..


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