08/04/06 Cooperation Conservation Paying Off

Cooperative conservation efforts paying off. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed hunting season lengths and bag limits for the upcoming 2006-2007 waterfowl seasons. Thanks to improved habitat conditions and waterfowl production estimates - season lengths will be 60 days in both the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways - 74 days in the Central Flyway - and 107 days in the Pacific Flyway. Paul Schmidt is the Service's Assistant Director for Migratory Birds and State Programs. He says the improvements are a sign that cooperative conservation is paying off... SCHMIDT: I think what might be unique about this season is the fact that we've had such a good run of habitat conditions and populations over the past 6 or 8 years so we're pretty satisfied that the habitat work that we in the United States and Canada have done and the non-governmental organizations is really paying off in terms of providing or setting a table if you will and were able to offer as I said a good season and populations are in fairly good shape. But this year's population estimate for scaup is at an all time low. Therefore - Schmidt says hunters won't see an increased daily bag limit for the bird. The limit will remain the same as last year - but according to Schmidt - could be reduced in the future... SCHMIDT: Scaup is of particular concern to us because it's been on a decline for a number of years. We still believe we can offer a similar season to what we had last year but we continue to be concerned and are going to do some more work in habitat and perhaps look at harvest restrictions in the future but this year we're going to be able to offer the same season we had last year for scaup. Throughout the Pacific flyway - and especially in Alaska - wildlife officials are sampling migratory birds for the presence of Avian Influenza with a simple swab test. Schmidt says hunters may occasionally be asked to submit their game for testing...tape SCHMIDT: We're concentrating our work on the Pacific Flyway. Of course much of that is in Alaska but also we've got Oregon, Washington, California and other states and we will occasionally be asking hunters to help us with their game. We'll take the same kind of sample and send it to our labs with the USGS to make that determination of whether that sample does indeed have evidence of the virus present. The Service published its proposed early season waterfowl hunting regulations in the Federal Register on July 28. Data from The National Duck Hunter Survey 2005 was used in development of the regulations. The survey is available at www.ducksurvey.com. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.