Recent Changes in Management and Hunting of Canada Geese in Illinois: Part 1

Canada geese have a long and interesting history in Illinois, and the state’s habitat conditions and weather have led to extensive Canada goose use for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Deep southern Illinois rarely receives extreme freezing conditions, and historically Canada geese adapted to wintering on exposed sandbars and backwater lakes of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

Historically, Illinois was the winter home to Mississippi Valley Population (MVP) Canada geese. MVPs are part of a population of Canada geese (Branta canadensis interior) that nest along the Hudson and James Bay coasts in Ontario, Canada (Figure 1). Each population of Interior Canada geese (MVP, Southern James Bay and Eastern Prairie) has slightly different breeding, migration and wintering ranges, and historically have been managed separately in terms of population monitoring and hunting regulations.

In 2000, the estimated spring population of Interior Canada geese exceeded 1.2 million. Although their numbers have declined in recent years, the population remains abundant and has averaged around 657,000 geese during the most recent five-year period (Fronczak, 2015). Recent MVP population estimates have ranged from around 500,000 breeding pairs in the early 1990s to approximately 250,000 breeding pairs in 2015 (Figure 2).

Historically, Interior Canada geese made up the bulk of the Canada goose harvest in several midwestern states, including Illinois. The majority of these birds congregated around Horicon Marsh in southeastern Wisconsin in the fall before migrating farther south to winter in the deep southern Illinois counties of Alexander, Jackson, Union and Williamson.

A hearty goose hunting industry developed around these annual visitors. Many small, mostly rural, communities relied on thousands of visiting goose hunters to help sustain local economies. Annual harvest was monitored through daily phone-in reports or registration by hunters in special quota zones. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Canadian Wildlife Service and state agencies developed annual allowable harvest quotas for MVP geese. Illinois, and a few other states that harvested high numbers of MVP geese, were required to track harvest throughout hunting seasons, and close seasons early when the allowable harvest quota was achieved.

Things changed in the early 2000s. Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) biologists noticed large numbers of Canada geese had essentially stopped wintering in southern Illinois, and documented this decline by weekly aerial inventories of major waterfowl concentration areas. Biologists and hunters recognized the drastic decline in goose numbers at important goose winter refuges (Figure 3). The reasons for this decline were not entirely clear, but likely the result of a combination of factors including:

• changing farming practices in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois which left more waste grain in fields during fall and winter,
• a growing resident goose population to attract migrant geese,
• increasing availability of open water (e.g., power plant cooling lakes, aerated ponds), and
• milder winters with reduced snow cover.

Within a few years, one of the most successful goose hunting areas in the country, southern Illinois, took only a fraction of its previous harvest. From 1985 to 1989 more than half (52 percent) of all Canada geese shot during the regular season in Illinois were taken in the four southern-most counties. Two decades later, from 2005 through 2009, only 7 percent of the geese harvested during that season occurred in those counties. In 2006, the USFWS discontinued mandatory MVP harvest quota zones and the requirement that seasons close when the quota had been reached.

Currently, biologists estimate harvest using a variety of direct (mail surveys and mandatory reporting) and indirect (band returns) methods. Each year, thousands of aluminum leg bands with unique numbers are placed on waterfowl and other birds throughout North America. When waterfowl with a leg band are harvested, the number is reported and information is gathered. Band returns show a marked change in harvest distribution between southern and northern Illinois over time (Figure 4).

References

Fronczak, D. 2015. Waterfowl Harvest and Population Survey Data: Estimates of U.S. Harvest, Hunting Activity, and Success Derived From the State-Federal Cooperative Harvest Information Program. Preliminary information, USFWS, Bloomington, MN, July 17, 2015.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2015. Waterfowl population status, 2015. U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C. USA.

NEXT ISSUE: Recent Changes in Management and Hunting of Canada Geese in Illinois: Part 2—Giant Canada Geese

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Randy Smith is the IDNR Division of Wildlife Resources Wetland Wildlife Program Manager, and Dan Holm is the IDNR Division of Wildlife Resources Waterfowl Project Manager.