Light Goose Population Management

Light Goose Population Reduction Program
By Guy Zenner, Waterfowl Research Biologist

In an effort to reduce the size of the mid-continent light goose population and halt the widening destruction of fragile arctic habitats, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) recently published two rules that affect light goose hunting this spring throughout the Midwest. Promulgation of these rules was a direct result of the passage of the Arctic Tundra Habitat Emergency Conservation Act by Congress in November 1999. This act gave the Service authority to take appropriate actions to reduce the mid-continent light goose population while completing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to address possible impacts of this program and assess long-term strategies for population management.

The new conservation order reinstates interim population control measures that were first adopted in February 1999 but were withdrawn in May after a legal challenge. The Humane Society of the U.S., in conjunction with several other animal rights groups, successfully used the court system and the National Environmental Protection Act to get the Service to withdraw its rules for taking light geese in May 1999. The Service had prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) before publishing its rules in February 1999, but the Humane Society argued, and the court agreed, that the Service should have prepared a full-blown EIS. The Service had been pressured by many conservation organizations across the continent to take immediate action to reduce the mid-continent light goose population. In response to these calls for action, the Service prepared an EA so that some actions could be initiated to reduce the mid-continent light goose population while the EIS was being prepared, a process that usually takes 2 years.

Concerned that the length of the EIS process would leave the Service and state wildlife agencies without the ability to take action next spring, Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., chairman of the House Resources Subcommittee on Fisheries and Wildlife, introduced legislation in July that reinstated the rules. The legislation gives states the ability to take measures to reduce light goose populations pending completion of the EIS, thus preventing a delay that only compounds the problem. The legislation was approved by Congress on Nov. 10, and signed by President Clinton on Nov. 24, 1999.

The Service has since begun work on an EIS that will determine its long-term management strategy for overabundant lesser snow and Ross' geese populations, as well as the rapidly increasing greater snow goose population. A draft EIS is expected to be completed in the Spring of 2000, with a final EIS anticipated in 2001.

Additional information regarding efforts to curb the growth of mid-continent light goose populations can be found via the USFWS site:
http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/CurrentBirdIssues/Management/snowgse/tblcont.html