The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued its annual “Conservation Order” for snow geese, which means Vermonters can obtain hunting permits for the geese for a month this spring.
From March 11 through April 23, licensed hunters can bag 15 birds a day as the geese pass through Vermont on their migratory path toward the St. Lawrence River Valley.
Since 2009, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued this annual order to reduce the snow geese population in the Atlantic Flyway region. Between March and April, the birds pass through Vermont on their way north.
Although federal officials have said there is an overpopulation with over 1 million snow geese in the Atlantic Flyway, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s 2022 survey reports populations between 700,000 and 750,000 snow geese, according to David Sausville, the wildlife project manager with the department.
Overpopulation “has resulted in damage to agricultural crops and marsh vegetation in staging and wintering areas from Quebec to North Carolina,” Andrew Bouton, the waterfowl project leader for the department, said in the permit announcement.
“Hunting pressure to date has aided in reducing the population from its high point of just over one million birds during the period of 2000-2010,” Bouton said.
Snow geese often draw crowds of birders to observe the flocks, especially in protected wetlands such as the Dead Creek Wildlife area in Addison. Although the beauty of the snow geese draw birders, some conservationists say they have to look at the big picture.
“I can value or see, you know, that a bird is beautiful and then also recognize that in some instances, we need management in order to help ensure that everything has a place and space to be successful,” said Jillian Liner, the director of conservation at Vermont Audubon.
Liner knows that some birders don’t want to see hunting, and while she appreciates that, she says the knowledge gained from the annual snow geese hunt is powerful in sustaining populations.
“Wetland birds are one of the groups that are doing well, and those are birds that again, are hunted. And also a lot of the reason why those populations are doing so well is so much has been invested in protecting and managing wetland habitat for hunting,” Liner said.
While the overall population of snow geese is not declining, it may appear to be, according to UVM’s Rubenstein School Interim Dean Dr. Allan Strong, who researches avian ecology.
Strong has observed a shift of birds, especially around the Dead Creek Wildlife area, across the lake and toward New York, especially during the birds’ fall migration, when Vermont sees more snow geese.
While the population is still active, the shift of flocks during their migration patterns can be misleading as to the actual population of snow geese, and Strong thinks this may affect how the hunting permits are received.
“I could see some negative feeling about it just because it feels like we don’t have as many birds in Vermont as we used to,” Strong said. He maintains that the snow geese population is able to sustain the hunting pressure of the spring permits.
Adult snow geese are about 2.5 feet long, range in weight from 3.5 to 7 pounds, and have a wingspan of about 4.5 feet, according to All About Birds. They frequent cultivated farm fields, and like to fly in flocks that can range in size from a couple of dozen to several hundred thousand.
The geese generally breed north of the timberline in Greenland, Canada, Alaska, and the northeastern tip of Siberia, and spend winters in warm parts of North America from southwestern British Columbia through parts of the United States and Mexico.
Birding In Vermont, a website organized to help birders observe species around the state, lists Addison, the town where Dead Creek sits, as one of the towns in the state with the most birds sighted, at 299 species, including snow geese.
In Vermont, the most likely hunting grounds will be in the Champlain Valley, as the birds gravitate toward the wetlands and farmlands that dot that area, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife hunting announcement. These wetlands also provide spaces for bird watchers to observe the flocks as they migrate.
Similar hunting permits will be issued in the seven other states in the Atlantic Flyway region: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
To obtain a spring snow geese permit in Vermont, hunters will also need a 2023 Vermont hunting permit, according to the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department. The state also requires that snow geese hunters have a 2022 federal migratory hunting stamp, a 2023 Harvest Information Program number and a 2023 Vermont migratory waterfowl stamp.
Vermont Fish & Wildlife will ask hunters to complete a postseason survey by May 16, regardless of whether they actually hunted any geese.