From a breeding population of almost none — zero — resident Canada geese in the late 1960s, Minnesota’s flock has grown to about 300,000 of these fowl.
Decades ago, when Randy Bartz began hunting Canada geese seriously — placing his long love of duck hunting secondary — he had limited places where he could chase these big birds.
“Of course we had them in Rochester,” said Bartz, of Oronoco, Minn., also known as “The Flagman,” for his development of nylon goose imitations that hunters wave to attract honkers. “But elsewhere in the state, you either had to go to the far northwest, to Thief Lake, or to Fergus Falls or a couple of other spots. There just weren’t that many opportunities.”
Times have changed. From a breeding population of almost none — zero — resident Canada geese in the late 1960s, Minnesota’s flock has grown to about 300,000 of these fowl.
“When we first began our breeding waterfowl surveys in spring 1968,” said Department of Natural Resources waterfowl specialist Steve Cordts, “we didn’t count one Canada goose for the first six years. Now they can be found just about everywhere in the state.”
As Minnesota’s honker population has grown, hunting opportunities have expanded — and not only geographically. A September season has been added, which this year begins on Saturday, a half-hour before sunrise.
Bartz is among about 25,000 Minnesota waterfowlers who will be afield then, a group that during the early season (ending this year on Sept. 22) will kill about 40 percent of Canada geese harvested in the state this fall.
Amazingly, while Minnesota’s resident Canada goose population has exploded, the number of Canada geese that migrate through the state — the Eastern Prairie Population (EPP) that nests in the Canadian far north — has remained about constant.
In the 1960s, the EPP flock provided nearly the entirety of the Minnesota Canada goose harvest, much of it near the Lac qui Parle Wildlife Management Area and Refuge in the western part of the state.
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