Change To Federal Mallard Pop Goal and Impact on Seasons
- Thread starter Eric Patterson
- Start date
My sense is that once you have that level of pressure on public resources, there is no option but some kind of mechanism to manage it. There are a lot of models out there for how to do that in ways that don't result in either chaos or exclusive access. To name a few--none of which are perfect--take a look at how Quebec manages their ZECS and Crown Reserve lands for salmon and trout fishing on rivers; pre-season permit lotteries or draws for big game hunting that happen months or years in advance for big game; permit lotteries for boating trips on the Grand Canyon or other heavily used rivers. One model I have taken advantage of is how Yellowstone National Park does in-advance applications for backcountry campsites. If you want to get a permit for the most popular sites, you put in many months in advance and hope to draw your preferred sites; if you don't draw them you usually get a permit for your second, third or fourth choice. They also hold a fraction of sites in every high use area open for walk-in permits that you can get at the office the day before your trip. So, for example, if I didn't get lucky and get one of the handful of hike-in campsites I wanted next to Slough Creek, I would get a permit to site somewhere else. And when I showed up to check-in, I could pick up a site at Slough or some other high demand spot either because they'd held some of those sites or walk-ins or because I could fit in where there was a cancellation. It's a bit of a bureaucratic hassle and there is some uncertainty about which sites I will get, but if I've got to spend 4 nights on the lower Yellowstone instead of Slough Creek, I'm still getting a fantastic trip that's equally accessible to broke college kids and the folks paying outfitters $500/day or more for a deluxe horse pack trip.
I assume it was AHM that took us from 1 black duck to 2 here on the Atlantic. As a hunter who sees at least 10 times as many black ducks on my coastal hunts as I do mallards, and often hunts dawn or sundown on snotty days with fog and rain in low light, that was a game changer. In the old days, we might as well have quit hunting once we had our one black duck in the bag, because the risk of misidentifying a hen mallard as a black duck made us very hesitant to shoot at anything we could not 100% ID. I spent a lot of days birdwatching black ducks and occasional mallards in the decoys without ever taking a second shot.
Careful with the quote there Jeff. I never said that. 
That was a quote from some unnamed person on IG I used to illustrate the mistrust of AHM. Page 25 of the 2023 report I posted a link to at the start of this thread covers AHM and black ducks for the Atlantic Flyway.
That was a quote from some unnamed person on IG I used to illustrate the mistrust of AHM. Page 25 of the 2023 report I posted a link to at the start of this thread covers AHM and black ducks for the Atlantic Flyway.
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Rod VanZile
Active member
Well, I remember the 30 days seasons and three daily bird limit. And then the point system along with steel shot. One hen mallard, closure on Canvasbacks and one Black Duck. None of this was perfect but at least they were trying to give us an opportunity to keep hunting every season. I appreciate that. We should be thankful for the science and AHM.
RVZ
RVZ
Vince Pagliaroli
Well-known member
Mr. VanZile,
I hear thee and there were well over a million waterfowl hunters then. We adapted and continued doing what we love to do as in "Suck It Up and Deal with it". The folks not happy today, Spoiled Rotten comes to mind. As for science it's kept me alive in many ways as well as the hunting & fishing that we enjoy.
"Only two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
Best regards
Vince