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Conference vmsnet::hunting$note:hunting

Title:	The Hunting Notesfile
Notice:	Registry #7, For Sale #15, Success #270
Moderator:	SALEM::PAPPALARDO

Created:	Wed Sep 02 1987
Last Modified:	Tue Jun 03 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1561
Total number of notes:	17784

212.0. "Vermont, 1988 Waterfowl Seasons" by BTO::REMILLARD_K () Thu Sep 08 1988 12:45

    
    September 1, 1988, Dave Rivers (fellow noter) and I attended the
    Fish and Game Dept's public board meeting on the 1988 waterfowl
    season.
    
    It didn't take long before we were convinced how bad the situation
    is in the upper Mid-West and plains of Canada.  The 16 min. film
    prepared by the U.S. F & W dept. did a good job of that.  We were
    told of the Federal framework/guidelines that had to be used in
    setting the 1988 seasons.  There have been other notes on MA and
    NH which stated these exactly, no need to rehash them here.  I will
    post the Lake Champlain zone dates, I forgot the Interior zone dates,
    will post later.
    
    Ducks,Coots,Mergansers
    
    Lake Champlain Zone:
    
    Oct. 8 - Oct. 23
    
    Nov. 24 - Dec. 7
   
    ----------------
    
    Geese-Canada,Snow
    
    Oct. 8 - Dec. 16
    
    Brant
    
    ?
    
    The limits are the same as posted in the NH and MA notes except
    for Coots (15) and Pintails, the Pintail limits are pretty confusing, 
    instead of posting inaccurate information I will post it when the
    syllabus is made available.
    
    There wasn't a vocal contigent of anti's, which I thought was good,
    the turn out was about 130 - 150 people.  The meeting was open for
    public discussion, although there was quite a bit of opposition
    to the dept's dates, the board voted them in as presented by the
    state.  
    
    I'll open the discussion in the first reply.
    
    Kevin

T.R	Title	User	Date	Lines
212.1	the violin is playing for me...	BTO::REMILLARD_K	`Thu Sep 08 1988 13:07`	61
	There was quite a bit of opposition to the dates for the Lake Champlain zones as presented by the F & G dept. I have been very happy with their proposals in the past, with all of the other restrictions this year they double, tripple whammied us. What I'm talking about is 2 things in particular, 1. the season opening date, 2. the dates for the split. Tom Myers (head waterfowl biologist) sends out questionaires every year to quite a few hunters. He compiles the results and uses the data to set the season. Sounds fair. 1. the season opening date: 68% of hunters surveyed when asked, "What day do you prefer the season to open on?" replied, Wednesday. 34% replied on the weekend. We got hit with a weekend opener. Purely against the logic of his survey, 50% majority was overruled. His response to this was, "every year I have a few people at this meeting that wants the season to open on Saturday...I tried to please those people"...he did just that. Now we can expect an opener with the marshes jammed, because everyone is going to at least hunt opening weekend. 2. the dates for the split. Typically we have a 5 day season (open on Wed. close on Sun.) off 2 weeks (split) on 35 days to Thanksgiving. The Sat./Sun. of the first weekend is usually the pits...as far as hunting. This is what we and the biologists call "burnout". Now we can expect burnout to be even more severe because we are opening on the weekend, and hunting 16 days straight before the split. The logic was; 65% of people surveyed when asked "what time of the season do you hunt most" responded October, 54% responded November. That is a whopping 11% majority...easily we must loose 11% (I contend we loose more than 11%) to deer season. I know several hunters that didn't use to even hunt the first 5 day season. So we got stuck with a season that is mostly in October...the double whammie. What he was trying to do is include most people in the early part of the season, because he knew he was going to exclude 97% of them for the 2nd split. The tripple whammie is the fact that the second half of the split opens on Thanskgiving...Nov. 24, I don't know what it's like down south (MA) during this time, but up here it's pretty tough to find a place to launch...unless you are launching an ice fishing shanty. What they were trying to do is satisfy that very small minority of people that hunt extremely late on the lake, for what is traditional Lake Champlain Whistler hunting. The bulk of us puddle jumpers got screwed. In closing I'd like to state that I understand what the dept. was trying to do, and symathize with them...there is no way everyone can be happy, and there is nothing we can do about it but try to adjust...that's what I did by buying some goose decoys. Kevin...who_gets_long_winded_when_talking_duck_hunting
212.2	cryin' over spilt milk	BTO::RIVERS_D	`Fri Sep 09 1988 07:21`	11
	Aaaaaaaah, quit yer winin'...... Ain't ya got anythin better to do? Like practicing with that new fangled steel shot? db p.s. I'm almost done building my ice-boat. I figure we can chase the flocks down on the ice and get our limit with little trouble. Now, where did I put that camoflauge sail ?!