“We made a strong case to the Pacific Flyway Council,” stated Dan Yparraguirre, a wildlife biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game, “with the final result being the authorization by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of a 15-day, four Aleutian only/day special season, from February 24 through March 10, on private lands only.”

A couple white-collared geese for the table.

Although the final estimates have not been made, it appears that up to 2,000 Aleutians were harvested from the coastal area during the 2006-07 season (including the special season). Certainly a valiant effort when one considers the scarcity of cover within the short grass pastures and wary, but hungry geese.

Curt Wilson, who participated in the special season hunt with limited success, summed up his experience. “Our party only killed 10 geese during the weekend, but the sunny skies were constantly filled with thousands of geese and the backdrop was the blue Pacific Ocean. Sure beats lying in the snow at 10 below waiting for a flock of honkers!”

Conclusion
Aleutians are the future of small Canada goose hunting within California’s Central Valley and North Coast. According to Yparraguirre, “It will be a continued balancing act to maintain the appropriate number of Aleutians wintering in California to sustain high quality hunting and wildlife observation opportunities, while holding down economic hardships to farmers.”

“Our goal,” stated Yparraguirre, “is to keep the Aleutian goose in California. The last thing we, or Oregon farmers want, is to force the Aleutians north, thus following similar conditions which resulted in the short stopping of the cackling, lesser and Taverner’s Canada goose populations which historically wintered in California.”

As the Aleutian Canada geese expand their nesting efforts throughout their chain of fox-free islands and their numbers remain high, hunters will gear up as hunters always do, and take their rightful role in the management of a once-unthinkable waterfowl surplus.