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Texas waterfowl hunters get liberal dose of good news

It’s hard to think much about duck hunting when you’re wiping away torrents of sweat on another triple digit day in the dog days of summer — unless of course, you’re dreaming of a Siberian born cold front delivering chilly temperatures, a pile of mallards and lower utility bills.

But news out of Washington and Austin in recent days has Texas waterfowlers looking ahead to this fall’s duck and goose seasons, whatever the outside thermometer readings may be.

That’s because the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has given its nod of approval to a unique experiment in Texas and four other Central Flyway states to create a “Hunter’s Choice” option that gives gunners “more latitude” according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department news release.

The catch — there’s always a catch, isn’t there? — is that the overall daily bag limit for ducks in these states (Texas, Kansas, Wyoming, South Dakota, and North Dakota according to Houston Chronicle outdoor writer Shannon Tompkins) will be trimmed from six to five ducks this year.

What is the “Hunter’s Choice” option, you ask?

Well, according to a TPWD news release, it is an experimental program — one that will not affect the Sept. 9-24 early teal season, by the way — that will allow hunters “…to shoot five ducks daily, but only one in the aggregate of certain species. In the aggregate category of less abundant ducks, that one bird could be either a pintail, or a canvasback, or a “dusky duck” (mottled, black duck or Mexican-like duck) or a hen mallard.”

Say what?

Well, to try and make this as clear as mud, the Fish & Wildlife Service has approved a liberal regulations package over much of the past decade since many species of ducks have maintained their status quo or actually improved their numbers.

Most, but not all.

That’s especially true for species like the pintail, whose recent downward population trend in the past decade has led the Feds to take steps to reduce annual harvest numbers on sprigs, a very popular duck species in Texas waterfowling circles all the way from the Panhandle to Lake Texoma to the Gulf Coast.

Remember the complex and confusing “season within a season” that has existed for pintails — and canvasbacks — in recent years?

“Hunter’s Choice” eliminates that.

“The Central Flyway believes the ‘Hunter’s Choice’ should reduce overall pintail harvest across the flyway,” said Dave Morrison, TPWD waterfowl program leader, in an agency news release. “In Texas, we believe it will reduce harvest on mottled ducks and address some of the concerns the Service has shown in that species. Had we not gotten ‘Hunter’s Choice,’ we could be looking at other restrictive harvest measures on mottled ducks, but this option gives us time to work with the Service to better understand mottled duck issues.”

For the record, although pintail and canvasback numbers actually took an upward climb to some degree this year, they still remain below long term population goals established by the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.

And scaup numbers are on a downward spiral in recent years, including 2006, a fact that troubles biologists as the overall duck population actually showed a 14 percent improvement this spring from a year ago.

What’s the rest of this year’s regulatory proposal news for the 2006-2007 waterfowl seasons in the Central Flyway?

Well, while public comment is currently being accepted and final approval will not come until the Aug. 24 meeting of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission in Austin, on the table is a 74 day season proposal in the North and South Duck zones of Texas along with up to an 89 day season in the High Plains Mallard Management Unit of West Texas.