Like many waterfowl managers on the continent, Mike Johnson is struggling with a problem that just won't go away. Despite more than a decade of increased hunting pressure, snow goose numbers remain at historic highs. Some estimates put the population as high as 25 million birds.
So what's the problem?
Subarctic nesting areas are being turned into wastelands. A fragile habitat is being destroyed, perhaps irreversibly. Biologists like Johnson, waterfowl chief at the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, believe both wildlife and waterfowl are at risk.
"(Increased harvest) has stemmed the rapid growth we were seeing, but the population is still very high and we haven't reduced them," says Johnson. "Success is based on the recovery of the subarctic habitats. That hasn't happened. There are still more geese than ever and they're still destroying habitat."
Johnson is part of a team of biologists currently evaluating the effectiveness of expanded hunting for snow geese. First introduced in 1998, the spring conservation hunt has increased harvest rates by more than 50 percent, but Johnson says it's still not enough.
"These geese are now expanding into habitats we never envisioned they could use. They're into the trees and forested areas west of the Hudson Bay lowlands. We never, ever dreamt that would be possible."
Dr. Richard "Rocky" Rockwell has recently returned from his annual research trip to La Perouse Bay in northern Manitoba, where for almost 40 years he has documented the severe degradation of the salt-water coastal marshes. Now, he says, the geese are hitting fresh- water habitats.
Rockwell says freshwater habitat can fully recovery in about five years, "but that means you have to get the geese off it."
Waterfowl managers in both Canada and the United States see hunting as the most efficient tool to reduce populations, but they are less hopeful of getting the job done today than they were 10 years ago.
"Hunters can only take so many geese," Rockwell says.
North American hunters are taking about 700,000 snow geese a year, enough to stabilize some colonies but not enough to reduce numbers overall.
Dr. Jim Leafloor, a research scientist with Environment Canada, spent his summer banding geese on Baffin Island. He says the mid- continent population has increased at least as high as the harvest rate.
"There just aren't enough hunters out there harvesting geese," says Leafloor. "I think what happens is there's some highly skilled and motivated snow goose hunters that account for a fairly big chunk of the harvest. But for most guys snow geese are pretty frustrating. They require a lot of patience and equipment."
So what are the alternatives? Johnson co-authored a report for the Arctic Goose Joint Venture in which he outlined options ranging from mass live-capture on the breeding grounds to the use of chemical avicides. None of the "direct control" measures are very appealing to a society increasingly concerned about animal rights.
Any measures to further control goose populations will face intense pressure from groups like the Animal Alliance of Canada. It was part of a coalition that initially challenged the legality of the expanded conservation hunt. Liz White, spokesperson for the Alliance, insists current goose populations are a naturally occurring event and should be left to run its course.
"It's illogical to look at a tiny part of the arctic, like La Perouse Bay, and say this represents the entire ecosystem," says White. "Do we really believe the geese who eat various plants in the arctic have never created the same kind of environmental impact, that it never happened before, that it is an aberration?"
That leaves biologists like Johnson stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Science tells him there's a problem, but society has trouble agreeing on what needs to done. So what does the future hold?
"That's the million-dollar question," says Johnson. "None of the alternative control measures are very good. They're all very difficult. They're all very expensive. They're all pretty ugly. I'm not optimistic that aggressive action will be taken. That's a difficult, difficult decision to make."
So for now, we're left with the status quo. Hunters can confidently expect the spring hunt to continue. There may be recommendations to further loosen restrictions. Perhaps more efforts will be made to increase the number of hunters. And the geese? They'll continue to do what they do best: learn, adapt and survive.
