Early in the mountains, late on the plains.
That’s the season package stamped out for eastern Colorado duck hunters at a Thursday meeting of the Colorado Wildlife Commission in Fort Collins.
As detailed here last week, that part of the state east of the Continental Divide will be separated into two zones. One, encompassing the foothills and mountains, will have an earlier hunt format to take advantage of open water. These dates are Sept. 30-Dec. 2 and Dec. 22-Jan. 21.
The plains zone, roughly east of Interstate 25, will have a later emphasis, Sept. 30-Oct. 8 and Nov. 3-Jan. 28.
West of the Divide, in the Pacific Flyway, the dates will be Sept. 30-Oct. 15 and Nov. 1-Jan. 28.
The commission also approved a change in the youth waterfowl dates to the weekend of Sept. 23-24 in the mountain/foothills zone, Oct. 21-22 in the eastern zone and Oct. 28-29 in the Pacific zone.
This arrangement means that the 39-day season for pintail and canvasback will end Nov. 7 in the mountain/foothills and Dec. 2 in the plains zone.
The commission ratified a proposal to expand the Sept. 30-Oct. 8 northern Front Range goose season southward to include all or parts of most Denver metro counties.
An early teal season will be Sept. 9-17 east of Interstate 25 and in Lake and Chaffee counties.
The main Central Flyway goose season will be Nov. 25-Feb. 18 for dark geese. Light geese may be hunted beginning Nov. 4. The Pacific goose season will be Sept. 30-Oct. 6 and Nov. 1-Jan. 28.
Several mountain areas, including North Park, South Park and San Luis Valley, also will be allowed an early Sept. 30-Oct. 8 addendum to the regular season.
