Like snowballs, ducks normally don’t make much of a conversation subject in the midst of a summer heat wave.
But our oily feathered friends will be a hot topic Monday when the Colorado Wildlife Commission meets at the Fort Collins Hilton, 425 W. Prospect Road. The policy body will set a preliminary framework for the coming season, pending a later determination by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and also deliver a controversial vote on lifting the long-standing goose hunting closure on Empire Reservoir.
Most of the preholiday fireworks will explode during a discussion over how to improve lagging duck hunting fortunes on the South Platte River northeast of Denver.
The eruption won’t result in any immediate rules changes; that likely will come next year when Division of Wildlife biologists have digested a continuing bird behavior study. But that won’t keep the pinfeathers from flying at the Monday session when ducks are mentioned.
Much of the discussion likely will come from commissioner Brad Coors, who in his first year has earned high marks as a champion of sportsmen’s concerns. Coors appears piqued that DOW has done little to effect changes to improve harvest for the coming season, calling the average daily bag of six-tenths of a duck “unacceptable.”
Coors lists among the alternatives: limiting the number of hunting days each week, limiting afternoon hours, providing refuges and sanctuaries and eliminating jump-shooting on sloughs.
He cites extensive public input from meetings and e-mails as evidence that something must be done, and soon. But the three-step process by which ideas become regulation has not yet begun; the only official action to date is the formation of a panel to begin formulating a proposal. The group will brainstorm ideas to improve hunting quality, perhaps expanding on Coors’ own list.
Among the several elements of research to be factored into any solution is a continuing study by Colorado State University graduate student Josh Dooley on the ways ducks react to disturbance by hunters.
Meanwhile, the commission will establish a waterfowl season structure, dates that are contingent upon a formal federal guideline to be released later this summer.
Another final regulation certain to stir controversy involves the DOW proposal to end the goose hunting closure on lands immediately surrounding Empire Reservoir, near Wiggins. The agency recommends allowing hunting generally down to the high-water mark, a move biologist Jim Gammonley touts as a way to cause birds to fly farther outside the protected area.
“We don’t want to give them a safe feeding area where they can avoid the gun,” Gammonley said of a change that also would allow private landowners near the reservoir to charge lease fees.
Coors and others attack the change as a potential disturbance of a large refuge that holds birds in the area.
Gammonley counters that similar regulations on reservoirs of the same size throughout the region resulted in no loss of bird numbers. Gammonley said DOW has counted Empire geese over a period of years and can compare patterns the new rules might bring.
“We can revisit the notion and make changes,” he said.
The commission also will set a firm schedule for most 2007 small game seasons, dates that will change no more than a day or two from the previous year. It also will set a final action policy to solve a problem with feral hogs in southeast Colorado.
Staff writer Charlie Meyers can be reached at 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.
