February Canada goose season continuing

Indiana DNR Release:

Indiana DNR has passed a temporary rule continuing the February Canada goose hunting season. The dates this year are Feb. 1-15.

The season will be open in selected counties to control the population of breeding Canada geese around urban areas.

Counties where geese can be hunted during this season include: Adams, Allen, Boone, Clay, DeKalb, Elkhart, Greene, Hamilton, Hancock, Hendricks, Huntington, Johnson, Kosciusko, LaGrange, La Porte, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Morgan, Noble, Parke, Shelby, Starke, Steuben, St. Joseph, Sullivan, Vermillion, Vigo, Wells and Whitley.

Adam Phelps, DNR wildlife biologist, estimates that 5,400 Canada geese were harvested during the February 2010 season, about 900 fewer than in February 2009. He estimated the total late-season harvest across all three years to be 15,800 geese.

To meet guidelines from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at least 80 percent of the geese harvested during the three-year experimental period needed to be the giant Canada goose. This is the goose that commonly breeds in Indiana and surrounding states.

“Most of the hunt zone was well over the 80 percent mark,” Phelps said, “but the counties around Terre Haute did not meet that criterion.”

The “experimental” status of the season ended in 2010, so most of the late goose counties will no longer need to check in geese; however, because the Terre Haute area didn’t meet the 80 percent criterion, geese harvested in those counties—Clay, Greene, Parke, Sullivan, Vermillion, and Vigo—still need to be checked.