Duck Hunting Season Looks Grim
August 17th, 2005 by Administrator
Duck Hunting Season Looks Grim - Dry Summer Will Hurt Duck/Goose Hunting Season
Most areas in NorthCentral Wisconsin are several inches below the average rainfall. That means a lot of the wetlands, which are home to thousands of ducks, geese and other water fowl, are drying up.
With dry wetlands, these birds have less access to food, shelter and protection from predators. That means they’re not likely to stay here. To make matters worse, many water fowl got off to a bad start in the breeding season.
Wildlife experts say the weather was too cold, and many of them probably didn’t survive it. There may still be hope out there, however. Hunters will just have to put in more effort this year.
“The biggest thing I have for them is to scout out their areas first,” said Thomas Meier, project superintendent for the Mead Wildlife Area near Junction City.
“So often they come here expecting conditions to be perfect and then they get here and the area they’re going to is dry.”
Meier says they’ve been pumping water into some of the Mead wetlands for 3 1/2 weeks, now, but if you plan to hunt there, be warned.
Meier expects nearly 1,000 hunters to share 4,500 acres of land this year. Opening day for goose hunting is Sept. 1, and opening day for duck hunting is Sept. 24. Meier says opening day will be the busiest.
Angela Salscheider