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For example: in 1980, bag limits in North Dakota for light geese (snow and Ross') were separated from bag limits for dark geese (Canada and white-fronted geese). This allowed hunters to take five light geese in addition to two dark geese. Prior to 1980 snow geese were included in the five goose limit.

The light goose bag limit increased to seven birds daily in l 990, and went up to 10 birds daily in 1992. The snow goose season length in the Central Flyway is now at the maximum - 107 days - permitted under the Migratory Bird Treaty.

During the same period hunting regulations were liberalized, waterfowl hunter numbers decreased in North Dakota, the Central Flyway, the United States and in Canada. The reasons for this decline are not clear, but are likely related to a variety of social, economic and management issues. Despite efforts to increase snow goose harvest, the trend in harvest has followed the decrease in hunter numbers (see graph).

Much information on the growth of snow goose breeding colonies and associated habitat destruction comes from work at the LaPerouse Bay breeding colony on Hudson Bay. In recent years we have also learned more about the extent of this problem across the rest of the arctic. Other snow goose populations (breeding colonies) have expanded as well, further compounding habitat destruction.

Once the widespread and growing nature of the problem became obvious, managers began calling for action to prevent further population growth and habitat loss. In March l 995, the Central Flyway Council passed a recommendation urging the governments of the U.S. and Canada to "establish an independent international committee comprised of appropriate experts to explore and recommend management options for resolving arctic ecosystem degradation caused by the overabundance of Mid-Continent snow geese."

In October 1995 a group of experts - researchers, biologists, managers and administrators from across the U.S. and Canada - convened at Oak Hammock, Manitoba. After a review of numerous reports on arctic nesting geese, the group agreed the snow goose situation was indeed serious and needed to be addressed.

A committee, named the Arctic Goose Habitat Work Group, was established to address management and research issues associated with arctic nesting geese. This work group is investigating the problem of too many snow geese, and will recommend proposed solutions.

The group selected Dr. Bruce Batt, chief biologist for Ducks Unlimited in Memphis, Tennessee as its chair. Dr. Batt is a renowned waterfowl biologist with broad experience across the United States and Canada. Three teams were formed to produce separate sections of the report.

Dr. Ken Abraham, a waterfowl research biologist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, is heading the group working on a statement of the problem what do we know about snow geese, their biology, population status, distribution and the arctic habitats they depend on? Dr. Abraham has extensive experience with arctic nesting geese and ecosystems.

Despite liberal bag limits that have increased from five to 10 in the last decade, snow goose numbers continue to climb.

Dr. Robert Rockwell, a snow goose expert with the American Museum of Natural History, New York, is working on the section which models the population dynamics of snow geese - what do we know about survival and productivity in these birds and what level of harvest or other mortality would be needed to reduce the population and to maintain it at a given level? Dr. Rockwell has been involved with the LaPerouse Bay Snow Goose Project since it inception in 1968 and currently heads the Hudson Bay Project which evolved from the LaPerouse Bay study.

I was charged with investigating various management alternatives - what management actions would be most feasible for reducing the population, increasing mortality, or decreasing productivity?

The report is still in preparation, but a discussion of some of the concepts and problems faced by this work group is appropriate.