ALABAMA
WATERFOWL ASSOCIATION, INC. (AWA)TM
PHONE 256 259-2969
http://www.alabamawaterfowl.org
Conservation Blog Fall 2009
ALABAMA WATERFOWL ASSOCIATION, INC. (AWA)TM
CONSERVATION
BLOG
New
Waterfowl Book will be on sale in October
“FALL FLIGHT IN
HISTORY
OF JANUARY 31 DUCK HUNTING FRAMEWORK FOR
(
Duck season this year ends on Jan. 31st , 2010)
This
was a hard fought battle who would ever believe that before the
Fall Flight in
Seventeen years, thousands of hours,
and 264 pages later the first edition of Fall Flight in
There has never been a book written on
waterfowl and waterfowl hunting like Fall Flight in
I hope you enjoy reading Fall Flight in
Vic and I have shared many hours in a
goose pit near Wheeler Refuge, when Wheeler Refuge had over 50,000 of the
Southern James Bay Migratory Canada Geese.
Website http://www.fallflightinalabama.com/
Vic Daily, Author
Phone 256 259-2509 \ 256 593-7712
State member of: North American Waterfowl Federation (NAWF)
Conserving
and Enhancing Alabama’s Wetland and Waterfowl
Resources
http://www.nawf.org/awa
_______________________________________________________________________
News
Release October 21, 1998
For immediate
release
It is
official,
First remember
it makes no difference in whether you harvest 5 ducks in Dec. or 5 duck after
Jan. 20th it is still five duck, this is no-net-gain-in-harvest a
requirement of the framework option.
The Alabama Waterfowl Association (AWA) help setup the first meeting for the framework
proposal from the six southern Mississippi Flyway states, Alabama, Arkansas,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
(This is the six state Department of Fish and Wildlife that met March 3
and 4, 1997 in Biloxi, Mississippi). The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) turned the framework extension proposal
down in August of 1997. AWA did not give
up and kept working on the framework extension again in the spring of 1998.
Then the USFWS offered the framework to the six southern Mississippi Flyway
states as an option of giving up 9 days of a sixty-day season and losing one
hen mallard in the daily bag limit. The
USFWS withdrew the extension proposal when several of the northern Mississippi
Flyway states protested the extension for the south. This angered AWA and many
others including Alabama Senators Richard Shelby and Senator Jeff
Sessions, Mississippi Senators Trent
Lott and Thad Cochran, also Mississippi Congressman Chip Pickering deserves
much credit. AWA and others worked with
these above mentioned Senators and Congressmen to add a rider to the U.S. FY
1999 budget to include the January 31 duck season closure framework
extension. Senator Shelby worked to offset dogma when the
James Cummins,
executive director with Delta Wildlife Foundation in
Although
Fred Johnson of the USFWS said, “It (the setting of duck seasons) is a
political issue by nature,
not
a scientific issue,” typically one goes through the process of the Mississippi
Flyway Council. But this
effort
by the USFWS left the state no alternative but to ask our elected officials to
intervene and represent
Alabamians
and Mississippians on this issue.
2 - ITS OFFICIAL, DUCK SEASON TO CLOSE JANUARY 31
According to Congressman Chip Pickering of
So, where in this novel is the meat?
The meat occurs in the Omnibus Budget Bill. According to Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott,
“With both sides and the White House taking credit for the bill, we
expect that there will be no trouble with it passing the House and Senate and
then signed by the President,” continued Pickering, a duck hunter himself. The extension will be for the 1998/99 duck
season.
In an unprecedented action
AWA would like to thank Mr. Charles Kelley, Director
of the Alabama Department of Conservation Natural Resources, and Mr. David
Hayden,
Jerry Davis, CEO
Congress allows extended duck season for hunters
in
10/22/98
By MIKE
News staff writer Birmingham
News
If you needed further proof
that politics indeed makes
strange bedfellows, you
should have seen the serious
past few days to keep tabs on
Congress' vote on the
federal budget.
Not that
that $5 trillion, mind you.
Instead, the budget carries a
rider that gives the Game
and Fish departments in
duck-hunting season.
The budget passed the House
on Tuesday and the
Senate on Wednesday. It now
only needs the pen from
President Clinton to become
law.
That means
the season extended to Jan.
31, something they have
wanted for decades.
The rider in that bill,
slipped in by Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.,
with some serious
prodding from Republican Sen.
Richard Shelby of
Long handicapped by
framework that requires duck
hunting to end in
mid-January (long before the majority
of ducks in the Mississippi
Flyway reach
duck hunting in this state
has never flourished. That is
evidenced by the fact that
only 2 percent of the ducks
harvested in the
Mississippi Flyway each year are taken
in
dismal hunting season, then
watched angrily as ducks
begin arriving in the state
just as the season ends.
The Migratory Bird Act
allows for a state to have a
duck hunting season when it
has its optimum duck
population, but the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife has for 30
years fought against
southern states extending their
seasons to Jan. 31.
"We tried every way in
the world to bring this about
and U.S. Fish and Wildlife
has always turned us down,"
said Alabama Game and Fish
Director Charles D.
Kelley. "We've always
been sitting down here without
ducks while the northern
states were running wide
open. Then, when we finally
got ducks, our season
ended.
"This is the best
thing that has happened to
duck hunters in 40
years."
60-day season under the new
framework, but the
two-week extension until
the end of January more than
makes up for that nine-day
loss, most duck hunters
believe.
set for Nov. 14-29 and Dec.
5Jan. 17, but that will
likely change to a single
season of Dec. 12 to Jan. 31,
Kelley said. The Alabama
Waterfowl Association is
pushing for a split season
of Nov. 14-15 and Dec.
12Jan. 31.
Game and Fish officials
were unsure Tuesday how they
were going to handle the fact
that the duck season
could have dates other than
those published in its
annual brochure.
One thing
is that despite decades of
supporting Ducks Unlimited,
that waterfowl organization
refused to join in the effort
for southern states to get
a fair season. It will be
interesting to see if
that the next time DU wants
them to plop down $50 for
one of their banquets.
DU issued a statement a few
months ago saying it didn't
involve itself in waterfowl
regulation and thus wouldn't
comment on an extension in
southern states. That, of
course, is hogwash. DU
involves itself in waterfowl
regulation all the time.
DU simply refused to take a
stand because some
northern states - states
that likely had more DU
members than
It should be noted,
however, that the Scottsboro-based
Alabama Waterfowl
Association, which spends the
money it raises in
fighting for this
legislation.
DU is a wonderful
organization.
what it does on a nationwide
scale, but I just haven't
ever seen how it does much
specifically for this state. I
really don't have a problem
with that since
so few duck hunters and isn't
located in the middle of a
major flyway.
It's a shame, however, that
after decades of
Alabamians supporting DU
and getting little in return,
the organization turned its
back when
needed the organization
most.
Mike Bolton's outdoors
column appears Thursday
and Sunday.
© 1998 The
HISTORY OF JANUARY 31 DUCK HUNTING FRAMEWORK
FOR
NEWS RELEASE
June 17, 1999
Chris Tollefson202-208-5634
SERVICE PROPOSES NEW DUCK SEASON FRAMEWORKS
Seeking to provide stability for states and to facilitate science-based waterfowl management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its proposed alternatives for the upcoming duck season today.
The proposed alternatives, when finalized, will establish the permitted opening and closing dates, maximum season lengths, and bag limits for state duck seasons. State wildlife agencies will then establish individual state duck seasons within those guidelines.
Service Director Jamie Rappaport Clark said the proposed rule will essentially continue the conditions in place for the 1998-99 season, giving the Service time to evaluate those conditions and their effect on waterfowl populations. "This rule will give states certainty as we work to find a biologically sound consensus for adjusting future frameworks," she said.
Last year, Congress approved language allowing six Southern states to extend
their duck seasons past the approved closure date, the Sunday nearest January
20, in exchange for a 9-day reduction in season length. Based upon this
language,
Recognizing the desire of Congress and hunters in these three states, the
proposed rule would establish a January 31 framework closing date for
For all states except Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, framework opening and closing dates under all alternatives would remain unchanged from those published in the August 5, 1998, Federal Register. The closing date will continue to be January 20 in the Atlantic Flyway and the Sunday nearest January 20 in the other flyways. The Service proposes to continue these framework dates and season lengths through the 2002-2003 season in an attempt to stabilize frameworks so its Adaptive Harvest Management process can function properly to provide the greatest opportunity for all hunters.