DWR Press Release
Booming populations of ducks and geese should mean another long hunting season and a liberal bag limit in Utah this fall.
On June 4, members of the Utah Wildlife Board approved another 107-day duck and goose hunting season. They also approved a daily bag limit of seven ducks and four Canada geese.
The number of canvasback, hen mallard, pintail, redhead and scaup ducks you can have in your seven-duck daily bag limit will likely be limited, though. Also, the season for scaup will likely run for 86 days.
Blair Stringham said biologists with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are completing their annual survey of the number of duck breeding pairs and ponds on the Canadian prairies and the prairie pothole region of the United States.
Stringham, migratory game bird coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources, said in August, the DWR will know for sure if the recommendations the board approved fall within the final guidelines given by the USFWS.
“Overall, duck and goose populations are doing really well,” he said. “I think Utah hunters can expect a long season this fall.”
If the length of the season and the bag limits the USFWS approves are more restrictive than those approved by the Wildlife Board, Stringham said the DWR will go with the maximum season length and bag limits the USFWS will allow.
The final rules will be available in the 2015 – 2016 Utah Waterfowl Guidebook. The free guidebook will be available at www.widlife.utah.gov/guidebooks by early September.
If you have questions about this fall’s waterfowl hunt, call the nearest Division of Wildlife Resources office or the DWR’s Salt Lake City office at (801) 538-4700.