Service Proposes 2016-17 Migratory Bird Hunting Season Frameworks

By Justin Stakes

Engages New Process for Setting Game Bird Hunting Seasons

Washington, DC -(AmmoLand.com)- As a result of steady or improving population numbers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) today announced it is proposing continued liberal game bird season lengths and bag limits for the 2016-17 hunting seasons.

Each year, the Service works in partnership with states from four Flyway Councils (Pacific, Central, Mississippi and Atlantic) to establish regulatory frameworks for hunting season lengths, dates and bag limits. States select their individual seasons from within the federal frameworks.

The announcement can be viewed at http://www.fws.gov/home/feature/2015/pdfs/Proposed-frameworks-2016.pdf. It is the first following the Service’s implementation of a streamlined process for setting annual migratory game bird hunting seasons and bag limits.

Beginning with the 2016-17 hunting seasons, the previous two-cycle regulatory practice is now compressed into a single, annual process. Biological data from the past year is now used to set hunting season dates and to project appropriate harvest limits for each game species. The change gives biologists more time to analyze bird survey data that inform the Service’s regulatory decisions and gives the public more time to weigh …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand