Estimated Canada Goose Harvest for Pitt River Areas

[pmj]

For Coq (No) Discharge Bylaw. Posted for fowl language (Dale). Total of 6 pages.
Estimated Canada Goose Harvest for Pitt River Areas (Sept 2011 – March 2012)

Objective: To develop an estimate of the lawful Canada goose (CAGO) harvest in areas adjacent to the Lower Pitt River, B.C. This information is needed to be able to help formulate wildlife management strategies in these areas as they relate to proposals for imminent changes in local City of Coquitlam Discharge of Firearms By-Law.
This local CAGO harvest data is required for City of Coquitlam Council and staff to determine:


The relative importance of CAGO harvests in controlling local populations of resident CAGO.
What role the lawful harvest of CAGO plays in controlling levels of CAGO-urban conflicts in the City of Coquitlam and in adjacent cities and municipalities; i.e. correlation between urban CAGO populations and levels of human-goose conflict.
How the continuing magnitude of lawful CAGO harvest is related to minimizing ongoing costs for solving CAGO-urban conflicts.
The relative cost to land owners and local governments of lawful CAGO harvests by public hunting compared to relying on contractors and city staff to achieve solutions using methodologies and implementing elements of an approved city CAGO Management Plan, e.g. relying on population control methods such as through moult period roundups/relocations, egg addling, pursuit dogs, humane euthanization as part of culling under specific nuisance waterfowl-class permit, widespread landscape and habitat modifications, &etc.
The relative effectiveness of lawful CAGO harvests by public hunting compared to using contractors, staff and other urban-wildlife conflict resolution specialists.
How important lawful CAGO harvests in the Lower Pitt River are to the management of resident CAGO populations in the Lower Mainland.
Estimates of the local CAGO resident (year-round) population in the study areas.

Background: Coquitlam City Council and staff have requested a reliable estimate of the scope and magnitude of lawful, annual CAGO harvests that continue to occur near and within direct proximity of Coquitlam City Limits; this includes the intertidal Crown Land areas of the Lower Pitt River. The National Waterfowl Harvest Survey (NWHS) data, available annually from Environment Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS), is not sufficiently detailed to be able to accurately sample only the small areas represented by the general Pitt River habitats of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Pitt Meadows. Thus, the need for an innovative and independent process to determine annual CAGO harvest levels for the Lower Pitt River areas which are only a portion of the NWHS areas comprised of the entire Lower Mainland (NWHS refers to the Lower Mainland as Zone 2; this is the finest level of detail possible within the CWS data).
CAGO hunting seasons in the Lower Mainland have been, for many years, at the maximum allowable by the Migratory Birds Convention Act; an international treaty that governs waterfowl hunting seasons. The number of CAGO hunting days has also been maximized at 107 annually for many years. The

[pmj]

strategy for duration of the CAGO hunting seasons has also been refined and maximized within the internationally agreed dates 01 Sept to 10 March annually; there are four separated open CAGO hunting seasons annually in the Lower Mainland which together total the 107 day maximum. Additionally, daily bag limits, possession limits and aggregate goose species bag and possession limits have also been maximized for many years.
This strategy is designed maximize CAGO hunter efficiency and to take the fullest advantage of the highly specialized, trained, insured and dedicated CAGO hunters available to wildlife managers in the Lower Mainland. The number of CAGO hunters is very limited and thus, the effort and harvest of each individual is incrementally important. So too is the extent, distribution, and configuration of the land base upon which CAGO hunting and harvest can be carried out. It is also significant to acknowledge and recognize the very high dollar value of the volunteer labour source that is at wildlife managers’ disposal to achieve CAGO solutions.
The strategy for a multiple openings hunting season has been in place in the Lower Mainland since the 1980’s and has been adopted throughout the province where there are similar local, year-round CAGO population conflicts.
Methods: Known CAGO hunters were contacted and canvassed iteratively by telephone, e-mail and through the HuntingBC website (www.huntingbc.ca (http://www.huntingbc.ca/)). Hunters were asked in confidence to provide the following information required to be able to develop a total CAGO harvest estimate for the Lower Pitt River areas:


The number of CAGO harvested during the period Sept 2011 to March 2012 for all their hunting effort within the Lower Pitt River areas.
Canvassing and interviews stretched over a period of three (3) weeks and carried out by BC Wildlife Federation volunteers.
This canvassing occurred immediately after the last Open Hunting Season for CAGO had closed so hunter recall bias can be expected to be minimal.
The number of CAGO hunters in their group and their contact information so that direct, personal, first-hand contacts could be made with other hunters to ensure data accuracy was maintained.
Contact information for other known CAGO hunters for follow-up.
All CAGO hunter contacts were followed-up to the point of diminished returns to ensure duplication of effort was absolutely minimized and that harvest data reliability was absolutely maximized. Canvassing was both extensive and exhaustive to ensure every possible candidate was reached.

CAGO hunting areas covered in the questionnaire included: City of Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows; including all areas of the Lower Pitt River and adjacent uplands of Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows that are open to lawful discharge of firearms for hunting. It should be noted that there are extensive areas of Crown land in the Lower Pitt River that remain closed to discharge of firearms (and thus to waterfowl hunting) that are within the boundaries of Port Coquitlam - -this remains a lost management opportunity for safe and sustainable CAGO management in an analogous

[pmj]

way to the Crown areas of the Lower Pitt River that are within the boundaries of Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows that remain open for discharge of firearms.
The period of harvest estimate included the sum total of all four CAGO Prescribed Open Hunting Seasons that occurred between early September 2011 and early March 2102.
Hunters were asked to give a relative evaluation of their CAGO harvest success during past hunting season compared to their experience with previous years’ success.

Results: Fifty-two (52) different CAGO hunters were contacted that hunted CAGO in the specified areas during the prescribed period. Four hundred and twenty-three (423) CAGO were reported as the total harvest by those 52 individuals.
The reported Lower Pitt River areas CAGO harvest represents almost 10% of the total annual CAGO harvest reported under the NWHS (5,200 CAGO reported harvested for Zone 2 in 2010).
It is estimated that in the order of at least 90 -95% of the total lawful CAGO harvest in the general Lower Pitt River areas has been captured with this exercise.
It is estimated that virtually all of the regular and consistent (seasoned) CAGO hunters for the Lower Pitt River areas have been canvassed. Some casual hunters who represent incidental and opportunistic harvest of CAGO may not have been contacted. Past experience with harvest questionnaire returns tells us that these casual and opportunistic hunters are, (a) usually unaffiliated and thus, chronically difficult to systematically contact, and that, (b) they usually account for a very small fraction of the total CAGO harvest. An additional supporting factor is that for a CAGO hunter to be successful there is prerequisite specialized gear, equipment, expertise and experience that is required; decoys, blinds and mastery of goose calling and hunting techniques. Casual hunters are not predisposed to these techniques nor do they usually possess prerequisite knowledge and specialized, complex and costly outfits.
Hunters consistently reported that their 2011-2012 CAGO harvests were lower than “normal” for the hunting season just ended. Thus, it is estimated that total harvest levels on a “normal” year can be expected to vary by up to several hundred birds and possibly approach 600 to 700 CAGO annually from the general areas of the Lower Pitt River.
Every potential hunter contact was followed up to the point where no new contacts were being generated and all possible regular CAGO hunters had been contacted that we were informed about.
It was the consensus of respondents that are most familiar with the areas most frequented by the local CAGO population that there are at least 2,000 to 3,000 CAGO using the communities near and adjacent to the Lower Pitt River; behaviourally, this local population can at times and seasons be opportunistically dispersed (depending on forage availability and hunting season pressures), as far as Port Moody and Burnaby to the west, to Maple Ridge to the east and to Surrey, Langley and New Westminster in the south – though primarily found in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows.
Context: Environment Canada’s CWS National Waterfowl Harvest Survey results show approximately five thousand (5,000) CAGO are harvested on average annually from the general ‘greater

[pmj]

Lower Mainland areas’ (defined as Zone 2, Lower Mainland/S.W. B.C.). This annual harvest has trended upward since 1973 at an average annual increase of about five percent (5%). This may indicate that more CAGO are being produced in the Lower Mainland than are lost through hunting harvests, predation, disease, parasites and emigration. Thus, it is entirely possible that annual CAGO harvest rates are not sufficient to manage local CAGO populations at relatively constant levels, and despite continued annual harvests of large numbers of CAGO from the Lower Pitt River areas, the NWHS data shows a slow increase in the trend of reported numbers of CAGO.
We will assume that the component of migrant (“wild”) CAGO in the Lower Mainland is relatively evenly distributed throughout the large agricultural acreages and the large open water bodies of the Lower Mainland where the majority of CAGO harvest occurs. Thus, the proportion of the CAGO harvest represented by the migrant CAGO that are wintering in the Lower Mainland and the proportion of the resident, year-round CAGO populations can also be expected to be comparable within reasonable limits. Thus, the NWHS and the CAGO harvest data gathered for this exercise can also be considered comparable within those same reasonable limits. Local waterfowl biologists and seasoned “old-timer” CAGO hunters that are familiar with CAGO behaviour, distribution and wintering dynamics in the Lower Mainland agree this is a valid assumption. This correlation is important when trying to evaluate the net effect that CAGO harvests have on control of only resident (year-round) CAGO populations (without the mix of migrant and wintering CAGO which do not contribute at all to the Lower Mainland’s non-hunting seasons urban goose conflicts in spring and summer).
If the relative proportion of resident CAGO to migrant/wintering CAGO harvest is both relatively evenly distributed and relatively constant, then it is also valid to say that the proportion of annual resident CAGO harvest is also remaining relatively constant.
An index of the relative population trends for CAGO in the general Lower Mainland areas is available through scrutiny of the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) data. It must be emphasized that the absolute numbers contained in the CBC data are only valid if used in the context of long term trends – they do not in any way reflect the absolute numbers of CAGO that are present in specific count areas. Unlike the NWHS data, the CBC data is sufficiently detailed that local trends for CAGO numbers are available for the same general Lower Pitt River areas as the hunter surveys. For the last five (5) years, CBC counts for the Pitt Meadows general areas have remained relatively constant at fifteen hundred (1,500) CAGO sighted on the single-day, mid-winter count.
Conclusions: Lawful CAGO harvests for the general areas surrounding the Lower Pitt River are highly significant with respect to the local area and the total annual harvest of CAGO in the Lower Mainland. They represent almost 10% of the reported total Lower Mainland annual CAGO harvest according to NWHS data (423 -vs- 5,000 approx).
For perspective, the Lower Pitt River areas represent approximately two percent (2%) of the areas open for CAGO hunting in the entire Lower Mainland (also about the same area as covered by the NWHS). Thus, continued and consistent annual harvests of about 10% of the total CAGO from about 2% of the total available land is highly significant.

[pmj]

Additionally, this level of harvest becomes increasingly important as an effective local CAGO population control tool because it is located in such close proximity to the north-western corner of the last remaining areas open for waterfowl hunting in the entire Lower Mainland. And moreover, direct benefits of this level of continuing harvest are most focused on those areas adjacent to where these highly elevated CAGO harvest rates continue to occur -- Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Pitt Meadows.
Continued increasing trends in the NWHS index data for Lower Mainland CAGO populations indicate that despite continued harvest levels that the local population appears to continue to increase on average 5% annually. The most effective method of reversing these trends, in the absence of increased hunting opportunities (i.e. by re-opening agricultural and Crown lands that were once hunted, but now closed to the discharge of firearms by local by-laws), is to reduce the annual recruitment of young CAGO into the local population. This will require additional and renewed commitment to costly projects like moult migration roundups/relocation, egg addling, scaring by pursuit dogs and fundamental landscaping and goose habitat modifications to render favoured areas in the community less attractive to CAGO use and occupation.
As the trend for increasing local CAGO populations continues, it can be expected that commensurate levels and trends for increased urban goose-human conflicts, costs and encounters will also continue to contribute to increased probability for negative public reaction and complaints for all levels of government. Lawful hunting harvests are a critical, effective, cost-efficient and a proactive element for CAGO population management and control and should be considered among the fundamental elements of any comprehensive plan for managing local CAGO Populations. We encourage the City of Coquitlam to develop a Comprehensive CAGO Management Plan so that the full suite of techniques and solutions can be most efficiently instituted.
Loss of any component of the areas currently open for CAGO harvests will jeopardize CAGO hunting efficiency in these local areas and thus, also reduce trends toward controlling the local CAGO populations. All possible areas of the Lower Pitt River must remain open for hunting if effective local CAGO population controls are to be effective.
Implications for Soil-based Agriculture: Crop losses and damage caused by grazing waterfowl on soil-based agricultural operations, specifically forage, silage, grain and pasture crops continue to be very significant within the general areas of the Lower Pitt River; and to a lesser degree in berry fields. Continued effective CAGO population control must be both acknowledged and supported as the most cost-efficient, sustainable and proactive element of local governments’ efforts to minimize urban goose-human conflicts. These trends and concepts continue to be high-profile topics at recent Union of B.C. Municipalities annual conventions.
It is known and documented that CAGO are increasingly feeding and foraging on berry crops; both grazing on the forage between rows and on the high-calorie berries themselves. This relatively new phenomenon has direct implications for all cities and municipalities in the Lower Mainland where berry crops are grown.

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In addition, waterfowl not only contribute to economic losses through actually eating crops and vegetation, but can also cause losses in several other very significant ways; soil compaction (requiring re-tilling), soil/crop “plating” (rendering fields to mud which requires re-seeding), transmitting weed seeds (Noxious Weed Act implications), transmission of viruses and other zoonotic pathogens (avian influenza) , acting as an intermediate host for the life cycle of the microorganism responsible for “Swimmer’s Itch”, depositing fecal materials on land (including swimming beaches and parks/playgrounds) and in water contributing to fecal coliform contamination, passing parasites into the environment (tapeworms).
Summary: Direct personal interviews were conducted, in confidence, by volunteers of the BC Wildlife Federation (Lower Mainland Zone) with every possible CAGO hunter that could be contacted to determine an estimate of the total lawful harvest of CAGO in general areas centred on the Lower Pitt River; Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows (lawful discharge of firearms for hunting is no longer permitted in Port Coquitlam including the Crown Land areas of the Lower Pitt River within city limits). It is felt that virtually all regular CAGO hunters were reached by this survey.
A reliable and current harvest estimate is required by wildlife managers to be able to advise City of Coquitlam Mayor and Council and city staff of the scope and magnitude of CAGO harvests and to confirm the relationship between local CAGO population numbers, distribution and behaviour with respect to conflicts with soil-based agriculture, public recreation on grass areas, and aesthetics on/near urban water bodies where CAGO moulting and nesting is concentrated.
Fifty-two (52) hunters were determined to have harvested four hundred and twenty-three (423) CAGO during the period from early September 2011 to early March 2012. This number represents about ten percent (10%), of the total annual CAGO harvest for the entire Lower Mainland as determined from CWS’ National Waterfowl Harvest Survey.
It is highly significant that this harvest survey of general Lower Pitt River areas represents only about two percent (2%) of the entire Lower Mainland areas where CAGO hunting is possible. This magnitude of harvest confirms the direct and critical relationship between overlapping land uses and the need for continuing intensive local CAGO population controls to achieve minimized costs, conflicts and complaints in the communities.
Almost without exception, hunters’ comparison of this year’s harvests to previous years was that the season just ended was “below normal”; attributable to unfavourable weather conditions. Thus, it may be expected that in a “normal” year, harvests may be an additional several hundred – totalling perhaps 600-700 birds annually from the Lower Pitt River areas in general.
Long term CAGO annual harvest trends from 1973 (Environment Canada’s NWHS data), indicate that on average the local populations are increasing at about five percent, (5%) annually. This indicates that despite local population losses and mortality factors, hunting being chief among them, that continued high harvest rates are not keeping up with annual production of young throughout the Lower Mainland.

[pmj]

Hunting seasons, prescribed by both federal and provincial regulations, have been set at maximum number of days, daily and total possession bag limits and multiple-openings strategy that is possible under the international migratory bird management treaty. Thus, it is felt that hunting, the most efficient and cost-effective waterfowl management tool available to managers is being utilized to very nearly the optimum extent possible under current and prevailing conditions across the landscape as far as the extent and configuration of lands that are open to hunting.
Additional efficiency for the volunteer source of trained, experienced, quadruply licenced, doubly certified and triply insured CAGO hunters is possible in future by ensuring all areas where discharge of firearms is possible are either maintained as open or re-opened where safe and sustainable to do so. There are many opportunities across the Lower Mainland for additional CAGO harvest areas and opportunities to be re-instituted; and thus, for increased levels of hunter harvests of resident CAGO populations to occur. Of course, reopening of these critical areas must always be subject to absolute protection of public safety, and sustainability parameters. Local DFB Advisory Committees can efficiently and proactively provide Council and staff local and competent background, rationale and recommendations.
Recommendations: Following from the conclusions, several recommendations are suggested:


Maintain areas open for discharge of firearms that are currently available for CAGO management. This includes both upland areas of private agricultural land and Crown lands within city/municipal boundaries (e.g. Pitt River, Fraser River).
Evaluate existing Discharge of Firearms By-Laws (DFB), and determine where safe and sustainable opportunities exist, re-open areas where local DFB has closed functional CAGO harvest and local population control opportunities.
Ensure CAGO management strategies used by city staff and contractors within communities are critical elements of approved a CAGO Comprehensive Management Plan.
Establish a standing Advisory Committee to proactively review DFB boundaries and provide Council with comprehensive and accurate advice on the full spectrum of issues related to wildlife management and human-wildlife conflict resolution. Some Lower Mainland Councils have long-standing DFB Advisory Committees extending several decades (in the case of M. Delta extending almost forty years; in the City of Richmond, about the same duration). In other communities, these committees prevent a large expense of Council and staff time as well as resources wasted as a result of tangential, diversionary exploitation of unrelated aspects and minutia of this complex, misunderstood and often counter-intuitive topic.
Council consider developing a Comprehensive CAGO Management Plan to guide the efficient and proactive use of the entire suite of options that are currently available

This report is respectfully submitted by the Lower Mainland Region of the BC Wildlife Federation with the hope it will bring critical facts and perspective to the discussions that Council and city staff are currently trying to resolve. It is also provided to both Environment Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service and to the BC Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources (Fish and Wildlife Management) as a more detailed and refined data point to augment the annual NWHS CAGO harvest data for Zone 2.
We urge City of Coquitlam to keep as many functional wildlife management options open for future use as is safe and sustainable. This includes efficient and effective hunting on both upland areas and on the Crown Lands of the Lower Pitt River.
The BC Wildlife Federation is BC’s oldest conservation organization, representing more than 38,000 members.

Dale Vidulich,

President,
Lower Mainland Region, BCWF.

[Crazy_Farmer]

52 hunters and 423 geese, come on boys, thats roughly 8 a guy for a season. I'm pretty sure you could double that number with a stick in the coquitlam train grain yards hahaha. Its the same as snow problems in 2-4, access is the problem, so shutting down further areas will only add to the problem not solve anything.

It was a lower goose number year this past season so I think the average would be quite higher then that.

Looks like a lot of time, work and writing Fowl Language, good on ya.

[mjmbc]

back e day we used to spend 3 days setting up for opening day and we always limitrd out four guys

[Marsh Hawk]

Thanks go out to PMJ and Fowl Language for all of the hard work on this issue. They have really worked hard on this issue. Thanks also to the people that got information to Fowl about the harvest numbers in the area. This info will go a long way in trying to keep this area open to hunting. Good work guys.

[fowl language]

please keep in mind that roughly 10% of the birds are taken out of the total region 2 harvest in this area which only represents 2% of the total allowable hunting area of the entire lower mainland.i,d say that,s pretty good myself. note..most of the 52 i interviewed said it was a slow year over all due to weather and work related time spent.....fowl