Photo by Lee Leschper

Believe it or not, there was a time when seeing a Canada goose in Michigan was somewhat of a rarity. I remember growing up back in the 1960s when shooting a Canada goose was almost like shooting an elk in Michigan these days. I recall my Dad coming home from a hunting trip one time with a big Canada goose. None of us had actually seen a big honker up close and personal. We marveled at the heft of the bird and the massive wingspan. We loaded the giant bird in a wagon and carted it all over the neighborhood for a couple of days to show it off before we decided we had better clean it.

Today, Canada geese seem to be as common as robins. Burgeoning numbers of resident giant Canada geese have provided Michigan waterfowlers with exceptional hunting opportunities over the past two decades. As resident goose populations exploded, wildlife managers sought ways to control their numbers with special seasons and liberal bag limits. The tactics have done their job. Even though there are numerous urban and suburban areas where there are still way too many geese, the population of resident giant Canada geese has now stabilized or even declined in many parts of our state, and hunters could be looking at more restrictive regulations in coming years.

Michigan also sees a large influx of migrating interior Canada geese from the Mississippi Valley Population (MVP) and Southern James Bay Population (SJBP) and smaller numbers of lesser Canadas from the Tall Grass Prairie Population (TGPP). Geese do not recognize state lines. As a result, Michigan wildlife managers have been faced with the challenge over the last two decades of managing a giant Canada goose population that has exceeded numerical goals, migratory goose populations that make up a substantial portion of the Michigan harvest but whose populations are in a state of flux, and the desire to maximize hunting opportunities. The result is a complicated puzzle.

Canada goose populations and management programs have undergone tremendous changes over the past few decades. During the 1960s, management focused on the three distinct populations of interior Canadas at large refuges where the geese congregated in the fall and winter.

The first mid-December survey conducted in 1969 estimated the Mississippi Flyway's Canada goose population at 600,000 birds. Giant Canada geese comprised less than 10 percent of the population at that time and the small race of Canadas made up an even smaller proportion. Flyway-wide harvest estimates during the 1960s averaged about 145,000 geese. While hunter numbers declined by 60 percent between 1975 and 2000, the goose harvest increased to some 900,000 birds in 2000. The Canadian harvest increased by 30 percent during the same time frame.

By 2002, flyway estimates suggested a pre-nesting population of about 2.4 million Canada geese in the Mississippi Flyway, about half of which were now giant Canada geese. While numbers of Canada geese continued to increase in the south, the proportion of interior Canada geese wintering there continued to decline.

It became increasingly apparent that the overlap between wintering interior and giant Canadas required some changes in population estimating techniques and management schemes. Rather than look at populations during the fall at refuges where major migration concentrations occurred, managers shifted their focus during the late 1980s to the breeding grounds where populations geographically segregated and where more accurate population estimates could be made. By this time, giant Canada geese now comprised the bulk of the goose harvest in most states, and management goals shifted to increasing the kill of local giant Canadas while controlling the harvest of interior populations.

Michigan has enjoyed exceptional goose hunting over the past two decades thanks in large part to its burgeoning giant Canada goose population, but that could be changing.

"Michigan's giant Canada goose population peaked in 1999 at about 325,000 birds," said Department of Natural Resources biologist Dave Luukkonen out of the Rose Lake Wildlife Research Center. "The 2004 estimates placed Michigan's local giant Canada goose population at around 165,000 birds. So we're a little below our population goal of between 175,000 and 225,000 birds."