We’d been hearing rumors about the upcoming waterfowl season in Minnesota, so we went straight to the expert, Steve Cordts, with the Minnesota DNR.  Here are 5 questions with Steve:

1) What is the latest on the teal season?         We won’t know for sure if the FWS will allow it until later in June.  But we are likely to use the hunter survey we are planning to do after next hunting season to collect hunter preferences on teal seasons as step 1.  Then we’d be able to better weigh all the pros/cons before making a decision in 2015.

2) What is the latest on the August goose season?     Should be the same season as last year.

3) Did any snow geese get shot this year in Minnesota? If so, how many would you estimate?      I did not hear many reports this spring, but harvest in MN is always fairly low (100s to a few 1000)

4) Are you still thinking that we’d get a waterfowl opener on the 27th?       Can’t be any earlier than that.  Last year was the earliest the opener can be (Sept. 21) and this year is the latest it can be (Sept. 27).  It’s the Saturday nearest Sept. 24.  Fairly safe to say the only way it would be later than Sept. 27 this year would be if we had a 30 day restrictive season when the early opening date is not allowed.

5) If there is no teal season, then we should still have a youth day correct?  Yes.  2 weeks prior to opening day has been our recent policy that seems to work best.

Thanks Steve!