Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 6, 1992 TAG: 9202060325
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
TUNDRA-SWAN HUNTING BILL DELAYED A YEAR
The chairman of the House Conservation and Natural Resources Committee urged the state game department Wednesday to end the hunting season on tundra swans.At the request of Del. Victor Thomas, D-Roanoke, his colleagues on the committee voted to carry over for a year a bill that would ban swan hunting.
"Let the game commission do what they are supposed to do," Thomas said.
Then he offered some advice to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
"I don't think the hunting of swan is a wise move at this time, but that is something the commission can correct."
Lewis M. Costello, member of the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries, told the committee that the bill would undo six years of work by the board to straighten out state game seasons. Costello argued that the board and not the General Assembly should set game seasons.
"In 1987 you gave us the job to clean up the multiple game seasons. Now there are four or five bills this session that would undo what we have accomplished.
"My earnest request is we not start this thing over again," he said.
Virginia is one of only eight states that permit the hunting of the huge, migratory birds.
According to William J.L. Sladen, head of swan research at the Airlie Foundation near Warrenton, the United States is the only country in the world that allows swan hunting.
Sladen, who has studied swans for three decades, said that while the swan population along the East Coast is increasing, the population in Virginia is falling.
The state estimates there are 6,000 swans in Virginia, but Sladen said the number is closer to 4,700 and is dropping.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.