THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, August 6, 1995                 TAG: 9508060151
SECTION: SPORTS                   PAGE: C11  EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY BOB HUTCHINSON, OUTDOORS EDITOR 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   47 lines

CANADA GEESE OFF LIMITS IN VA., N.C. HOWEVER, THE DUCK BAG LIMIT COULD BE INCREASED AND THE SEASON EXPANDED.

For the first time, the federal government has proposed a ban on hunting for migratory Canada geese in virtually all of the Atlantic Flyway during the winter of 1995-95, with a complete ban in Virginia and North Carolina.

The only exceptions are small pockets of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In these areas, most geese use the Mississippi Flyway in migrating between summering areas in Canada and wintering areas in the United States.

That's the bad news for hunters. The good news is that the basic daily bag limit for ducks could increase from three birds to five, while the season could be expanded from 40 hunting days to 50.

These were the major parts of a federal framework presented to Atlantic Flyway states at a meeting in Washington on Thursday. The federal government outlines the framework, with states allowed to select their own dates from that outline.

Public comment on the proposals will be received by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington through Sept. 4.

The board of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries will meet in Richmond on Aug. 25 to select the Old Dominion's duck-hunting dates from within that framework.

The number of Canada geese using the Atlantic Flyway has declined precipitously in recent years. Hunting pressure has been the culprit, waterfowl biologists say.

The 1985-86 midwinter survey placed the number of geese on the flyway at 900,000. Last winter's survey turned up only an estimated 650,000.

Meanwhile, duck numbers have been climbing steadily for several years, the apparent result of restrictions on hunters' harvest and improved breeding conditions on the Canadian prairies.

An estimated 80 percent of the North American duck population spends the summer and raises its young on those potholed prairies.

The 1995 fall duck flight down all four flyways - the Atlantic, Mississippi, Central and Pacific - has been projected at 80 million birds, up from 71 million a year ago and 62 million two years before that.

The federal framework proposals will not affect Virginia's Sept. 5-15 season for resident (non-migratory) Canada geese. by CNB