Migratory game bird hunting seasons set by new regulatory process this year

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has adopted a new regulatory process for setting season dates and bag limits for migratory game birds starting this year. This will allow hunters to get information about 2016-17 migratory game bird seasons earlier than in past years, according to Mike Peters, migratory game bird coordinator for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (DNR).
“Migratory game bird regulations will now be set using the previous year’s biological and harvest data,” said Peters. “This means the regulatory process can begin much earlier and enables the DNR to get this information out to hunters sooner. Previously, waterfowl seasons were not set until late summer using the current year’s data. This made it very difficult to get the regulations printed before the September seasons opened. It also made it challenging for hunters to plan for these seasons. Now, the regulatory process will begin using information from the previous fall hunting seasons.”
The new regulations are available under the “Hunting” tab at www.wvdnr.gov.
Peters also says that the United States Geological Survey’s Bird Banding Laboratory (BBL) has just released a mobile version of reportband.gov. According to Jo Ann Lutmerding, biologist with the BBL, “This new version has improved capabilities for mobile users while maintaining the helpful functionality of immediate feedback about potential errors in a report and providing the banding information after a report is submitted. Users can also more easily report multiple bands. The BBL hopes these improvements will facilitate online reporting and assist users reporting from mobile devices in the field.”
Hunters are reminded that leg bands on harvested migratory game birds should be reported to the BBL through the BBL website, www.reportband.gov, now with a mobile version, or by calling 1-800-237-BAND.