Delaware’s Cape Gazette reports that the extended hunting season for snow geese and rabbits has been cancelled at Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware.

There are administrative concerns, said Michael Stroeh, project leader for the Coastal Delaware Refuge Complex. “At the 11th hour, we realized we hadn’t done a study, and we decided to play it safe,” he said. “We have to get our ducks in a row.”

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife conservation order, issued in November 2008, allows the use of special hunting methods to increase the harvest of snow geese by extending the season. The extended season will still be in effect outside of Prime Hook and Bombay Hook refuges.

Stroeh said the effects of extending the hunting season throughout the refuge had not been properly analyzed. Stroeh said there is no doubt the snow goose population is stable, but refuge staff is concerned extending the hunting season would harm other wildlife in late February and early March. The extended season was to have ended March 13.

“We are more worried about other birds,” he said.

The time period is key to migratory birds as they eat and prepare to leave the refuge to return to their breeding grounds, he said.

The action brought immediate praise from The Humane Society of the United States.

“Midwinter hunting on such a refuge simply cannot be justified, and we commend the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Fish and Wildlife Service for calling a halt to its expanded hunting schedule,” said John Grady, senior vice president of wildlife and habitat protection for the humane society.

Matt DiBona, a Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control biologist, said the conservation order is meant to reduce the snow goose population by 50 percent by 2015, due to a concern that there are too many birds and the food resources cannot support them.

Tags:
National Wildlife Refuge System, Prime Hook NWR, Delaware