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Mark Freeman Commentary Waterfowl seasons best ever By MARK FREEMAN When it comes to great duck and goose hunting opportunities, Oregon waterfowl hunters don't have to pine for the past. They instead can look to the very near future. The state's waterfowl hunters will end the 20th century with the most liberal duck and goose hunting seasons ever set in Oregon. Strong numbers of migratory and resident waterfowl translate into the longest seasons allowed by treaty and extremely liberal bag limits this fall and winter, says state wildlife biologist Brad Bales. "With the numbers of birds available," Bales says, "these are the good old days." The good old days start Oct. 9, when the duck season opens statewide. Hunters will remain in the field for 107 days, until the season ends on Jan. 23. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife originally proposed the duck season to end Jan. 22, a Saturday. But in setting the seasons during its meeting Friday in Lakeview, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission added the final day so waterfowlers will have a full weekend of hunting to close out the season. The season also includes a seven-duck daily limit, equaling the top-level limits enjoyed here the past two years. The goose hunting season begins a week later on Oct. 16 for Southwest Oregon, including Klamath and Lake counties. It, too, runs through Jan. 23, with limits of four dark and three white geese a day. Also for the first time in three years, the opening of waterfowl hunting does not conflict with the start of general rifle season for blacktail deer bucks, which opens Oct. 2. The dates allow avid hunters to stalk bucks with rifles in the Cascades on the first weekend of October, then switch to shotguns on Klamath Lake for ducks the following Saturday. Also for this year, the special hunting season on resident Canada geese will run Sept. 4-10 in southwest Oregon, with a daily limit of five geese -- the highest ever allowed in the early season. The final tidbit of the waterfowl season is a liberal northwest Oregon permit goose season, which runs three days a week in specific blocks of time from late October through February. The hunting is all in Northwest Oregon and is designed to curb agricultural depredation on private lands. Taken all together, the various duck and goose hunting opportunities add up to the best overall seasons ever set in Oregon. The Oregon seasons are contingent on federal agencies following through and adopting the frameworks as expected in September. The big seasons and big bag limits come on the heels of the best waterfowl population estimates ever conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Service biologists estimate 105 million ducks will fly south this fall, the highest ever and substantially above last year's estimate of 85 million ducks. This year's estimates include about 13.6 million mallards, up from 11.8 million last year. This so-called "fall flight" is attributed to excellent nesting habitat and wetland conditions, primarily in Canada but also in states like Oregon that produce birds shot in the West as far away as Montana. Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at: [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA