# Swan Changes Coming



## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

WB just voted unanimous in the following:

If you harvest a Trumpeter - 5 year waiting period to apply for adults; 3 year waiting period for youth

If you fail to check in your bird, the waiting period is 7 years.

What I didn't understand from the discussion is if the 7 year waiting period is only specific to Trumpeters or if that applies to anyone who fails to check in their bird be it a Tundra or Trumpeter.

Remains to be seen how this impacts the swan hunt, but I was amazed at how the hunt closure has increased each year over the past 3. 1 day early in 2019, 8 days early in 2020, 16 days early in 2021. So was 2022 going to be 25-30 days early looking at the trend? I'm glad that they are trying to address the problem to allow for more hunter opportunity with a season that is as long as possible. That's my take away.


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Very interesting - thanks for sharing!


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## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

Those sound like reasonable and positive changes to me, do you know if they considered closing Public Shooting Grounds as well?


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

There was some discussion on shutting down PSG, but the consensus was that they didn't want to shut it down and take away the opportunity to hunt it. The thinking was that the waiting periods would be more effective in trying to reach the goal of not hitting the quota cap year after year, which is engendering negative PR for the swan hunt.


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

My question is, how will they know if you don't "check in" your swan?


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## Goshawk (Sep 7, 2007)

They came back after the lunch break and tabled the 7 year waiting period for not checking in a swan. Apparently that would require a statute change that they couldn't do today. So the new 3 and 5 year waiting periods will stand and the failure to report penalties remain they same as they are for now.

As far as catching people who don't check their birds they said they rely heavily on the public turning in offenders. They did mention a couple instances where they had someone post pictures of swans they killed on social media then failed to report the harvest and they were able to catch them that way.


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## MooseMeat (Dec 27, 2017)




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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

Only a dirt ball is stomping a swan they shot into the mud. It takes a special kind of dirt ball to do that.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

Vanilla said:


> Only a dirt ball is stomping a swan they shot into the mud. It takes a special kind of dirt ball to do that.


If these said changes go into the book as law/rule, I fear there will be many "special dirt bags".


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

taxidermist said:


> If these said changes go into the book as law/rule, I fear there will be many "special dirt bags".


I hope I get to turn one of them in, if so. It really would take a “special” sort of person to stomp / waste a swan.


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## Stimmy (Sep 10, 2007)

just seems like the simple solution would be to close PSG


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

taxidermist said:


> If these said changes go into the book as law/rule, I fear there will be many "special dirt bags".


That is really unfortunate. I would hope better from our segment of society.

This type of thinking and behavior is inexcusable and unacceptable. Again, tell your friends to be better!


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

I saw on another page where a gentleman suggested requiring Taxidermists report all Trumpeters brought in. I think this is a great idea myself. Just another measure of security if you will.


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

How about every swan hunter must return their tag, filled or not, to the DWR for inspection after the season. If your tag is filled and you didn’t bring your bird for inspection, lifetime ban on swan hunting.

It’s unfortunate that we even have to talk about punishment. I thought hunters were actually men and women, and not entitled dirt bags like the people described in posts above. It would be nice to have a rule in place that allows us to even have this hunt, and that would be good enough.


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## Pumpgunner (Jan 12, 2010)

Fowlmouth said:


> I saw on another page where a gentleman suggested requiring Taxidermists report all Trumpeters brought in. I think this is a great idea myself. Just another measure of security if you will.


That's a really interesting idea! Are taxidermists under any legal obligation to report things that seem like they might be illegal?


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## Fowlmouth (Oct 4, 2008)

Pumpgunner said:


> That's a really interesting idea! Are taxidermists under any legal obligation to report things that seem like they might be illegal?


I have no idea. Good question.


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## taxidermist (Sep 11, 2007)

Fowlmouth said:


> I have no idea. Good question.


If a Taxi is mounting Waterfowl they are required to have a federal license that they get from Denver CO. from the Feds. A Taxi is NOT required to let the F&G know of anything that comes into their shop. An officer can ask if anything has been in his shop, with a description of what they are looking for. But they cant show up and rummage through the specimens that are in the shop without a warrant.

I've had one occasion where an officer asked me about a deer (while I was being checked on the late archery extended) and asked if he could look at antlers I had in the shop. He described what they were looking for, and I told him nothing as he described has come to me. That was the end of the conversation and I never was asked again. 

I've been out of the Taxi business for 20 years so I'm not up on changes if there are any. Packout may have a direct answer?


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## MallardFlew (Feb 22, 2012)

Something had to be done. I can't wait for the isotope testing to come back and let us know exactly where the trumps that have been killed are coming from. Hopefully the AK/Canada populations. One thing we as waterfowlers could be better at is letting birds decoy and knowing the species that are coming in before we shoot. This would solve a lot of problems for everyone. Let birds work instead of skyblasting and we all will have better hunts, ducks and swans included.


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## Goshawk (Sep 7, 2007)

MallardFlew said:


> Something had to be done. I can't wait for the isotope testing to come back and let us know exactly where the trumps that have been killed are coming from. Hopefully the AK/Canada populations. One thing we as waterfowlers could be better at is letting birds decoy and knowing the species that are coming in before we shoot. This would solve a lot of problems for everyone. Let birds work instead of skyblasting and we all will have better hunts, ducks and swans included.


Blair talked about the feather testing. The results should be back in late spring and could be presented to the Feds next fall. If everything goes our way the 2023 season would be the earliest we would see changes.


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

Stimmy said:


> just seems like the simple solution would be to close PSG


That would seem to be the low hanging fruit, but the DWR doesn't want to take that opportunity away and further concentrate hunters on remaining swan areas. I can see their point even if I don't totally agree with it.

IMO it comes down to hunters targeting trumpeters pure and simple. PSG is simply where they are easier to find, but if not there, the guy that wants a trump for his wall will find them somewhere else. I think PSG accounts for about 40% of the 20 killed, give or take, so it's not the only problem area. To me, it's hunter behavior that needs to change, and hopefully the waiting periods help with that.

I do like requiring taxis to report any trumpeter taken. I believe most that are killed are destined for a wall, so that would be an easy way to catch the individual that is trying not to report their bird to avoid the waiting period. Too bad that idea didn't come up in the RAC process this time around.


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## MooseMeat (Dec 27, 2017)

From what I’ve witnessed with swans, trumpeters that are killed, aren’t being targeted as much as people fantasize about. A big white bird comes in or flies over and they shoot it. Once they pick it up is when they realize it and even then, I bet some don’t even know what they have until it’s checked. I shot a juvy one year, looked big when i picked it up but didn’t think twice about it. When it got checked in the bill measured way over what a big tundra should measure and they counted it as a trumpeter. They aren’t as vocal as tundras and when they come in solo, it’s hard to judge it’s body size and they get killed cuz it’s 1) a swan and 2) a big white bird

there’s only a handful of guys who can purposely target and kill trumps. You’ve had this whole thing blown out of proportion that’s stemmed from posts on Facebook. It’s that simple. Kinda interesting that some of the guys targeting them are also the reason for other laws and rules being implemented recently or on the agenda for the future. I use to support guides on public marshes, but the more they keep making things harder for the general public, the more anti guided anything on public land I’m becoming.

id be interested to know how many trumps checked every year are a juvy or a mature bird.


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## frankday43 (Jan 7, 2022)

Vanilla said:


> do





Vanilla said:


> Only a dirt ball is stomping a swan they shot into the mud. It takes a special kind of dirt ball to do that.


I found several dead trumpeter swans at Ogden bay this year people need to pay attention


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

frankday43 said:


> I found several dead trumpeter swans at Ogden bay this year people need to pay attention


Did you report them? 

This is a big problem. This act alone could cost us our entire swan hunt.


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## camodad (Oct 29, 2021)

Only issue tags for the quota,then it doen't matter. If you don,t know what your shooting at then you should not be out there shooting, next you will have a just waiting period for shooting deer instead of elk. screw the $, lets go hunting and have fun instead. My opinion.


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## MooseMeat (Dec 27, 2017)

camodad said:


> Only issue tags for the quota,then it doen't matter. If you don,t know what your shooting at then you should not be out there shooting, next you will have a just waiting period for shooting deer instead of elk. screw the $, lets go hunting and have fun instead. My opinion.


Wtf are you talking about?

You already do have a waiting period if you shoot a deer instead of an elk. It’s a 5-10 year wait period, which also has a fine and possible jail time associated with it.


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