Summary

Description

The purpose of this plan is to provide guidelines for management decisions affecting the Midcontinent Population of Greater Whitefronted Geese Anser albifrons frontalis MCWFG. These geese nest in arctic areas from Hudson Bay west to the interior noncoastal and North Slope regions of Alaska. Migration stopovers include areas in prairie Canada, the eastern Central Flyway, and the western Mississippi Flyway. The primary wintering areas are in the gulf coast marshes and prairies, the Mississippi River alluvial valley, and in Mexico Fig. 1.Major recreational harvest areas include Louisiana and Texas, where over 50 percent of the harvest occurs, and Saskatchewan, Alberta and Arkansas. Additionally, subsistence harvest occurs in Alaska and the Northwest Territories.This plan is an update of a plan that was completed in 1998. The 1998 plan replaced two plans written for western and eastern segments of MCWFG, adopted by the Central and Mississippi Flyway Councils in March 1982. In those plans, the basis for population delineation was leg band recovery data for birds marked during the early and mid1960s and population status was assessed from winter and spring surveys. A more extensive banding and marking program was conducted on breeding areas from 1987 through 1995. Information from this program indicated that mixing of birds from eastern and western breeding areas during the nonbreeding period was common and that eastern and western segments were not sufficiently distinct to warrant separate management. Also, previous surveys especially the spring survey failed to produce reliable information for population assessment and a new fall survey was implemented in 1992. Although this plan treats MCWFG as a single population, special management options for identifiable and manageable segments or subunits within the population could be considered should they be recognized with new information.