Saturday's Duck Opener Brings Big Changes To Hunting
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) -- Against a facade of an old hunting camp inside his Hopkins office, Brad Nylin can barely contain his excitement. Saturday's duck hunting season opener brings some exciting changes.
"For me it's not what I end up harvesting, it's more what I see and the experience and stories," said Nylin.
Those stories and traditions will come alive Saturday morning at sunrise when duck hunters will be heading into their blinds a full one week and hours earlier than ever before. The state legislature decided to move the opener up a week to help bring a better experience to the hunt.
Nylin is the executive director of the Minnesota Waterfowl Association and said he supports the regulation change.
"We're hearing from a lot of our members who are saying that they're all for the earlier opener. They like the splits (season) and think that they will see more birds because of the earlier opener," Nylin said.
Along with increases to bag limits and dividing the state into two regulated zones, the changes are the most radical duck regulations the state has made in a generation. They're part of an aggressive effort by the Department of Natural Resources to respond to the hunting public.
DNR Commissioner Tom Landwehr said the changes will make for an overall better duck hunting experience.
"Having ducks fly over, they sound like jets. A well trained dog, perfect set of decoys and practice shooting," said Landwehr.
The rule changes should also help the DNR retain existing duck hunters and attract new ones. The number of licenses and duck stamps sold has been in a serious decline. Over the past three decades license sales are down by more than 50 percent, from a peak of 140,000 hunters in 1978 to an expected 70,000 this year.
Nylin said that has a serious impact on the ability to raise revenue for hunter education, mentoring youth as well as projects to improve and purchase wetlands.
"As you're losing revenue from stamps and licenses you're losing the ability to do more habitat work," Nylin said.
Come early Saturday morning, Commissioner Landwehr will be with his son, friends and a trusty dog. He's banking on the idea that a better hunt will bring more folks back to the blind.
"We can't affect migrations much but we can affect the quality of the experience by virtue of changing regulations," he said.
