The Eagle Outdoors

Allow me to preface this week's missive with a note. I'm not trying to be argumentative here, for I do believe that opinions, like elbows, are possessed by damn near everyone. That said, I read with interest the gentleman's heartfelt 'Letter to the Editor' in the October 16 issue of The Eagle expressing his dismay with hunters shooting geese on Puget Island. For the record, I believe his heart's in the proper position; however, there IS a couple of items I'd like to discuss.

Yes, Puget Island is an important stopover for migratory waterfowl. Birds and wildlife of many species. So, too, is the Julia Butler Hansen Refuge, where no hunting (save for on Price and Hunting islands) is allowed. So, too, is Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, portions of which are closed to hunting. So, too, are refuges (either in part or in their entirety), not only up and down the whole of the West Coast, but across the country as well. Fortunately, migratory waterfowl, along with Columbia whitetail deer, trumpeter swans, white pelicans, belted kingfishers, tufted titmice, and hundreds of other avian life-forms, have millions of acres of sanctuary upon which to rest unmolested.

The gentleman writes in closing and to quote, "such rules prevail because many people, hunters or not, behave heedless of courtesy or safety. In my opinion, it's also time for some rules that protect the geese from hunters as well." Here, the gentleman speaks of a 500-foot safety zone around any buildings or residences, public or private, for those target practicing on properties owned by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Allow me to briefly address the "rules that protect geese from hunters," which would include the following:

Closed seasons. This year, I have 34 days to hunt geese here in what technically is known as Goose Management Area 2/Inland. That leaves 331 days during which I cannot hunt geese here, including on Puget Island, nor can anyone else hunt geese in western Washington.

Closed areas. Many hundreds of thousands of public acres here in the Pacific Flyway are closed to the harvest of geese. Many more private lands are, for one reason or another, also off-limits, thus providing safe havens, per se, for the birds.

Reduced bag limits. Just in the short time we've been back (2015-25), I've seen my daily goose bag limit go from four to three to two. This is a direct result of a decrease in Cackling goose populations; this due to overharvest (subsistence harvest) in Alaska and habitat degradation.

Metropolitan safe zones. Thousands of Canada geese winter within the city limits of Portland, Vancouver, Seattle, Olympia, Salem, Missoula, Cedar Rapids, Pittsburg, and the list goes on and on from coast to coast. These geese are untouchable due to firearms restrictions and regulations enacted and enforced by these municipalities. They are, therefore, safe as a result of these rules.

FYI, all of these variables (rules) in The Big Equation are in place to protect goose populations from possible, though extremely unlikely, overharvest at the hands of the consumptive user. With regard to Puget Island specifically, I'd be much more concerned about the construction occurring on The Island, the end-game there being habitat loss. The empty five-acre parcels, ideal habitat for Canada geese, white egrets, short-tailed weasels, and Western tanagers, that are in the process of becoming $750,000 homes? The wonderfully unkempt 150-acre farm in northeastern Ohio where, in 1976 or 1977, I shot my first ringneck pheasant, is and has been a Walmart Super Store for years. I wonder how many pheasants live in that parking lot now?

More mushrooms

No, sir. Mushroom season isn't over yet. On Sunday, Oct. 19, I put on my blaze-orange Halloween jack 'o lantern t-shirt and ventured into the tules, ending up with perhaps eight pounds of yummy chanterelle mushrooms. I immediately bartered these for (1) a crabbing trip on Baker Bay, and (2) a second small jug of real, homemade, Michigan-born maple syrup.

It's been a strange year for mushrooms, at least in my world. The woods were as dry as I've ever seen them in late September when I started picking, with many of the chanterelles nothing more than tiny buttons. The rains came, though, and with them, hope; however, a goodly number of the fungi I found were well past prime. Of the 'good' ones, only a handful were of a decent size. The picking was a little bit better on Sunday, when I managed to literally stumble across a couple of fair-sized patches yielding eight to 10 individual fruits.

The coral mushrooms are just now getting going. I did find a nice "chicken of the woods," alias Sulphur shelf, growing on the side of an old stump, so we're not done yet.

Northern pikeminnow finale

The 2025 northern pikeminnow (NPM) sport-reward program officially ended on Oct. 12 and, while the '25 season catch didn't tally the 169,000 fish annual average, the 150,375 legal fish (those being nine inches or more in length) that were turned in certainly will save plenty of salmon and steelhead smolts. According to WDFW Program Coordinator Eric Winther, some 12,625 anglers participated in the 2025 fishing season, roughly 300 more individuals than in the previous year.

When everything was said and done, the top angler for '25 posted 14,573 legal fish and (literally) reeled in an estimated $146,490. Not bad for five months of fishing!