In mid-August, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) published a final rule in the Federal Register amending the hunting regulations for the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge. Among the changes is a new rule governing how and when hunters must retrieve downed waterfowl.
On its face, the rule is innocent enough. It states that hunters “must immediately make a reasonable attempt to retrieve downed waterfowl unless the bird lies in plain sight of you, is clearly dead, and there is no risk of the bird drifting off due to wind or current.”
So, essentially, you must go get your bird instead of waiting until the end of the hunt or until the action cools off if you cannot see it from your blind. The refuge said this change adds a time element to existing state retrieval regulations (the refuge sits in parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois) and is designed to reduce the loss of downed birds and to discourage hunters from shooting at birds that are beyond effective shotgun range.
But when you consider the refuge’s new emphasis on bird retrieval in light of its ban on dummy launchers (which propel fake birds for a dog to retrieve) and dog training pistols, it starts to look hypocritical. According to refuge law enforcement, discharging dog training pistols and/or dummy launchers on the refuge is prohibited year-round—not just during the waterfowl nesting season—because of alleged disturbances they create.
This rule means that a hunter wanting to use these devices to train his or her dog for longer or blind retrieves—seemingly those retrieves that this new rule covers—cannot do so on the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife Refuge. On the one hand, the refuge is saying it wants to place a greater emphasis on retrievals, but on the other it restricts training options for achieving that goal.
“Anybody who hunts ducks thinks you’re lying when you tell then you’re not allowed to train with these things, they don’t believe it’s true,” said Jon Netzer, a hunter from La Crescent, Minn., who has hunted on the refuge since 1952. “We all know that a well-trained, conditioned dog is a huge factor when it comes to decreasing crippled birds and having an ethical hunting experience. How can launching a dog training dummy possibly hurt anything when the dove season begins Sept. 1?”
What if a hunter does not have access to private property for training his or her hunting dog and waterfowl hunts exclusively on the Upper Miss? Based on the rule preventing dummy launchers and training pistols, he or she is out of luck for training with these devices, even though common sense says a well-trained dog will help reduce lost birds.
One has to wonder how launching a training dummy or firing a training pistol can hurt anything on a 240,000-acre refuge, especially when hunting is already allowed on the property. This regulation seemingly has nothing to do with wildlife management, or allowing others to enjoy the refuge in peace and quiet. It’s just another restriction placed on hunters that makes it more difficult for them to train their dogs—and abide by the new retrieval rules—for no good reason.
For more information on hunting restrictions on the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge:
Refuge’s “No Wake” Rule Locks Out Hunters
