Everyone who hunts doves, ducks, geese, sandhill cranes, snipe, or coots in Montana must be "HIP" certified for the upcoming hunting seasons.
HIP stands for Harvest Information Program, and certification delivers essential information to wildlife biologists so they can better manage wildlife resources in Montana and the United States. The program is entering its fifth season.
Most waterfowl seasons open in Montana in late September, but the snipe and dove hunting opener is September 1.
To get HIP certified, Montana waterfowl and migratory bird hunters will be asked a few simple questions about their hunting success last year when they purchase their 2002 migratory bird hunting license. The questions are simple and easy to answer, and will be immediately entered into Montana’s new Automated Licensing System. The whole process should take only a minute. Montana migratory bird hunters will be asked:
About how many ducks, geese, cranes, doves and coots or snipe did you bag last season? Hunters don’t need to know the exact numbers. Broad ranges are given for each group of birds, including: "Did not hunt." "None." "1 –10." "11 – 30." And "more than 31."
That’s it. There is no cost.
"As wildlife managers, we’re often confronted with inadequate information about the impacts of hunting on species populations," said Jim Hansen, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Central Flyway migratory bird coordinator in Billings. "The lack of harvest information has been used as a reason to challenge hunting regulations. That’s one of the reasons why we need the cooperation of Montana’s migratory bird hunters."
All license agents in the state know of the HIP certification requirement and should ask everyone who plans to hunt ducks, geese and other migratory birds the HIP certification questions.
"If a license agent happens to overlook the HIP requirement, we’re hoping hunters take the initiative to remind our vendors they need to be HIP certified," Hansen said.
Since 1961 the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has estimated the harvest of all migratory birds by surveying a small percentage of federal duck stamp buyers. The harvest data need to be improved for waterfowl and especially for other migratory bird species. Poor data were obtained, for example, when the dove harvest was estimated by sampling a group of waterfowl hunters that as a whole included few dove hunters. This posed a major statistical problem, especially in states like Arizona and Texas that have more dove hunters than waterfowl hunters, Hansen said.
How does HIP work? Of the total group of HIP certified migratory game bird hunters, the USFWS will randomly select individuals to participate in national harvest surveys. These selected hunters will receive hunter record cards prior to the migratory bird hunting season--or soon thereafter--and will be asked to record their daily harvests and return the completed record card at the end of the hunting season.
These surveys will provide much more accurate harvest information than previous ones and will make it possible for the USFWS and Montana to better determine the status and needs of our migratory game bird resources so that hunting seasons may continue in the future.
For more information about HIP, call 406-247-2957.
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