The Snow Goose... A Bird of Trouble

      Two of our Canada Goose loafing ponds, and the thousands of acres of corn nearby, are now seeing activity from snow geese, and the numbers are growing every day. We were very excited about this since we would be able to hunt snows as well as Canadas that are in season for the next 3 weeks. Until I looked at the regulations...Come on Virginia, what is up with this? Snow goose season runs from October 4th till January 31st statewide, 25 per day limits. And then we have a conservation season from February 1st till March 30th with NO limits, electronic calls, and unplugged shotguns! Guess what, the conservation season is ONLY for the Atlantic Population Zone! (Coast of Virginia and the Eastern Shore). So in the middle of October, I could go to any mountain in the middle of Appalachia that has never even been seen by waterfowl before and it would be legal for me to hunt snow geese there, but now when the geese are actually here, they are protected by law and can't be hunted, when Canada Geese are in season here and 45 minutes away by car there are almost NO laws on them??? What does this say about whoever made the laws on these birds? How are we supposed to get the population in the Atlantic Flyway down to 500,000 birds when we have laws like this? I am sure Virginia isn't the only state with this problem! And who knows how bad it will get by the time the full migration is here? Well, I'm done ranting, but I will definitely be talking to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to try and get them to CHANGE THIS LAW!!!