Bigger Threat Than Big Oil to Fragile Arctic Coastline: Snow Geese

Link here.

Sometime in the next few days, waves of snow geese will fill the sky across parts of North Dakota and western Minnesota as the birds race north toward their Arctic breeding grounds.

They're impressive to watch, these seemingly endless skeins, but after more than a decade of intensive hunting pressure to trim their numbers, the midcontinent population of snow geese remains too high, and the birds continue to threaten the fragile arctic coastline.

Despite intensive hunting programs to reduce the numbers, the snow geese population remains too high and the arctic coastline continues to worsen, due to lost vegetation.

Liberalized regulations, including a spring "conservation order" in effect since 1999 - officials don't like to call it a hunting season - have slowed the rate of population growth. But they haven't resulted in fewer snow geese.

Who woulda thought?

Videos related to the story:

• Snow geese in North Dakota
• Snow goose hunt in North Dakota, 2010