The first World Championship Snow Goose Conservation Hunt competition will take place, Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 9-10, at Mack’s Prairie Wings at Stuttgart.
All geese harvested will be donated to Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry (AHFH) to provide meals for needy families, according to the Arkansas Wildlife Weekly Newsletter.
The new competition enables teams of 10 hunters each to harvest as many snow geese as possible during the two days, with the chance to win thousands of dollars in hunting gear. All proceeds from the competition will be donated to Ducks Unlimited, Delta Waterfowl and AHFH.
“Look to the skies and you’ll see there’s no shortage of snow geese in east Arkansas,” according to the newsletter. “Hundreds of thousands of these waterfowl migrate to and through Arkansas each year, playing havoc on winter wheat fields and other agricultural crops. Snow geese are so abundant, they actually are damaging their breeding grounds near the Arctic Circle.To combat this population explosion, in 1999 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opened a special hunt to encourage hunters to take as many of the geese as possible.”
For details on the competition, visit https://www.mackspw.com/snow-goose-conservation-hunt .