Kansas lawmakers are at odds over a proposed law that would pinch duck and goose hunters coming from out of state. The proposal would limit nonresident waterfowlers to hunting just three days a week on most public lands in Kansas. It would also raise the price of migratory waterfowl habitat stamps for both residents and nonresidents.
Supporters of the proposal say that limiting nonresidents to hunting on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays will benefit resident hunters and help ease the pressure on bird populations. They point to an imbalance of nonresidents in some public hunting areas, along with what they say are changes to migratory patterns that have resulted from all this pressure.
The three-day-a-week restriction on nonresident hunters would apply to all public lands managed by the state and federal government, including wildlife refuges. There are a few exceptions, according to the current text of the bill. It wouldn’t apply on designated walk-in properties or on navigable rivers within the state. It also wouldn’t apply during the extended light goose conservation season. The bill doesn’t mention any restrictions on private property.
This idea to limit nonresident duck hunters has been discussed in Kansas before, and state lawmakers were planning to work on a similar proposal for next year’s legislative session. But one lawmaker was unwilling to wait, according to KAKE News. Sen. Virgil Peck added the proposal to an existing hunting bill, SB 213, last week. The bill cleared the state Senate easily on Thursday, with just one member voting against it, and it is now primed for debate in the House.
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“The reason this legislation passed this body was to protect our in-state waterfowl hunters, to give them more opportunities to hunt some of the better places,” Sen. Peck told the local outlet Monday. “We were also having a problem with some of our migratory birds changing their flight patterns because of excessive hunting in certain areas.”
Peck’s second point has been widely discussed in many waterfowling circles, but there isn’t enough evidence at this point to prove that hunting pressure alone is changing flight paths. There are too many other factors influencing migrations, experts say, including weather conditions from year to year and large-scale changes to breeding and nesting habitats.
A note accompanying the bill does support Peck’s claims about out-of-staters overcrowding resident hunters, however. It shows that nonresidents accounted for roughly 40 percent of all waterfowl hunters in Kansas during the 2020-21 season. (Compared to an average of roughly 28 percent in all the years prior.) Although this was initially written off as part of the “Covid Bump” that led to higher hunting and fishing license sales in many states, figures from Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks show even higher percentages of nonresident hunters during the years that followed. That percentage has held steady at around 41.4 percent over the last two seasons.
The 2020-21 season was also the first time that out-of-state hunters outnumbered residents at Cheyenne Bottoms, according to additional data from the KDWP. The giant wetland in Central Kansas is a critical stopping point in the Central Flyway and one of the most popular duck-hunting destinations in the Sunflower State.
KDWP migratory game bird program manager Tom Bidrowski spoke to the effects of all this during a public meeting in April 2023. Bidrowski noted how increased pressure leads to reduced access and lower quality hunting for Kansans.
“Maintaining resident Kansas waterfowl hunters is a high priority,” Bidrowski said during his presentation, according to Wildfowl, “and Kansas cannot maintain its waterfowl hunting heritage without strong resident waterfowlers.”
At that time, the agency was considering a regulation change that would have put similar restrictions on nonresident waterfowlers. In addition to limiting their hunting days to Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, KDWP was looking at other possible options, including boating restrictions and/or decreased bag limits for nonresidents. Those changes never occurred, however, which is why state legislators are taking up the issue.
And some of those lawmakers are opposed to the inclusion of non-resident hunting restrictions in SB 213. At least one state representative complained separately about the increased costs that residents would have to pay for migratory waterfowl stamps. (Under the proposed law, resident stamps would be capped at $20, and nonresident stamps would be capped at $100. Those stamps currently cost hunters $10 regardless of residency.) Their bigger concern is that pinching out-of-staters will end up costing them conservation dollars and tourism money in the long run.
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The proposal could have an outsized effect on waterfowl outfitters in Kansas, which often rely on out-of-state hunters to stay profitable. Limiting their clients to just a few days a week would hamstring duck and goose guides, who would otherwise pick their days according to weather conditions and bird numbers. It would also make things difficult for average-Joe hunters who travel to Kansas from Missouri or elsewhere to hunt the weekend but have to be back at work on Monday morning.
“[That’s] quite a bit of revenue leaving our county, leaving our area, if they’re not allowed to stay there Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and like some people, like to hunt for the week,” Rep. Dale Helwig told KAKE. “So for that reason, just for the economic benefit in my area, I’m opposed to this bill.”
Rep. Webster Roth sided with Helwig, according to KAKE, and said he’ll work to make changes to the bill as it faces scrutiny in the House. It was referred to the Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources Friday. Any changes resulting from the bill’s passage would go into effect in 2026.
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