Selected hunters will receive a letter requesting your cooperation, a form for recording your harvest and a business reply envelope. After the season, participating sportsmen will mail their completed forms to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Federal biologists will analyze hunter reports and develop comprehensive harvest estimates for all species of migratory gamebirds in the United States. Information derived from the program will improve migratory bird management and ensure that decisions regarding hunting seasons are soundly based on scientific evidence. In recent years, wildlife biologists and hunters have noted declines in populations of doves, woodcocks and other migratory gamebirds.
Habitat loss is believed to be the primary problem, but there's no data supporting that conclusion.
We need more information to assess the role of hunter harvest. Participation in this program is important to the future of migratory bird hunting. State and federal wildlife agencies have faced court challenges to hunting. Some opponents to hunting have argued that it shouldn't be allowed because wildlife agencies don't have accurate measures of bird populations and hunter success.