It now stands at 4.5 million breeding birds. The fragile sub-Arctic and Arctic coastal marsh ecosystem where they nest in the summer cannot sustain this many geese. All of this has created a unique situation for wildlife managers.
Traditional management calls for limits on hunting and harvests to protect a species.
In this case, it will be necessary to encourage more harvest to prevent the geese from destroying the habitat they and other species of shorebirds, passerines and ducks depend on for survival. Millions of snow geese are mining the fragile tundra in the central and eastern Arctic. The geese pull plants up by the roots to feed on them, stripping the ground bare. Along the coast of West Hudson Bay, nearly one third of the habitat has been destroyed while another third is seriously damaged. In Arctic climates, habitat recovers slowly, if at all.