GRAND FORKS, N.D. _ Hunters have a legacy of providing biological data to wildlife managers to better help assess populations and shape hunting seasons and bag limits. One of those is the Harvest Information Program, or HIP.
This is a survey method developed by states and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a means to collect more reliable estimates of migratory bird harvests throughout the country.
It got its start in the early 1990s, when the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies worked with the USFWS to develop a program to collect data from all migratory bird hunters, which includes those who hunt ducks, geese, swans, sandhill cranes, doves and others.
The requirement for HIP registration began in 1998.
"Before that, we used names and addresses of duck stamp buyers to send questionnaires to measure waterfowl harvest," says Mike Szymanski, North Dakota Game and Fish Department migratory game bird management supervisor. "This is no longer possible because of the way duck stamps are distributed. In addition, we had no way to get harvest survey questionnaires into the hands of other migratory game bird hunters, such as dove, snipe or woodcock hunters. Thus, we didn't have very good harvest information for most nonwaterfowl species."
