SO. ILLINOIS BAGS NEARLY 35,000 GEESE

Illinois goose hunters enjoyed a bumper harvest this year, bagging a kill of 34,722 in the Southern Illinois Quota Zone alone.

The Crab Orchard Region accounted for almost two-thirds of that number with 21,231 Canada geese taken from Jackson and Williamson counties.

At Horseshoe Lake in Alexander County, 7,819 geese were harvested, while 5,672 were taken at the Union County Refuge.

The season opened on the first weekend in November and closed Jan. 31 and had a quota of 63,000 geese.

While the final tally fell well below the quota, it did easily surpass last year's harvest of 25,000. The total fell just shy of the 36,000 geese taken in the 1993-94 season.

The 20-year harvest average is 27,000.

Over 6,000 geese were harvested in the final week of the season. In comparison, fewer than 2,000 birds were harvested in the first month.