News Room

Waterfowl season will officially be open across all of California soon. California’s Balance of State, Southern San Joaquin Valley and Southern California Waterfowl Zones open Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022, and the Colorado River Zone opens Sunday Oct. 23, 2022. These zones will remain open through Jan. 31, 2023. The Northeastern Zone opened Oct.1, 2022, and will close Jan. 11, 2023.

Hunters can soon participate in no-fee waterfowl hunts amid restored salt ponds at Eden Landing Ecological Reserve (ELER) in Hayward, a California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) land.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is offering free swan tours in Yuba County near Marysville on select Saturdays, November through early January.

Waterfowl hunting season is set to open in some parts of the state on Saturday, October 1.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has announced that the Shasta Valley Wildlife Area in Siskiyou County will be closed to waterfowl hunting for the entirety of the 2022-23 season as a result of lost wetlands and waterfowl habitat due to ongoing drought conditions.

CDFW and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will hold an online public outreach meeting for licensed hunters to provide comments and recommendations regarding hunting programs on state wildlife areas and federal wildlife refuges in the Sacramento Valley.

Wildlife disease specialists have confirmed the presence of Highly Pathogenic Eurasian H5N1 Avian Influenza in three wild birds found in Colusa and Glenn counties.

Improvements are coming to the Gray Lodge Wildlife Area in Butte County. Hosting more than100,000 visitors each year, Gray Lodge is one of the most heavily visited wildlife areas in the state and construction work will restrict some public access over the next several months.

CDFW has completed its 2022 waterfowl breeding population survey. The resulting data indicate the overall number of breeding ducks has decreased by 19 percent, including mallards that are the most abundant duck in the survey.

State legislation to incentivize the creation of upland nesting habitat for ducks and other ground-nesting game birds in California will result in a $10 surcharge on the price of both the California Duck Validation and the Upland Game Bird Validation next hunting season.