Courtesy of Norm Saake

This survey was made possible by funding from the Nevada Waterfowl Association due to the government shutdown.

Carson Lake WMA

All units at Carson Lake WMA are full except for the Big Water which now has about 60% very shallow water cover and the Sump which is dry. Both the Rice and York units have very little cover and are basically just open water this year.

Stillwater

Approximately one third of the refuge units are dry. The two main units in the hunt area that have water are the Nutgrass and Goose Lake units. Lead Lake is starting to get some water.

Humboldt WMA

Toulon only has water at the very north end, and it is very shallow. The Upper Lake has about 60% very shallow water cover. From the air, it appears the access down the Hunter drain is grown in and plugged. There is some new water in the subsidence ground between the Upper Lake and Toulon, but very few birds were observed there during the flight. Some water has come down the river channel, and there are a few birds way out on the shallow water in the Lower Lake. About 90% of the ducks and geese were on the shallow water on the Upper Lake.

Prepared by Nevada Department of Wildlife

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initially authorized a tundra swan hunt in 1962. Utah was the first state to take advantage of this opportunity that same year. Nevada followed in those footsteps and created a tundra swan hunt beginning in 1969.

Initially, 500 permits were issued for the Lahontan Valley excluding Lahontan Reservoir. In 1973, the hunt area was changed to the entirety of Churchill County. The number of permits remained unchanged until 1983, when the number of permits was increased to 650 and the hunt area became Churchill, Lyon and Pershing Counties.

In 1995, an Environmental Assessment was published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that allowed for a limited quota (5) for trumpeter harvest. This change also made mandatory validation of swans a requirement. The check-in process is designed to confirm swan species to ensure quotas are kept.

2006 brought change to the permit system. Because of underselling its allotted swan permits, Nevada became the only U.S. state to allow one individual to purchase a second swan permit within the same season when a surplus exists.

The next change to Nevada’s swan hunt did not come about until 2018. The Department made a temporary switch to over-the-counter or direct sell of swan permits (no draw) to accommodate a system change to the licensing and tag draw system. The over-the-counter permit selling format, combined with a growing demand created an almost frenzy for swan permits. From 2018 through 2021, the race to acquire swan permits became faster and faster. By 2021 all available swan permits were sold within a matter of hours on the day sales opened. Beginning in 2022, the swan application process was reinstated as an online application.

Big changes to the Nevada swan hunt were realized in 2019. Federal frameworks were modified to move Nevada’s trumpeter quota from 5 to 10 trumpeters. Changes were also made to allow swans to be harvested during youth only hunt days and the season length extended to a full 107 days (105-day general season and 2 youth days).

Additional modifications were made in 2020 to allow swan seasons to be split into two segments so that the season could mirror general duck seasons in states with a split duck season. In 2024, after 41 years of Nevada having 650 permits allocated, the Nevada permit allocation increased to 750.

Interesting Facts:
• In the fall of 1962, Utah became the first state where tundra swans could be legally hunted since the enactment of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. Swan hunting within the Pacific Flyway continued as Nevada became a swan hunting state in 1969, the Pacific Flyway portion of Montana in 1970, Alaska in 1988, and Idaho in 2020. Nationwide, swan hunting has expanded with additional seasons for Eastern Population tundra swans (Central Flyway portion of Montana 1983, North Carolina 1984, North Dakota and Virginia 1988, South Dakota 1990, Delaware 2019).

• Swan hunting regulations are dictated largely by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, and Environmental Assessments (1995, 2001 and 2003). All of the overriding laws are written in the federal framework. Any substantive changes to swan hunting regulations would require, at minimum, a new Environmental Assessment and any changes require change to the framework.

• Nevada and Utah are the only Pacific Flyway states with a swan hunt to have trumpeter swan quotas. The quotas are designed to protect trumpeter swans that nest within the intermountain states.

• Since the initial Nevada swan season in 1969, a total of 27,142 swan permits have been sold in Nevada. A total of 6,833 swans have been reportedly harvested in Nevada during that time. Of that total, 20 have been trumpeter swans.

• Season length has varied over the years, but the average Nevada swan season length is 82 days. From 1969 to 2025 there have been a total of 4,684 days of open season for swans.