Waterfowlers who haven't already grown terminally frustrated chasing hordes of migrating snow geese in spring have another reason to haul thousands of white decoys around the Eastern Plains.

The enticements of a lengthy federal "conservation order" hunting season with no bag limits will become even more attractive with the addition of more land for hunting.

While fine-tuning small-game hunting regulations in Durango last week, the Colorado Wildlife Commission added a month to the state's Walk-In Access program. Properties that closed Feb. 28 last season henceforth will be open through March 31.

The action improves light goose hunting opportunity by opening thousands of acres of farmland to hunters with $20 Walk-In Access permits and the perseverance to follow the flighty flocks around in spring.

The annual goose population-control hunts started in 1999, but the additional pressure has done little to reduce overpopulated lesser snow goose numbers because they are difficult to hunt.

The next conservation hunt starts Feb. 16 and runs through April.

The largest waves of snow geese and Ross geese pass through Colorado in March on their way to their arctic nesting grounds. Keeping the Walk-In Access areas open a month longer should bring many more hunters in proximity to light geese. Last year, the private land-public access program provided small-game hunters with 220,000 acres.

Even with improved land access, however, the problem remains that light geese traveling in immense flocks are unpredictable and notoriously decoy shy.

The wildlife commission also:

* Changed the small-game and fishing license year to run April 1 to March 31. Current calendar-year licenses will be valid through March 31, 2009.

* Reduced the furbearer license fee to $20 (from $26) for residents and $55 (from $201) for nonresidents. Another change makes small-game licenses valid for the taking of furbearer species.

* Made changes to waterfowl hunting rules at nine state wildlife areas on the South Platte River, including a 2 p.m. checkout time and waterfowling-by- reservation-only on Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays at Bravo, Jackson and Overland Trail SWAs. Other changes apply at Atwood, Brush, Jean K. Tool and Red Lion SWAs and at Empire and Vancil reservoirs.

POACHERS PAY THE PRICE: Six Arkansas men practicing what the Division of Wildlife described as "an ongoing pattern of poaching violations" were found guilty in Moffat County court of charges ranging from illegal take of big game to hunting without a license, waste of big game and felony willful destruction of wildlife.

The men had been poaching in the Bible Back Mountain area, near the Wyoming line, for at least three years. In 2007, Colorado wildlife officers posing as hunters camped near them and found they had been poaching deer on private land without permission and without proper licenses. Officers also witnessed the men wounding deer without following up on shots and saw the illegal killing of a buck deer for its trophy head.

With help from Wyoming and Arkansas wildlife officers, enough evidence was found to send one of the men, William Newton, to jail for 30 days. Fines totaled $20,000. Five of the six men stand to lose their hunting privileges in Colorado and 27 other states.

dentrye@RockyMountainNews.com