The DFG will ask the state Fish and Game Commission to approve the 200-permit, September 2-10 hunt when it adopts waterfowl hunting regulations in late August. Postcard applications for the permit drawing are accepted early to avoid delays in issuing permits, the agency said.

To apply, licensed hunters are required to submit their name, address, telephone number and hunting license number on a standard Postal Service postcard and send it to "Canada Goose Hunt," Department of Fish and Game, 619 Second Street, Eureka, CA 95501. Only one applicant per postcard is permitted and applicants may apply only once.

The special, early north coast goose hunting season has been approved each of the past three years to provide hunting opportunity before the federally threatened Aleutian Canada geese — a look-alike subspecies — make their annual winter migration to Humboldt County.

Fish and Game last year issued permits to 400 hunters who bagged 225 geese. This year's permit number is lower because local Canada goose populations are lower, a drop that Fish and Game said appears to be due to changes in migration tendencies of local birds.