New Hunting Regulations

New regulations reshape the way we hunt and fish

By Bill Cochran
ROANOKE.COM COLUMNIST


Dozens of new regulations that affect the way we hunt, fish and trap have been approved by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Some already have become law, while most will go into effect July 1.

Since the new regulations can be found on the DGIF website, there is little need for me to post them one by one. Rather, I will make comments on what is behind some of the regulations and why other proposals failed. I will address hunting and trapping regulations this week and fishing and nongame next week:

SATURDAY OPENINGS: Hunting seasons in Virginia traditionally have opened on Mondays. That’s been good for the guy who is retired or who can make his own schedule, but it has been tough on school kids, blue collar workers and people who have no choice but to be in the office Monday mornings.

A few years ago, deer seasons were switched to begin on Saturdays, and the world didn’t end. So, beginning next season, DGIF has voted to do the same for turkey, grouse, quail and rabbit seasons. It is a good move in that we must do everything we can to attract young people to our sport.

In its most recent survey, DGIF found that 50 percent of the fall turkey hunters wanted a Saturday opening. Nearly 30 percent opted to continue the Monday beginnings. The rest didn’t care. The Saturday opening is expected to boost the turkey kill, but not enough to impact the population.

GROUSE IDEA DIDN’T FLY: Some hunters want the grouse season to extend through the end of February, rather than conclude the second Saturday of February, as it now does. But they didn’t want it badly enough to work for it. Very few grouse hunters supported the change during public hearings or via website comment.

Grouse hunter Charles Yates, a DGIF board member from far southwest Virginia, proposed extending the season by two weeks, making it more attuned to the seasons of surrounding states. On his side was fresh research that said hunting had little impact on grouse numbers, even though the population has been declining by nearly 3-percent annual due to habitat loss.

Biologists said that while the current season doesn’t harm the grouse population they couldn’t rule out that an extra two weeks would have an impact. So the proposal failed.

“Obviously, this is not a good time to extend the grouse season,” said Yates, who backed off from his recommendation and challenged the DGIF to look for way to “return this bird.”

TAKE YOUR BUTCHERING TOOLS: No longer can you shove the carcasses of the deer or elk you killed into the back of your pickup or SUV and head back to Virginia with it if you killed the animal in a state or Canadian province in which Chronic Wasting Disease has been found. A new rule, which became law Nov. 1, is designed to help keep dreaded CWD out of Virginia by leaving behind parts of deer that may spread the disease.

At first glance, I didn’t think this would have much impact on sportsmen living in Virginia, except those who might travel West to hunt elk. But then I remembered that West Virginia is a CWD state. There are a bunch of Virginia hunters who travel to the Mountain State to take advantage of it swelling deer herd.

So how do you get your deer back across the border under the new regulation? You can quarter it or cut it into other portions as long as there is no spinal column or skull attached. You can bring back hides if there is no skull attached. You can return with skull plates with antlers attached as long as there is no meat attached to the skull. Antlers can be transported as long as they are free of meat or tissue.

In addition to these rules, you much affix a label telling where the animal was killed and who owns it.

BEAR FACTS: Bear hunters got an extra two weeks added to their training season. Beginning next year, the season will open the second Saturday in August rather than the last.

Leaders of the Virginia Bear Hunters Association attended the DGIF meeting to say they were happy with the new dates, but back home some of the rank-and-file were peeved that they didn’t get the entire month of August for chasing.

In reality, the extra two weeks is the result of association leaders hammering out a deal with U.S. Forest Service officials.

The deal is this: Bear hunters will get a longer chase season, but if they mess up they will lose the extra days and possibly more. That was a promise from John Bellemore, the environmental leader of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests. Bellemore says too much damage, in the form of broken gates and other acts of vandalism, occurs during the chase season.

BAITING: I have a difficult time understanding hunters who claim that planting food plots is no different from baiting. I’m guessing that most who say so aren’t purists, but are people who want to bait.

Few DGIF proposals brought more comment than one that would make it illegal to feed deer Sept. 1 through the first Saturday in January. Surprisingly, there appeared to be more who opposed it than supported it. Even so, it passed.

Some sportsmen said the regulation fell short. It should have advocated no feeding year-round and should have included turkeys. Bob Duncan, chief of the wildlife division, said DGIF biologists reserve the right to come back with additional feeding restrictions in the future.

There simply are more negatives to feeding deer than there are positives.

QUALITY DEER: Greg Patton is a relatively young man, but he wonders how old he will be when the DGIF fully advocates quality deer management, something called QDM.

Patton is part of the Shenandoah Valley Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association who for several years has advocated regulations that would require hunters to pass up small bucks in order to let them grow into trophies. DGIF has been slow to embrace the idea because of concern over how it would impact hunters who just want to kill a deer—period.

So the DGIF enacted a compromise with a regulation that says next year in Shenandoah County you can take one buck of any size, but the second one must have a minimum of four points on one side.

The regulation won’t have much impact, because it will apply to a single county, and most hunters have a hard time killing one buck, much less two. Still, Patton and other QDM supporters were grateful.

“This is a great stepping stone,” he said. “We aren’t where we want to be, but we are getting there.”

Many hunters are practicing QDM on a volunteer basis across the state, and it is having an impact.

THE TRAP: Can you dog-proof a trap? Kirby Burch doesn’t think so. “If a dog wants to get at bait, he is going to find a way,” he said.

William Ernstes disagrees. “I know of no dog—I am a beagle owner—who can get into this.”

The debate was over a DGIF regulation, generally supported by trappers and opposed by dog owners, that would allow the maximum jaw spread for a baited body gripping trap set above ground to go form 5 to 6.5 inches. The regulation was approved; however, such a trap only can be used on private land and it must be in a dog proof box.

The bigger trap will make trappers more selective and efficient, said Brian Nelson, president of the Virginia Trappers Association. There have been no problems of such traps catching dogs in other states, he said.

The Virginia Hunting Dog Owners’ Association was on record in opposition to the regulations, saying there is no such thing as a dog-proof box