To appease
Ohio’s sportsmen the Ohio Division of Wildlife has once again rearranged its
deer-hunting proposals for the 2015-2016 seasons.
Gone is any
mid-October gun season, either for youths or for those sports devoted to
muzzle-loading guns.
Shifted as
well is the statewide black-powder deer hunting season, moving it after the
also date-adjusted statewide so-called “holiday” two-day general firearms
deer-hunting season.
All because the
agency said it really did pay attention when the state’s deer hunters spoke
loud and clearly regarding their dissatisfaction with the Wildlife Division’s
first two sets of proposals.
These new proposals
were presented to the eight-member Ohio Wildlife Council on Wednesday (March
18). The Council will ultimately decide whether to accept, reject, or modify
once more the agency’s to-do requested list of deer-hunting proposals.
Yet such regulatory
changes are a “normal part of the rule proposal process” as to what first
appears and then ultimately what is created in the time for the Wildlife
Council’s meeting , says Scott Zody, the Wildlife Division’s chief.
“First, I
along with members of the staff, had several conversations with individual
members of the Wildlife Council between the time the proposed rules were
introduced in February and last night’s (March 18) meeting,”Zody says .
“Some
Council members had questions on one or more of the proposals, or were letting
me or the staff know about questions or comments they were receiving from
members of the sportsmen’s community.”
Zody says
too that none of the new and actual proposals were forced on the agency by any
individual Wildlife Council member, Gov. John Kasich, any member of the Ohio
General Assembly, or any other elected official.
“But it is
possible that someone in an elected capacity may have submitted a written or
on-line comment,” Zody says. “I certainly don’t know every elected official in
the state.”
Such a
change, says Zody moves this proposed new gun season away from starting the day
after Christmas, a real bone of contention with many hunters.
“And by
moving the muzzle-loading season back one week, we go from having a five-day
break between the ‘holiday’ gun season and the muzzle-loading season to an
11-day break,” Zody says.
Left in its
current slot of mid-November is the two-day, youth-only firearms deer hunting
season. Which means, of course, youths won’t be afield in October chasing deer
with shotguns and specific caliber rifles.
Complicating
the issue is that hunter opinions on when to conduct the youth deer hunt as expressed
during five concurrently held deer summits and elsewhere were “all over the
map,” Zody says.
“We received
comments supporting the move and those opposing the move, and many different
suggestions on when else to move the season,” Zody says. “We even received some
comments advocating the elimination of the season altogether.”
And because
the proposals left vacant the mid-October period the Wildlife Division is also asking
that the start of the state’s fall wild turkey-hunting season begin Saturday, October
10 instead of the originally proposed start date of Monday, October 12.
Obviously,
says Zody also, with such diverse opinions noted by deer hunters the Wildlife
Division intends to continue to engage “our deer-hunting stakeholders.”
This
engagement likely will continue for the next year or two so as to give the
agency time to conduct appropriate surveys and the like in order to “formulate
some options” for future rule-making decisions, Zody says.
By Jeffrey
L. Frischkorn
For all intensive purposes the Muzzle loading season has become an afterthought. One of the most exciting opportunities for me was the old buck only early muzzle loading season. I loved hunting Shawnee that time of the year.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the youth only hunt in October it became a prime time for poaching big bucks during the rut in Ohio. I believe the youth only season should take place after the regular gun season.
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