Deer
hunting in Ohio could become more complex after the Ohio Division of
Wildlife announced its proposals to add restrictions and caveats to
such participation on publicly owned grounds.
What
the Wildlife Division is proposing – and presented February 7th
before the eight-member Ohio Wildlife Council – is a short series
or law changes regarding the taking of antlerless deer on public
property.
These
changes encompass the widest spectrum of public lands that hunters
can access. Among these properties are state wildlife areas, state
forests and parks, as well as the Wayne National Forest. Also
included are so-called “agreement lands,” which means such places
as the Wayne National Forest, Muskingum Watershed District, AEP
lands, City of Akron (Akron Watershed District), among others.
For
a complete list of potntially impact lands please refer to:
http://wildlife.ohiodnr.gov/portals/wildlife/pdfs/public%20areas/Public%20hunting%20areas.pdf
The
possible rule changes mean that hunters will be permitted to take
only one antlerless deer on any public land per season. That
restriction thus includes making it illegal for a hunter to shoot an
antlerless animal on one public wildlife area, for example, and than
to shoot another antlerless animal there or on any other publicly
owned property at any time during the deer-hunting season.
A
second new proposed tightening of the rules would mean that after the
conclusion of the general seven-day firearms deer-hunting season the
taking of antlerless deer on any publicly owned or managed property
would be prohibited.
This
proposed restriction would include the taking of an antlerless deer
during the two-day/weekend statewide firearms deer-hunting season,
the muzzle-loading deer-hunting season, along with the remainder of
the archery deer-hunting season.
In
short, if a hunter wishes to pursue deer on any publicly owned or
managed land after the seven-day gun season is over than it will have
to be for an antlered deer, says Clint McCoy, the Wildlife Division’s
chief deer management biologist.
It
is important to remember that should these rules be approved by the
Wildlife Council, they apply only to public lands. At no time do they
impact deer hunting on private property, McCoy is quick to note.
McCoy
says that the agency’s various deer hunter surveys strongly suggest
wide support for increased antlerless deer restrictions on public
lands.
“That’s
been one of the hottest topics I’ve heard brought up,” McCoy
said. “Fully 70 percent of survey respondents expressed support for
a measure of this kind.”
Only
about 10 percent of Ohio’s deer hunters shoot two or more deer
annually on public lands and just about 8.5 percent of resident Ohio
deer hunters engage in their interest either exclusively or mostly on
public land in the state, McCoy also said.
Asked
if public lands then are more popular with non-resident deer hunters,
McCoy was quick to say “oh, yeah.”
Thus
much of what the Wildlife Division is doing is to help relax the
tension that many Ohio deer hunters have about deer bag limits –
particularly for antlerless deer – when these allowances impact
public lands. Such properties can, at times, during the deer-hunting
season leave the impression on some participant’s minds of
over-crowding along with its twin complaint: that some deer hunters
take legal advantage of the state’s liberal bag limits, McCoy says.
The
only only other appreciable proposed change would be the reduction of
the maximum allowed deer bag limit for Jefferson County. This
proposal calls for the season bag limit to be reduced to no more than
two animals, down from the previous maximum limit of three animals.
McCoy
said this proposal stems from the marked decline Jefferson County’s
total deer kill during the just-concluded deer-hunting season when
compared to the 2016-2017 deer-hunting season. This decline amounted
to 897 animals. It is suspected that the entire county’s deer herd
likely was seriously impacted by epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD),
McCoy said, thus mandating the request to lower the bag limit in
order to rebuild the county’s herd.
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
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