Historic expansion hunting opportunities
General Topic
Copied from a DOI press release this morning. The entire document is really long but these are the highlights.
WASHINGTON - Continuing the Trump Administration’s significant efforts to increase recreational access on public lands, U.S. Secretary of the Interior David L. Bernhardt announced today a historic proposal for new and expanded hunting and fishing opportunities across more than 2.3 million acres at 97 national wildlife refuges and 9 national fish hatcheries. This proposed rule is the single largest expansion of hunting and fishing opportunities by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) in history.
This proposed rule would create nearly 900 distinct new hunting and fishing opportunities (an opportunity is defined as one species on one field station in one state). On top of last year’s expansion of 1.4 million acres for new or expanded hunting and fishing opportunities, this proposal would bring the Trump Administration’s total expansion to 4 million acres nationwide.
Awesome news!
Thanks for posting this, Jim.
Thanks for posting. They need to start working on the national parks access next!
Here’s the list. Some intriguing upgrades I would say. Thanks for the heads up Jim!
They finally opened skunk hunting on Union Slough NWR in Iowa! Woooohoooo!
:-/
Don’t get too excited, Nick. Skunk tags will be allotted on a draw system, and weighted points as well. The good news is, someone will finally get a chance to harvest one. I can’t recall how many monster skunks we’ve found over the years, that simply died of old age.
Huh, I have 12 points for LaCreek NWR. May have to pull the trigger.
Is that for the striped or spotted skunk or either. Some range overlap .
Striped only. We tried to get a season for the civet cats, but the antis found a sympathetic judge and shut us down. Not sure if BHA wasn’t behind this.
I'm a meat hunter. There's a lot more meat on those big ol' midwest stripped skunks but if a spot comes by first, I'm not passing!
This can't be? The deal Trump crafted to sell all of our public land to the Koch brothers must have fell through.
Looks like more armadillo and possum opportunities here in Ga. I wonder what the bag limit and minimum vehicle size will be...
I have 14 skunk PPs for Iowa. Not looking for anyone's honeyhole but can anybody suggest a good spot?
Check out the Iowa City area, Lou. There are tons of world class skunks in that area. Lots of them work for the university, plus some of the biggest ones seem to hold prominent positions in city government and on the city council. (think San Francisco on a smaller scale)
Well, Jaq, it will depend a lot on your experience...
And how good of shape your in!
You know, it just ain’t everyone that can handle chasing them big ‘ol stripe backs in that country!
All that oxygen and flat ground can really cause serious health issues for a guy like you who is used to the thin air and steep hills out west!
You might want to start your exercise routine now, just in the off chance of pulling that tag ;-)
Skunk and Honey hole don't belong in the same sentence. ; {
T-Roy I’d think Lou would be better of waiting until 2024 to head to Iowa for skunk, just because the Democratic's have there first in the nation caucus.
Not sure if that’s a good idea, John. There’s a good chance he might not find out the results of the draw till after the season was already over! It WOULD be a target rich environment, though ;-)
I imagine Jaq might not chase em. He might prefer to decoy those skunks in, do a little seductive, timely calling. I can just see the cap now.
ebikes work great in flat Iowa.
Jim, I'll bet you didn't foresee your thread going this direction! Ha
Notice AK is not on the list. AK's NWRs are already huntable, as they all should be.
I seems like we all have too much free time on our hands. I would be more interested if you all started giving advice on how to control the armadillo population.
Jim, those damn things are expanding their range. Started showing up in Iowa!
Bowfreak...that’s funny! Trump surprisingly has turned into a hunters best friend. Thank Don Jr for that!!!
I believe there is a 60 day period for people and interested organizations to comment so it's not a done deal yet. Expect the regular suspects to opposed... Hope it gets approved, this is good news.
From the March 1959 issue of Boys Life: Incidentally, skunks are edible. The Indians ate skunk and so has many a trapper. I tried it, rolling pieces of cleanly-skinned carcass in flour and browning and steaming them in a skillet. The meat is light in color and well flavored. It is better than raccoon or opossum, but a skunk is bony and not as well padded with meat as a rabbit. Didn't they used to call them Depression rabbits? Now there's a job for old clothes and careful skinning (makes a darn fine cover scent so they say).
Regarding the comment period, the anti's weighing in is a given, so we need to get our 2 cents in also. Anybody have the link for commenting?
I know of an area where they could really stand to expand hunting opportunities but I don’t see Wyoming wilderness showing up in the fine print let alone in bold.
Wonder where Backcountry Hikers and Anglers will side on this?
Wyoming wilderness and Colorado/Nebraska state trust lands would be huge. At least Colorado is making some effort.
