It is a busy week in Raleigh as the NC General Assembly is hard at work and the NC Wildlife Resources Commission is in town. Significant issues arose in the WRC Committee meetings on Wednesday, 5/21/14.

In the Big Game Committee, visitor Todd Purvis from Weyerhaeuser spoke about deer dog hunting complaints and his efforts to settle complaints without revoking deer dog hunting leases. He hopes NC will not follow the unfortunate example of northern Louisiana, where Weyerhaeuser revoked all leases for deer dog hunting. Todd concluded at least half of all conflicts could be resolved if hunters would speak to their adjacent landowners. Todd Purvis is a native of eastern NC, and is a dog hunter himself. He received a cordial welcome from the Committee, and was accompanied by Terry Morris, a member of NCSDA and Swift Creek Hunting Club in Vanceboro.

In the Small Game Committee, the issue of daytime coon hunting west of Hwy. 1 was resurrected. The WRC intends to pursue this issue. The Committee directed David Cobb to organize a stakeholder meeting with NC Coonhunters, NC Bow Hunters, and NC Trappers. David Cobb seemed eager to get this rule “in the hopper” for next year, and mentioned an internal administrative deadline of 6/16/14. If you are interested in this daytime coon hunting issue, you should attend this important meeting. We will send more information as soon as we receive it.

The Committee of the Whole voted to proceed with temporary rulemaking for the authorization of “Restricted Deer Hunting Zones” banning the use of dogs for the taking of deer in a designated zone of a gameland. The specific location of the first such zone is proposed for Bladen Lakes Gamelands. Despite the overwhelming opposition by hunters at the recent Raleigh public hearing, the WRC is determined to proceed with this new type of restriction. Both Joe McClees and Henri McClees spoke against the temporary rule and the proposal for such a restricted zone. Several Commissioners argued with us. No one in the audience spoke in favor of the temporary rule.

The new designation will not be called a “still hunting zone”, however, since it will not ban all dog hunting. The reported problems have been with deer dog hunting, and therefore the restriction will be limited to deer dog hunting. The WRC agreed not to ban bear hunting or coon hunting from any such designated zone.

The full Wildlife Resources Commission meets on Thursday, 5/22/14, and everything approved by the Committee of the Whole is expected to be approved by the full Commission. There were many other issues discussed on Wednesday, including elk, quail habitat, red wolves, bear baiting rules, coyote hunting, reciprocal licenses, and other issues. The entire Agenda package for this WRC Thursday meeting may be viewed online at the website of the NC Wildlife Resources Commission.
Posting for Gary Godwin


Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have questions on any of these issues. If you have not joined the NC Sporting Dog Association, please consider joining the fight to protect hunting and hunting with dogs. Thanks! Joe McClees & Henri McClees



NC Sporting Dog Association, Inc.

PO Box 430, Oriental, NC 28571

Office (252) 249-1097, Fax (252) 249-3275

www.ncsportingdog.org