Official list of propsals for the 2012-13 hunting seasons have been released, here they are straight off the G&F Facebook:
Public Meeting topics for the 2012-13 Hunting Season
1. Eliminate flood prone zones
The concept of developing Flood Prone Zones (FPZs) originated in the 1980’s. The strategy was to increase protection of a growing deer herd during times of high water. These units have served their purpose, but are no longer needed with today’s management strategy of herd stabilization/reduction, and increased private land management by landowners. The majority of these FPZs are located in eastern Arkansas where bag limits and season dates have increased over the last 30 years in response to a growing deer herd.
2. Remove white-tailed deer from the approved list of pets
Current regulations allow landowners to possess up to six hand-captured white-tailed deer. Allowing the possession of wild deer offers up a list of problems, including increased risk of disease, risk of injury to owners, and in some cases, owners becoming overwhelmed and releasing tame deer into the wild.
3. Elk hunt applicants must have a current big game hunting license before applying for an elk permit.
Hunting elk in Arkansas is a unique opportunity for the sportsmen of Arkansas. However, the current application procedure encourages applications from individuals that do not have a history of hunting Arkansas game. As a result, some of the permit holders have not shown for the hunt, have come unprepared, and resultantly have hindered elk management efforts.
4. For the 2012 elk season, move the December hunt to October.
Elk calves are old enough to be weaned by mid-October so moving the season to this time frame will allow calves to reach a sufficient weaning age. By December, which has typically been our second hunt, the bugling opportunities are gone for hunters because the rut is over by then. Additionally, elk herds are more widely dispersed in October which improves the likelihood of harvest on private lands.
5. For the 2013 elk season, conduct a single hunt occuring in late October
In the past we have had two elk hunts, one in September and one in December. The reason for having the September hunt was to allow hunters opportunity for a bugling season bull hunt. We never allowed antlerless elk to be harvested during this season because of the possibility of having orphaned calves. Elk calves are old enough to be weaned by mid-October so moving the season to this time frame will allow calves to reach a sufficient weaning age. By December, which has typically been our second hunt, the bugling opportunities are gone for hunters because the rut is over by then. If we move to this proposed season structure it will allow all elk hunters in AR to enjoy a bugling season hunt.
6. Move the archery opener to the 4th Saturday in September
Several municipalities conduct urban deer hunts during the month of September. Pushing the archery season back to the 4th Saturday in September will reduce the competition between the hunts and lend more success to the urban hunts by increased participation.
7. Increase the lease land permit fee from $20 to $40
The annual lease payments have steadily increased since the creation of the leased lands program. It is recommended that we increase the cost of purchasing a lease land permit in order to help cover the cost of leasing land and locations for sportsmen to hunt.
8. Push Turkey season back one week and reduce the youth hunt to one day
After review of spring harvest, brood survey and gobbling chronology data, it is recommended that we continue a conservative season structure and set a later opening date for spring turkey season. The conservative season structure and ‘no jake harvest’ help increase gobbler carryover and stabilize recent declines in turkey harvest. A later conservative season will result in more hens being bred and heading to the nest when season opens. This is based on several datasets we have collected in previous years. A one day youth season may reduce the annual harvest of gobblers by approximately 5%.
9. Change the doe only hunt to an antlerless hunt and move it to an earlier date (Oct. 13-17, 2012 -- Saturday through Wednesday)
Currently, the early modern gun doe-only season allows the take of does only. Typically, 15-20% of antlerless deer harvested are button bucks. During the 2011-12 season’s doe-only hunt 5519 does were checked in open zones while only 137 button bucks were checked (2.5% of the doe harvest). Hunters are taking button bucks during the doe-only seasons. Most likely they are checking these as does or are not checking them at all. Allowing the harvest of button bucks would provide the commission with a more accurate dataset. Hunters would be required to tag and check button bucks as bucks.
10. Increase the squirrel bag and possession limit from 8 to 12 and 36 to 48 respectively
Because squirrel populations are boom or bust, our sportsmen should have the opportunity to take full advantage of boom years for squirrel. Hunters will have the ability to harvest a limit of 12 squirrels on boom years. Bust years will self-regulate by there being less squirrels to harvest, creating a lower harvest per hunter and a decrease in effort by hunters. This increase in bag limit will have no impact on the squirrel population in Arkansas. The change in possession limit is only an adjustment based on the bag limit increase to keep the possession limit at four times the bag limit.
11. During youth hunts, mentors cannot carry a weapon
In order to ensure a positive experience for young hunters with the intention of recruiting more youth into the sport, mentors will not be allowed to carry weapons during youth hunts. This puts all of the focus and effort of the hunt on the youth.
12. Antler Restrictions on Wildlife Management Areas and Deer Zones
A variety of antler restrictions have been implemented in WMAs and Deer Zones across Arkansas to meet biological objectives. After examining harvest data from multiple seasons, modifications to some antler restrictions on certain WMAs and Deer Zones will be proposed.
NAWWW.. That's too crazy. Prolly just trying to balance the b/d ratio to give us hunters better hunting. Yeah, that's it! It's really for our own good! The hunting will get better with massive herd reductions!
