LITTLE ROCK — IF YOU don't understand everything you know about turkey season this year, join the club. What in the world is going on at the Game and Fish Commission? Can this be the same commission that guided the state through the 1980s and 1990s?
You may not believe this if you're not yet 30 years old, but there was a time in this (formerly insufficiently) Natural State when hunting meant only that: hunting. And mainly not finding. Oh, the ducks and geese still came down from up north once a year, but you would've been hard-pressed in some parts of Arkansas to find a deer. Or an elk. Or, yes, a turkey.
Hard-pressed to find a deer? Oh, yes, youngsters.
Nowadays there are so many deer that communities are having trouble with the critters eating their flowers and vegetable gardens. But there was a time when the deer were so scarce that finding one with antlers was a once-a-year thing in deer camp, when grown men would get excited as pups over finding a lone deer track in the road. One day we'll explain Doe Days.
But with guidance from the Game and Fish Commission over the last 20-some-odd years, all that changed. The deer are so plentiful that hunters can tag multiple bucks and does this year. Please thin them out. Especially for those of us who drive Arkansas' highways at night.
Credit the good old Game and Fish Commission. And now with the 3-point rule, wall-hanger bucks are normal finds these days. Again, credit the Game and Fish Commish.
Most of us are inclined to give the commission the benefit of the doubt when it starts changing the rules. During the debate over the spinning duck decoys (Robo Duck), when commissioners wanted to alter the rules about mechanical decoys, we gave the commission the benefit of the doubt. Commissioners want to allow hunters to tag game on the Internet? Benefit of the doubt. They want to add youth hunts? Benefit of the doubt. Open bear season there, close dove season over there? Benefit of the doubt.
But this new rule about turkey season? Or rather against it? It's going to be difficult to give commissioners the benefit of the doubt this time without some 'splainin'.
Let's see if we understand this right. The state has decided to close fall turkey season. Commissioners voted 4-3 to close the fall season on Thursday-exactly one week before the season was to open. And this despite recommendations from the commission's turkey-management team and its own law enforcement division. Of course the game wardens would be against closing the season; how are they supposed to write a ticket for killing illegal game when the guy has an official Arkansas Hunting Guidebook 2009-2010 right in front of him, and opened to the section on turkey hunting? We quote page 46: "Fall turkey statewide bag limit: Two turkeys of either sex bya combination of harvest methods." And then page 46 instructs hunters in specific zones whether they can use firearms or archery equipment, and you'd better not hunt them over bait. There's nothing on that page about canceling the season.
What's a game warden to do when he finds somebody holding a dead bird? Are game wardens supposed to know if somebody's read the paper in the last week? We knew game wardens were supposed to be sharp, but clairvoyant, too?
What about the fellow up from Monroe, Louisiana, who's planned a trip to South Arkansas for a fall archery hunt next week? How is he supposed to know the season's been canceled? He paid for his license a month ago, and got his handy-dandy guidebook. These out-of-state hunters pay hundreds of dollars for hunting licenses in Arkansas. Now they're going to be hit with a fine because their paper back home didn't carry the news that up in Arkansas hunting season's been canceled a week before it was to open?
Our solemn conclusion: This whole thing is a mess.
THE REASONS given by the commissioners for eliminating the fall turkey hunt mainly raise more questions.
Commissioner Emon Mahony of El Dorado says too many turkey hens are being killed in the fall, which decreases the turkey population for the spring.
Ooooh-kay.
So why not prohibit killing hens in the fall? Much like what the Game and Fish did with the deer herd in the 1980s-allow the ladies to walk. If the feds can tell hunters to separate the male ducks from the female ducks as the birds are flying through the air over a duck blind, surely the state can tell turkey hunters not to kill hens strolling through the woods.
More disturbing, why was the decision to shut down the season held off till a week before the season starts? If the turkey population is so frail that it must be protected (till the spring anyway) why not make that decision early enough to let word get around? Like back in June.
Hunters take note: If you got your new hunting license earlier this month when dove season opened, take it out of your wallet for a quick look. You'll notice the fishing license. And the deer tags. But oops. There are also a couple of tags titled "Fall Turkey." So now what's a game warden to do? Not only do hunters have page 46 to fall back on, but perfectly legal turkey tags as well.
Again: What a mess.
We really ought to be having this debate when the weather is still hot as blazes, the kids are wrapping up the school year, and the Cubs still have a chance at the pennant. The end of September is exactly the wrong time to start fiddling with a hunting season that was supposed to open October 1st.
No doubt about it: This is one big turkey of an idea.
Editorial, Pages 10 on 09/29/2009