NCWRC Executive Director Gordon Myers Opens Up District Meeting
Unlike the past few years there were little controversial items on this year’s proposals. The 37 fishing proposals didn’t draw a single comment from the 200+ people that showed up for the meeting. The hunting trapping proposals drew a little bit dialogs but not much. The two that garnered the most attention was the extending the squirrel season till the end of February and the delisting of the elk from the “Special Concerns List”
Extending the squirrels season has some opposition after an e mail from the NC Camo Coalition questioned the ethicalness of such a move given that biologists have documented squirrels bearing young in February. So it would be possible that a hunter could kill a mother squirrel and her offspring starving in the nest when the mother doesn’t return.
Dr. David Cobb address this issue saying that they had considered this when they made the proposal but they feel it would be a small percentage of the actually squirrels taken. Nursing squirrels would spend more time in the nest or near it limiting the opportunities for hunters to take them. They believe more males will be taken in February as a result but there will be a small percentage of lactating squirrels taken no doubt.
The delisting of the elk from the “Special Concerns List” is certainly one proposal that is making me think. The National Park brought in an experimental herd of elk inside the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and has had success with reintroducing them. While they have slowly expanded their numbers there is still only 120 of them so taking away this protection seems inappropriate to me.
Dr. Cobb explained the reasoning behind this proposal; the protection the elk get from being listed and not being listed will be about the same. There is no plan at this time to allow any hunting of this small herd however under current depredation law a landowner could kill elk legally if they were damaging crops. By delisting the elk a landowner could apply for a depredation permit from NCWRC and then they could utilize the meat rather than letting it rot. A depredation permit is required to allow the landowner to utilize the animal and NCWRC feels this will give them a little more leeway in managing the small herd.
I’ll be honest I’m not sure I’m crazy about either of these proposals. We have a few more weeks before public comments close on these so I guess I’ll mull them over. I’d be curious to hear what any of my readers think about these even if you don’t live in North Carolina.
Tomorrow I’ll report on the end of the meeting and the public comments the NCWRC got from those present at the District 5 meeting.
There are still a number of public hearings across the state if you want to attend
