Hunting Archery Duck Deer

Deer tagging on table for discussion in LouisianaHunters may have to carry card in ‘06By JOE MACALUSOTHE ASSOCIATED PRESSBATON ROUGE, La. - Mounds left by Native American tribes contain remains of whitetail deer, elk and American bison and provide a look into the past.

State game managers are hoping a proposal made during a recent Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting will give them a picture of the future of Louisiana deer hunting.
Tagging, a process last used in the state nearly 50 years ago, is part of the resident-game hunting package the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ Wildlife Division staff presented at the Feb. 2 meeting.

For the 2006-2007 season, all deer hunters will be required to carry a Deer Tag Harvest Card while hunting. Hunters have to document the sex and the date each deer is taken.

That will give the Wildlife Division its first defacto look at the number of deer taken.
The seven-man LWFC gave every indication that tagging will be a part of the 2006-2007 season when rules and regulations are ratified at the commission’s June 1 meeting. The public can make comments on the changes through its May 4 meeting.

“I have heard nothing but positive comments about tagging,” Shreveport commission member Fred Miller said, repeating a refrain heard in commission meetings since March.
Last year, the Legislature gave the commission authority to establish a tagging program.
While the wording in the package pointed to deer hunters, state game managers are expected to extend a tagging requirement to turkey hunters for the 2007 spring season.
Wildlife Division administrator David Moreland laid groundwork for the tagging-system announcement at the LDWF’s January meeting, but the recent proposal was different than first outlined.

Throughout 2005, Wildlife Division staff said the tagging program would leave the season limit at six deer, but would include a limit of two “bucks of choice” (bucks with no antler restrictions), one buck with at least six points in its antler spread and three doe deer. The proposed system will have a limit of “three antlered deer and three antlerless deer by all methods of take.”

Moreland said the new program will eliminate the need to publish either-sex hunting dates - doe days - and the new daily limit throughout the season for most of the state’s hunters will be one antlered deer and one antlerless deer.

The excepted areas are Plaquemines, St. Bernard, East Carroll and West Carroll parishes. East and West Carroll have low deer populations and state biologists want to wait at least one more season to determine the extent of damage to Plaquemines and St. Bernard deer herds from Hurricane Katrina.

The one-buck, one-doe-per-day limit will not apply to public lands - wildlife management areas, National Forest lands and federal refuges. There will be either-sex dates posted for these areas.

The tagging process will require “all hunters” to carry the card. Moreland said this applies to hunters with a Big Game License, plus children 15 and younger, those 60 and older and Lifetime License holders. He said cards will be available in the hunting regulations pamphlet, from the LDWF’s Web site and from license vendors.

Moreland said that the card likely will be a one-year bridge to end the final year of the LDWF’s current three-year point-of-sale license contract.

“Tags will be included in negotiations for the next (license-sale) contract,” Moreland said.
Other notable proposed changes for the 2006-2007 resident-game hunting season include:
- Season limits on taking doe will not apply for hunters on property under the state’s Deer Management Assistance and Landowner Antlerless Deer Tag programs.

- Disabled hunters with LDWF-approved crossbow permits and archery hunters 60 and older will be able to use “a bow that is drawn, held or released by mechanical means.”

- Deer hunters using camouflaged or concealed ground blinds on wildlife management areas will be required to have a minimum of 400 square inches of Hunter Orange above or around their blinds and visible from 360 degrees.

- Commission member Terry Denmon of Monroe received unanimous approval to allow big-game license holders to take two bobcats per calendar year. The proposal allows the hunter to use bow and arrow, shotgun, muzzleloader or centerfire firearm. The proposal will not apply to WMAs or federal lands and refuges.
The LDWF announced