LDWF closes deer hunting in NE LA
 

FYI

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries secretary Robert Barham will close deer hunting season in a portion of northeast and central Louisiana because of flooding from the Mississippi River.

Beginning Tuesday at official sunset, deer hunting season will be closed from east of U.S. 65 from the Arkansas state line to Vidalia, Louisiana. The season will resume when flooding recedes and conditions allow.

Parishes affected by this include East Carroll, Madison, Tensas and Concordia.

Continued unrestricted hunting under these circumstances poses a potential risk of overharvest of the deer resource and may pose a significant risk to the hunting public because of the increased concentration of hunters in the areas where deer and other wildlife are located.

Barham is acting under authority granted by emergency provisions of R.S. 49:953 of the Administrative Procedure Act and under authority of R.S. 56:115.

The old deer study leader for LDWF is going to rustle some jimmies

http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=9047

Retired Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Wildlife Division head David Moreland said today the impending closure of tens of thousands of acres to deer hunting “one of those political things.”

State officials have said the closure in the Mississippi delta will be implemented later this week out of concern for the deer population and hunter safety.

The closures announced yesterday cover all property from the Mississippi state line west to Highway 65 between the Arkansas state line south to Vidalia.

At its widest point, the closure would stretch about 18 miles from the Mississippi River, to Tallulah, with almost all of that area being outside the levee.

Initially, hunting was set to end at sunset on Dec. 29, but officials have since moved the effective date to sunset on Jan. 3, LDWF’s Scott Durham told LouisianaSportsman.com.

Moreland said the politics to which he referred involves monied hunters with batture-land properties that either will be made unhuntable because of the rising Mississippi River or will be included in closures Mississippi officials expect to implement beginning Jan. 1.

“What you’re dealing with is a lot of big-money clubs, and they don’t want people running around shooting ‘their’ deer,” said Moreland, who served as the state’s deer study leader for decades before leading the LDWF’s Wildlife Division. “When (deer) leave their property and get on the other side of the levee, they don't want ‘their’ deer being shot.”

Durham, however, said the closure was intended to protect the delta’s deer population.

“It’s a concern for overharvest (of deer) in areas where deer are being pushed out of the batture,” Durham said of the closure.

In the news release announcing the original closure, the agency also contended the action was on behalf of public safety.

“Continued unrestricted hunting under these circumstances … may pose a significant risk to the hunting public because of the increased concentration of hunters in the areas where deer and other wildlife are located,” the release stated.

However, Moreland said the closure likely resulted from pressure by members of those big hunting clubs who can only watch as bucks move from their property over the levees and face possible harvest by other hunters.

When asked if such requests justified shutting down hunting on massive acreages not affected by flooding, Moreland said “probably not.”

But he said it’s not surprising club members would want to keep other hunters from benefitting from the flooding.

“It’s not their deer, but they have no control over the harvest when ‘their’ deer aren’t on their property,” Moreland said.

While Durham pointed out that flooding has caused closures in some areas directly impacted by high water, he admitted he did not know of similar action in the Mississippi delta or on such large areas not flooded.

“It’s a lot of land,” he said.

Durham said that, even with the closure, there has been a lot of hunting opportunity in the region.

“That’s still a pretty big season,” he said. “And it’s similar to the old Area 4 season.”

The old Area 4 deer-hunting zone covered the northernmost part of this closure area.

Durham admitted the announced closure was not received positively by a lot of hunters, who have kept him working the phones.

“It’s a tough call, but sometimes we’ve got to make (such decisions),” he said.

While conceding he didn’t expect Mississippi River conditions to improve anytime soon, Durham said the postponement of the closure is evidence his agency is making adjustments as conditions on the ground warrant.

He said deer project leader Johnathan Bordelon is riding the levees to monitor the movement of deer and to assess adjacent habitat, and that LDWF officials could alter their actions if information dictates.

“There’s the chance the department could make modifications in the future,” Durham said.

But until further notice, the veteran biologist encouraged hunters in the impacted region to spend time in the woods before hunting prematurely ends.

“Everybody needs to go hunting hard right now,” Durham said.

So stupid.

What is stupid about it?

Funny how money talks....

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I can't speak for the money aspect of it, I can speak from experience. Currently, I can take any of you to my land along the ms river and pull up to 3 different ridges (highest points of my land) and you can pick which deer you want to kill and shoot with a .22. To me, this isn't too ethical and even though our season hasn't closed by law, I and my neighbors haven't hunted. 1 neighbor has used the high water to help hurt the hog population. They had a few different groups of shooters and pulled up to the high areas of his land and has killed over 1300 hogs so far. The same could be done for deer, although it would
Be illegal.

I am not referencing areas innundated completely with water. What I do find funny is the restricted zone extending west 18miles in some areas around tallulah and newellton... Could this be their proximity to Davis island and Winter Quarters?

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Your allowed to kill a deer for 100% of the tags you have. Why should it matter how you kill them. They decided on the amounts of tags based on that 100%. So I don't buy the over harvest argument. Talking about legal harvest only.

it's not considered "fair chase" maybe???

years ago we had the same situation along the Amite river You could boat up to any high ground and pick the buck you wanted. to many outlaws couldn't resist the temptation to kill a boat load

^^^^ this ^^^^

Nailed it on the head. The only reason the season is closing is Davis Island.


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They updated this again last night guys. Season is only closing for one week in that area.

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i like pork chops!!!!

This about covers it



So if an outlaw can't resist the urge of easy pickings of deer, you think they're just gonna say, "damn, I was gonna go mow all them deer down but they closed the season. Guess I'll just go golfing."

Those guys up there are mostly descendants of the Natchez tribe. They do what their ancestors did back in the day by not wasting any ammo and just motoring out onto the river when it gets high and drowning the deer