Post by Woody Williams on Mar 15, 2007 11:30:48 GMT -5
www.roanoke.com/outdoors/billcochran/wb/108645
If you have a favorite public hunting area in Virginia, be it the national forest or a Department of Game and Inland Fisheries wildlife management area, then you should know that the 2007 General Assembly did you a favor.
Thanks to action by legislators, the commonwealth now has a policy that states there shall be no net loss of public land open to hunting.
The bill, SB 882, didn’t receive much fanfare in a session that saw the outdoor headlines dominated by Sunday hunting, which failed, and mandatory boater education, which was approved. That doesn’t mean it isn’t significant legislation, a victory for hunters who nowadays often are hard pressed for good news.
“I have been concerned for a long time about the lack of land available to the public for hunting,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville. Deeds, who grew up hunting in Bath County, called the measure “a very small step” to make sure that hunting opportunities aren’t lost when public land transitions take place.
Virginia became the eighth state to adopt a policy of no net loss of hunting lands. Three other states have been considering it.
The measure is a symbolic line drawn in the sand that says: “Hunting on public land is important to Virginia, and we aren’t going to give up places where the tradition can be enjoyed now and in the future.”
When you mention public hunting land in Virginia, for the most part you are talking about the George Washington and Jefferson national forests and the 30 wildlife management areas maintained by the DGIF. They total about 2 million acres.
Deeds said the policy most forcefully will serve as a standard for the DGIF when it makes land transactions, but it also has application for the U.S. Forest Service.
“In this era where the federal government is selling off, or threatening to sell off, national forests, this bill sends a message that we are not going to do that,” he said. “We are going to remember our mission to promote and protect our lands and our traditional way of life.”
There have been recent widespread reports on how hunting license sales are declining (see Cochran column “Look in the mirror: hunters getting old,” Feb. 22, 2007), and one of the primary reasons given is fewer places to hunt.
Most sportsmen in Virginia choose to hunt private land, but as development takes place and opportunities are lost, there could be a major switch to public land in the future. That makes such property vital to the sport.
At the moment, the most pressing challenge of the national forest isn’t loss of land, but loss of habitat that benefits wildlife species that sportsmen hunt. Pressured by protectionists, the national forest increasingly is being managed under a very limited timber cut policy. This sharply reduces the kind of new-growth habitat required by numerous wildlife species.
Preservationists will try to tell you that the national forest is being logged to the last stem. The fact is, in the George Washington National Forest, which is the state’s largest public landholder, less than 1 percent of the agency’s 1 million acres contains forest that is 10 years or younger. Only 3 percent is age 20 or less. Some 88 percent of the forest is age 70 or above.
Biologists of the DGIF believe 3 to 5 percent of the forest should offer herbaceous habitat, and 10-20 percent should be early successional habitat to benefit species that include grouse, woodcock, along with a number of warblers -- even deer.
The George Washington is in the process of revising its management plan and the DGIF has been challenging hunters to get involved in the campaign for a more balanced forest age-class distribution. In the past, sportsmen pretty well have let protectionists eat their lunch, but that may not be the case this time.
Recent public-input sessions on the George Washington management plan have attracted impressive turnouts, to the point that one venue had to be changed to accommodate participants.
If you have a favorite public hunting area in Virginia, be it the national forest or a Department of Game and Inland Fisheries wildlife management area, then you should know that the 2007 General Assembly did you a favor.
Thanks to action by legislators, the commonwealth now has a policy that states there shall be no net loss of public land open to hunting.
The bill, SB 882, didn’t receive much fanfare in a session that saw the outdoor headlines dominated by Sunday hunting, which failed, and mandatory boater education, which was approved. That doesn’t mean it isn’t significant legislation, a victory for hunters who nowadays often are hard pressed for good news.
“I have been concerned for a long time about the lack of land available to the public for hunting,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville. Deeds, who grew up hunting in Bath County, called the measure “a very small step” to make sure that hunting opportunities aren’t lost when public land transitions take place.
Virginia became the eighth state to adopt a policy of no net loss of hunting lands. Three other states have been considering it.
The measure is a symbolic line drawn in the sand that says: “Hunting on public land is important to Virginia, and we aren’t going to give up places where the tradition can be enjoyed now and in the future.”
When you mention public hunting land in Virginia, for the most part you are talking about the George Washington and Jefferson national forests and the 30 wildlife management areas maintained by the DGIF. They total about 2 million acres.
Deeds said the policy most forcefully will serve as a standard for the DGIF when it makes land transactions, but it also has application for the U.S. Forest Service.
“In this era where the federal government is selling off, or threatening to sell off, national forests, this bill sends a message that we are not going to do that,” he said. “We are going to remember our mission to promote and protect our lands and our traditional way of life.”
There have been recent widespread reports on how hunting license sales are declining (see Cochran column “Look in the mirror: hunters getting old,” Feb. 22, 2007), and one of the primary reasons given is fewer places to hunt.
Most sportsmen in Virginia choose to hunt private land, but as development takes place and opportunities are lost, there could be a major switch to public land in the future. That makes such property vital to the sport.
At the moment, the most pressing challenge of the national forest isn’t loss of land, but loss of habitat that benefits wildlife species that sportsmen hunt. Pressured by protectionists, the national forest increasingly is being managed under a very limited timber cut policy. This sharply reduces the kind of new-growth habitat required by numerous wildlife species.
Preservationists will try to tell you that the national forest is being logged to the last stem. The fact is, in the George Washington National Forest, which is the state’s largest public landholder, less than 1 percent of the agency’s 1 million acres contains forest that is 10 years or younger. Only 3 percent is age 20 or less. Some 88 percent of the forest is age 70 or above.
Biologists of the DGIF believe 3 to 5 percent of the forest should offer herbaceous habitat, and 10-20 percent should be early successional habitat to benefit species that include grouse, woodcock, along with a number of warblers -- even deer.
The George Washington is in the process of revising its management plan and the DGIF has been challenging hunters to get involved in the campaign for a more balanced forest age-class distribution. In the past, sportsmen pretty well have let protectionists eat their lunch, but that may not be the case this time.
Recent public-input sessions on the George Washington management plan have attracted impressive turnouts, to the point that one venue had to be changed to accommodate participants.
