Special Opportunity Areas

What do y'all think about the new SOA's?

I think it has potential to be a good thing. I just do not want to see them push this model in the future to govern our public land open access areas in the state.

I think it's the beginning of the end of public land as we know it.

It has it's place. You have to understand it. The new Dallas Co tract is 6500 acres. How can you just open that up to a free for all? There are clubs with more acreage than that. It's only about 2 miles from my land. Just across the street from me is 1 land owner that has 3300 acres. To the north of the new WMA is a private landowner with close to 4000. So a 6500 public access area could get way over crowded. I've seen the deer in this area first hand. Potential is incredible.

A lot of the "public" land that was available over the past few years was privately owned and for 1 reason or another has been removed from the state. That's the beginning of the end. The real beginning of the end is license sales. There's a lot of federal money left on the table due to a decrease in sales, for whatever reason.

I disagree. They are not taking away public land. They are adding small tracts with controlled access. I think it's good for public hunting in the state.

X2 sure we've lost some WMA acreage, St Clair is gone, Coosa is smaller. But in the last couple of years we've gained autauga WMA and now these SOAs. These SOAs are a good thing IMO

It's a good idea as long as this model is not eventually used on the larger WMA's that already exist. It is impossible for the state to buy up large 40,000 acre contiguous tracts in modern times so the only way to add more public land is using this method. If you have small tracts fully open to the public, a small group of 10 or so locals would essentially "claim" it as theirs and harass/intimidate any newcomers who try to hunt in "their" spot. It would do nothing but hurt the reputation of public land hunting in this state.

I am excited about the opportunity to be able to hunt these areas designated for special draws. I think in the future it will make for some fine hunting.

This is the best thing I have seen Alabama do when it comes to public land. I don't know if any of you have hunted in any other state on public land and have seen the success of a draw system. I have and it works much better than a free for all style WMA. The game is managed better and the opportunity to harvest a quality animal is defiantly a lot better.

I really wish they would go to this system on the causeway in mobile for waterfowl hunting because it is out of control the way it is now.

I had hoped they would go this way when the Dallas County WMA was first brought up on this site. Glad to see it. I think yall will like it. I have hunted draw hunt WMAs in SC and had great experiences.

I've been hunting public land tracts a lot smaller than 6500 acres for a long time without it having to be closed to the public

Is anyone familiar with the cedar creek tract in Dallas county?

2 miles from me. Very diverse terrain.. BIG deer in the area.

Did y'all notice there is no hunting January 8-24 on any of these properties? I think Chuck Sykes and his boys will have these dates. Everyone knows those dates are the best for Alabama.

Yep, I saw a prime piece of public land open up in New Jersey one year (1999?) and opening day bow season had folks in trees about every 50 ft because there wasn't any control.

What is the nearest town??? Nearest place to stay if someone were to get drawn for this tract???

Most likely Selma or Camden.

How long has the state had this land?

Is the state going to plant foodplots on these SOA's?

I am assuming they'll all be planted. One of the state biologists that works near the Uchee SOA reached out to me to get the name and number of the guy that does our planting.

Camden is 17 miles Selma is 13. Roland Cooper state park, which I'm not very familiar with, might have places to stay. about 7-8 miles. Other than that, there is not even a gas station with in 10 miles.

Not really around the Dallas county piece from my observation over the last 8 years. Gets good about Jan 25th to end of season.

Not in this area of Dallas or Russell county. The Cedar Creek and Uchee tracts are in prime areas. Maybe some small tracts in Bankhead or parts of the Talladega national forest would be ok but these tracts would be way overcrowded without some type of draw system.

I like the idea of getting a chance to hunt public land where you have just as good of a chance of killing a nice buck as you would if it were a private lease. Less pressure will definitely lead to better hunting.

I believe that is the general idea for these areas.