The Serious Deer Hunting Forum already has a link and discussion of the latest column put out by the dcnr, but for the benefit of any AFOA members who came here just to read this thread, I'll include a link to it:

http://www.outdooralabama.com/game-checks-first-year-learning-process

I thought this sentence really tells a lot about our director's attitude toward private landowners:

>>>They may own the land, but the wildlife belongs to the citizens of Alabama, and we are the ones responsible for the management of this natural resource. <<<

This statement displays a much different attitude than the one the dcnr held during most of my life.

Charles Kelly would have never dreamed of writing or saying anything like this. He constantly pushed the idea that wildlife management had to be a partnership of the dcnr and private landowners. He believed, correctly, that wildlife could flourish only under such a partnership. It was this attitude that was responsible for AL having good populations of deer and turkey long before they were restored to other southeastern states.

It seems the current dcnr does not see landowners as partners, but as pests to be regulated.