Anybody else lease from them and been asked to save your deer heads so that they can study them? Our club received the notice last week from them.

Haven't had that request. We do fill out hunter observation cards and also save the jawbones for them after harvest.

Yep. Us too.

Oh I am saving them all right and take them straight to the taxidermist

Fixed it for you...

I was in a club in the Tuscaloosa area. Some of the guys in the club were firm believers Westervelt wanted to know what was being killed off the property so they could go up on the lease if big deer were being killed. So, every time they would kill a good buck they would write it down as a small buck or doe and cut jaw bones out of smaller deer to turn in for that particular deer.

Westervelt could care less what you're killing buck wise on your lease. They most likely want the heads for a major cwd study. If I had to guess, they are partnering with the state and will turn the heads over to AGF once they've collected and notated the area and county in which they were killed. It's the easiest way for State AGF to get the samples they need for testing. Heads will not be returned so they don't expect you to give them a mountable trophy buck.

They are probably only requesting from larger clubs and for specific areas and counties as determined and requested by AGF.

Probably just a new way to make you pay more. Like their garbage fee

Maybe it factors into what you pay for your lease, but Westervelt and other large timber companies put some good resources into studying many different species, in large to protect themselves. After all the spotted owl stuff, they have biologists studying animals from deer to bats.

I got bored one day and researched it.

If they can use the info to justify higher lease prices, you better believe they’re interested.

CWD