My jaw dropped when I read this:








This talk will be at the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies annual conference in October. Link below:

https://seafwa.org/conference/2024

That seems counterproductive. Most other states are limiting non-res opportunities in favor of resident hunting.

All about the $

I dont understand how people afford this crap…drugs…gotta be sellin drugs

In a nutshell.

IMO that would be fine and dandy if they would use that money to improve what they have and buy more land to provide access for hunters but unfortunately they probably won’t. It’s a dang shame what some food plots or “wildlife openings” on our wma’s look like and it’s not because our biologist are incompetent ( the ones I’ve talked to anyway) it’s because of lack of funding.

Yep. I was surprised when I had to go down the the Stimpson SOA in Clarke Co and the openings and roadsides were covered in Bahia grass. I expected those areas to show more evidence of disturbance through fire or strip disking...

This isn't new. None of this is new.

The state has marketed to non-resident hunters for decades. Only the methods are different -- email and online today vs. magazine ads and TV shows in the olden days. It always has promoted "Come to Alabama to hunt!" and always will. Always.

Notice the "R3 Coordinator" at the end of the description, too?

R3 is the big "recruit, retain, reactivate" hunters program from the national Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports, which is based in D.C. It's been around since 2009. It is "jointly administered" with the national association of wildlife-fisheries departments (the state wildlife agencies). This is the latest organization using grants and money to do the "Heyyyy, how do we get new hunters and keep them and get the older hunters to play nice again?" thing that always comes around every half-generation or so.

Guess who is the CEO of this big Council? Steven Leath, former president at Auburn who was fired for a range of weird, questionable chit ... former president at Iowa State who left under a cloud of questions about money, use of the school plane and other questionable chit ... someone who after departing both universities pretty much gave off a "Damn, glad we're rid of him" vibe.

https://cahss.org/who-we-are/cahss-team/


All of this is done, in every state, to attract hunters and generate money. I get emails about quota and special hunts from the Rockies states, Dakotas and elsewhere. Got one last week for a draw opportunity for bison on a reservation. All of the agencies market to non-residents. Papaw's dew-covered emotional tug hunts are nostalgic but there not the reality anymore for the overall picture. They're not, and won't be. Just how it is.

Come one, come all!!!.....Plenty of bucks to go around!

The number of out of state hunters I see is nothing compared to the horde of Alabama hunters that I see in other states. E

Hunting and fishing is one of this states cash cows. They aren’t going to limit anything, only find ways to expand and tax.

There’s got to be some way we can get Chuck Sykes relieved of his duties. This crap is getting out of control. Like any other politician he’s forgetting who he serves

I hunt private land. Only way I would go onto public lands in AL is if my local friends wanted to duck hunt on it and wanted me to go with them. Otherwise I’ll leave it for the locals. Folks who may not have access to private land. No reason for me to go on public land for deer and take opportunity away from a local . I wouldn’t do it.

Only if there is a 3-point minimum on bucks

Agreed. As a former AL resident and still occasional public land hunter, it sees all those new fees and license add ons don’t actually make it back to the public land. The WMA I used to hunt had great green fields and well kept roads back around 00’-10’, the game management has been hit or miss at that time but there were always deer and turkeys to hunt. Seems like it’s all gone down hill the last 4 seasons I’ve come back through. Roads were rough, fields were basically grass or unkept. Also seems like the amount of public ground has been shrinking overall. I get that the DCNR wants folks to come down and hunt, but they could do a lot more to encourage that other than spending money on a marketing campaign.

Here in SC, I’ll give them credit. The dove fields are usually top notch. WMA’s May not have a ton of plots but what they have is planted in prime crops. The roads are relatively well maintained and they will shut down roads when things get washed out or they haven’t had a chance to maintain it. At least seems like we get something back for what we put in.

You can't really get a good handle on how bad all this really is until you see how well some other states run their show. You have to put your feelings about the bag limits/tags aside and look at what they actually accomplish in their States vs Alabama.

Alabama's DCNR uses all their money for back office salaries where they are essentially paying a group of individuals to basically play grabass all day and do "research" on an 8th grade level so that they can justify their jobs.

Here is what they don't do... ANYTHING meaningful.

Not voting for a Democrat named Kay Ivey is where you need to start.

Alabama doesn't have to worry about an abundance of non-res on public. There's far better public land options. If not for a couple private, well managed places I can hunt around Morengo and Monroe counties, I wouldn't ever hunt there again.

I agree with this sentiment for the most part. AL public land is generally less crowded than an average run of the mill hunting club on private or timber company land. I know, I know - we have to anoint Daniel Boone status to hunters who are consistently successful on public land. So, there’s that. But it’s really not that crowded during most of deer season.