In a hail of criticism, including from avid hunters, the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) dropped the proposal to include high-powered rifles as approved weapons for taking whitetail deer. However, the fee increase proposal was given the green light to offset budget shortfalls for Indiana’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

The NRC authorized certain fee changes for some DNR properties last week. In addition, members gave final approval to a package of fish and wildlife rules after dropping three proposals in the rule package.

The proposals removed from the fish and wildlife package would have expanded the use of high-powered rifles for deer hunting, placed a statewide 25-fish daily bag limit on sunfish (i.e., bluegill, redear and others), and allowed landowners to provide oral permission instead of requiring written permission for another individual to take coyotes from the landowner’s property.

All three dropped proposals were part of a package of changes submitted to the NRC by the DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife. The rule package received preliminary approval from the NRC in September 2014, kicking off a six-month public comment period including three public hearings.

After review of the submitted comments, DNR Fish & Wildlife requested removal of the three items from the package. The NRC agreed to remove all three and approved numerous other amendments in it. Some of the key provisions in the package were:

•Closure of the ruffed grouse hunting season

•Addition of the 28-gauge shotgun as legal equipment for deer hunting

•Allowing hunters who place a blind or tree stand on state or federal property to mark the stand with either their name, address and telephone number, or their DNR-issued customer identification number

•Renaming Urban Deer Zones to Deer Reduction Zones, along with other changes (renaming Urban Deer license as Reduction Zone license; eliminating past zone boundaries to create flexibility, authorizing the DNR director to establish boundaries on an annual basis; and raising the bag limit in Reduction Zones to 10 deer, of which only one may be antlered)

•Allowing a youth hunter participating in the special youth deer season (late September) to take one antlerless deer when hunting in a county with a bonus antlerless quota of “A”

•Prohibiting the use of dogs to chase wild pigs

•Limiting hunters to two cock ring-necked pheasants at Pigeon River, Willow Slough and Winamac Fish & Wildlife Areas

•Reducing the daily bag limit of bobwhite quail to two at DNR properties north of Interstate 74 and four at DNR properties south of the interstate

•Matching the fall firearms season for wild turkeys in northern counties with the season dates in southern counties (first Wednesday after Oct. 14, for 11 consecutive days)

•Requiring wild turkey hunters to wear hunter orange in counties designated for special late antlerless deer season on the dates the two seasons overlap

•Establishing season dates, reduced bag limits and size requirements for taking Eastern snapping turtle, smooth soft-shell turtle and spiny soft-shell turtle

•Raising the minimum size limit for possessing muskellunge and tiger muskellunge taken at Lake Webster, Backwater Lake and Kiser Lake from at least 36 inches to 44

•Setting a minimum size limit of at least 9 inches for crappie taken at Dogwood Lake (Daviess County) and Hardy Lake (Scott County)

•Setting a minimum size limit of at least 16 inches for walleye taken from Indiana waters north of State Road 26 – the exceptions are Lake George (Steuben County), where the minimum size is 15 inches, and Bass Lake (Starke County) and Wolf Lake (Lake County), where the minimum size is 14 inches

Other changes approved cover DNR state parks and forestry fees and include daily and annual Off-Road Cycling Permits and a service fee for booking campgrounds through the Central Reservation System.

Forestry also received approval for new fees on daily/annual gun range passes and management assistance for the Classified Forest program, plus fee increases for self-registration campsites, firewood collection permit, state tree nursery seedling prices and timber buyer licensing.

In other actions, the NRC granted state nature preserve status to two sites in Warren County (Black Rock Nature Preserve and Weiler-Leopold Nature Preserve), and renewed a contract with Brook Hill Golf Course for water withdrawals from Brookville Lake.

Educators plan wildlife

curriculum workshop

Monroe Lake will offer a training workshop for the Growing Up WILD curriculum at Paynetown State Recreation Area on June 7, at 9 a.m.

Growing Up WILD is for educators, including teachers, home-school parents and daycare providers who work with children ages 2-5. Many activities may be adapted for early elementary-age students. The wildlife-focused conservation education curriculum helps children understand and appreciate nature. Advance registration is required at bit.ly/guwjun2015

The workshop is limited to 14 people. There is a $20 fee, which includes a copy of the curriculum guidebook. For more information, call Paynetown Activity Center at 812-837-9967 or email Jill Vance at jvance@dnr.IN.gov

The entrance fee will be waived for registered participants. Paynetown SRA is located at 4850 South State Road 446, Bloomington, IN 47401.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments may contact Jack Spaulding by email at jackspaulding@hughes.net or by writing to him in care of this publication.