Proposed changes to Virginia regulations
 

Virginia Hunters, Trappers & Fishermen need to visit the VDGIF's website and comment on the propsed changes for next year. http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/

Some of the changes are pretty dramatic. License fees going up, seperating the bear license, absolutely no feeding except for July.

comments made, thanks for the heads up.

Notice who one of the big groups is pushing these changes - the Virginia Hunting Dog Alliance. Wonder where you might have heard of them before. If they are pushing these changes you can bet on one thing. It will benefit them to the detriment of all other hunters. They got turned down by the General Assembly on all these changes in the past now they are trying to influence the VDGIF to make the changes on their own. They have their own agenda and it is not for all hunters. Contact them at their website and let them know how you feel about their underhanded agenda. If your club is on their web page then you ARE supoporting everything they do as they use your name to justify it to the VDGIF.

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Why do we need to ban feeding deer for all months except July? What makes July so special?

The VAHDA sure seem to be a SELFISH and SELF-CENTERED group of hunters.....I don`t know why anybody would want to have anything to do with them.........seems they are ANTI-ANYTHING that dosn`t benefit them.............

Wondered about the July feeding law myself.....makes no sense to me..........

brewman.. you mean the vadha not the vdgif. and the reasoning stated at the 1Mar meeting concerning feeding made abolutely no sense to me either, but their proposing a 1 month (july) timeframe so hunters/hunt clubs and farmers can count their herds. I'm not sure that it will work with just a 1 month timeframe... but I dont do it anyway!

Thanks ALEX G ....... I fixed it.........

The only one I see that is supported by the VADHA is the separate bear license regulation.

The rationale seems to be that VADHA wants more bears for themselves, so they figure that if deer hunters don't have bear tags they won't be shooting bear. I'd wager that several dozen (or several hundred) of the bear killed in VA each year are killed by people who were stand hunting for deer and weren't betting on seeing a bear, and nearly all of them wouldn't have had a bear tag if they had to buy it separately.

In other words, under the regs pushed by VADHA, the number of bear killed by people without dogs will drop dramatically, yielding more bear for VADHA.

Very good assessment. I say the VDGIF should create a special license to hunt deer with dogs in addition to the big game license!

EXCELLENT IDEA :happy0001: If the VDGIF proposed a license to hunt deer with dogs the VADHA would have a fit.....I can`t imagine the crying and complaining they would do.....

If the VDGIF makes a special license for hunting bear then I would not be shocked to see the deer and turkey license eventually split as well. If the VADHA is really backing this then maybe someone should propose a special "dog hunting" license.

I hope that does not mean biological food plots to. I would not think so but the language says feeding. That part will porb. never pass though. Hope not anyways.

feeding
 

Deerdogdude... I don't know what the final wording will be on the feeding issue, but all the discussion during the meeting was revolving around feeder type of deals and piles of feed, mineral blocks etc.... there was not mention of planted plots.

I don`t think the VDGIF are talking about food plots......because you could say every farmers field is a food plot.......they just don`t want corn piles.....blocks .....feeders ...Ect........that eliminates hunt over bait........and feeding and the chance of CWD....and i can live with that...........

Its asinine to ban feeding year round. Heck, its asinine to ban it. Feeders are a great deer management tool, and while someone in SW Virginia might not need to take out lots of deer in Northern Virginia, we don't kill nearly enough.

Well doesnt matter where in the state that you are cause you cant feed them during hunting season anyway.

I just posted about this today on my website. I'm fine with not baiting during the season but only the use of "Attractants" during the month of July . . . I don't understand it and I can't really seem to get an explanation on why just one month . . . It is my understanding that this will cause no change to planted food plots only as others mentioned the feeders/blocks/piles of corn etc.

You can't feed them September to January. In Northern Virginia you can hunt deer until late March (though presumably you still can't bait them - or at least that's my interpretation. Better safe than sorry).

The 1 month "feeding/attractant" season is for landowners/farmers/hunters to "count" their heard!

Well understood but who decided that one month was sufficient. I completely understand the goal of that month but why just 1 month why not 2 or 3.

Actually, I don't think thats true. You can't use them September to January. But in Northern Virginia, the season actually goes till March 26 or so. I don't know if they are banned then or not.

but I think generally a ban on bait is asinine, especially in non agricultural areas (because lets face it, a well managed food plot or agricultural land is little different than bait anyway). But that's me. Bait is used effectively across the river in Maryland. And in plenty of other states.

Does not matter if your deer season runs into March....it is illegal to:

"Occupy any baited blind or other baited place for the purpose of taking or attempting to take any wild game bird or wild game animal or to put out bait or salt for the purpose of taking or killing any wild game bird or wild game animal, except for the purpose of trapping furbearing animals."

This is a quote from the VDGIF website on "Unlawful Methods" in the Hunting Regulations website.

The proposed regulation is talking about banning the feeding wildlife with the exception of 1 month per year. In fact some VA counties already ban feeding year round. Here is a link, scroll down the page to the section of "Unlawful Methods."

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting...ns/general.asp

Well thats our VDGIF in action... you can listen to the recorded session from their website... and you can hear for yourself how they came up with it.... umm August.... no ummm.,... July.... June would be better...

+1 couldnt have said it any better

You gotta be kidding me . . . I'm looking it up now to listen . . . Nothing like good research based decision making by the people controlling the future of our natural resources . . . :eek2::eek2:

Thanks VAhunter.

That makes more sense. Of course, it doesn't change the fact that the ban - like so much else in Virginia (Sunday hunting ban, hunting deer with dogs) makes no sense to most of the population.

And in a state over run with deer, it would be a very effective management tool and should at least be at the option of those counties that want to allow it.

actually most of the deer hunters population agree with this fyi

I don't care one way or another deerdogdude.

But fwiw, most folks I know (and nearly all the folks I know outside of VA) don't.

My point though, is that the blanket ban on bait is asinine. But its even more ludicrous how willing hunters are to throw other hunters under the bus (for supposed ethical/moral/whatever reasons) if those other hunters have a different view point.

Pennsylvania is an utter mess because of this. And, living now in Northern Virginia, I see the same thing happening in Virginia. Over bait. over dogs. over sunday hunting.

Really, what I'd like, is for DGIF to set a target harvest rate. Maybe help manage for rack size. But beyond that, get the F out of the way and let people do what they want.

If you don't want people running dogs on your land. post it. If your ok with it, allow it.
If you dont want people hunting on your land on sunday, don't allow it. If your ok with it, allow it.
If you dont want people baiting on your land, dont let them. If your ok with it, then let them.

But Virginia is a massive state. And the differences between NoVA, and SW VA and Central VA and the SE coast are tremendous. Add to that, the diversity of hunters (especially around DC) who grew up elsewhere in the country and hunted differently (no one outside of the South East can believe there is still a ban on Sunday hunting) really demand that DGIF just get out of the way.

They shouldn't be regulating morals or ethics. And neither should anyone else.

i agree with that

when do we find out if these pass?

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/regulat...nt/display.asp

I believe the meeting where they will discuss and announce the changes is May 3rd on Broad St in Richmond.