New hunting regulations aimed at making vast areas of habitat user-friendly
Sportsmen in the Central Mississippi area seeking remote places to hunt have long overlooked a great opportunity, even though many have fished, boated, camped or partied nearby.
Yep, it’s Barnett Reservoir.
The same waters that provide 33,000 acres of excellent fishing and boating recreation, offer wonderful — and plentiful — wildlife habitat along their banks.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is that our project covers about 50,000 total acres, and only 33,000 of those are under water,” said John Sigman, general manager of Barnett Reservoir. “That leaves 17,000 acres of dry ground. When you subtract the areas developed for residence and business, we still have vast areas of forestland.“
Most of that property is prime wildlife habitat. I think it provides opportunity for hunters that needs to be utilized.”
Sigman and his staff at the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District took a big first step at increasing usage this spring, completely rewriting the hunting regulations. The PRVWSD board of directors passed the proposals at its June meeting and a 60-day comment period is underway. Final approval is expected at the August meeting, which would put the new regs in effect by the start of the Oct. 1 archery season for deer.
Sigman invites the public to view the proposed changes and maps and respond to Comments@TheRez.ms.
“It wasn’t so much a rewrite as an update,” Sigman said. “A lot of our regulations were outdated, and they were also confusing in many areas. It was past time to bring them into the 21st century.”
Sigman utilized important resources available to draft the proposals.
“We have a good working relationship with the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks and we asked them to help,” he said. “This is what they do every day and we wanted that professional input.
“But, we also needed the public involved, since obviously they are the user group. We formed a committee of some of the most active users of the reservoir, especially the upriver areas where most of the hunting habitat is located.
“We made sure that safety was always the No. 1 priority, and that includes everything from protecting our residential area and other lake users to the hunters themselves. No. 2, we wanted to make hunting our reservoir areas user-friendly.”
Let’s be clear on this: By user-friendly he means making easy to understand where, when and how they can legally hunt.
There is nothing easy about hunting most of the available areas, which includes several thousand acres along the upper river area both below and above the lowhead dam.
“That’s one of the things I like about hunting the Rez, how difficult it can be,” said Jim Thomas of Brandon. “It’s work, and there’s not that many people willing to do put forth that kind of effort. But the reward is worth the trouble.
“I hunted deer up there last year about 25 days and I never saw another hunter. I never even saw a sign of another hunter. Not once. A hardcore hunter knows the value of that.”
Thomas said he uses his boat to reach his hunting spots.
“I don’t think there’s any other access to the areas I like to hunt, at least none that wouldn’t require crossing private land, and then getting wet by crossing sloughs and stuff,” he said. “There’s some islands and pockets of forest up there where a buck can live and eat and get old without being pressured a bit.
“I’m glad the reservoir didn’t decide to lease some of those big blocks of land and left them open to hunters. And, I’m glad that the changes stopped short of making it too easy.”
Thomas said hunting The Rez opens a wonderful opportunity he relishes each fall and winter.
“There are many days I leave the boat ramp with my boat loaded with my bow and treestand, and my bass gear,” he said. “I hunt a few hours, then fish a few hours. You can’t beat that.”
Sigman said the regulations do not pertain to the Pearl River Wildlife Management area, which the reservoir leases to the state wildlife agency. MDWFP regulations still apply there.
Highlights of the regulations:
Legal weapons: Absolutely no centerfire or rimfire rifles are allowed for hunting anywhere on reservoir property, and that includes during the primitive weapon season. Only black-powder type firearms that require ramming a bullet down the barrel will be legal during primitive weapons season.
“I know this will disappoint a lot of squirrel hunters, but in the interest of safety we decided to ban .22 rimfires, too,” said Kenny Latham, a board member and a retired conservation officer. “We just did not feel it was safe to have bullets fired in areas were we have boaters and houses within reach.”
Shotguns will be allowed for deer hunting; however, no buckshot will be legal.
“We felt better about allowing slugs, which is one projectile fired downrange,” said Larry Castle, a board member who currently serves as Director of Technical Services (overseeing hunting, fishing and law enforcement) for the MDWFP. “Modern slug shotguns are very effective. We’ve got them now that can group three shots in a fist-sized circle at 200 yards.”
Areas open to hunting that are close to major roads or any developed areas will be restricted to archery — bows and crossbows — only for deer, turkey and hogs.The regulations will make it easier for waterfowl hunters.
“We changed the rules regarding shot size to allow any size of non-toxic shot used for goose and duck hunting,” Sigman said. “Previously, we restricted it to No. 4 shot or smaller, which, obviously, was a problem for waterfowl hunters.”
Legal areas: A few new areas were opened, but mostly the regulations simply cleared up what hunting/equipment was allowed on open areas. However, there is some good news for the future, when hunting will be legalized in a couple of areas that have never been open.
“That will eventually include about 400 acres of land below the dam that have never legally been open to hunting,” Sigman said. “We’ve also got some big tracts of prime hunting areas between developed areas in Pelahatchie Bay that are outstanding habitat and home to a lot of wildlife.
“But all of those areas are small, and we have decided that it will be a restricted hunting area open to draw or permitted hunting only. It’s unlikely we will have programs in place in time for this winter, but it’s coming.”
Other regulations: ATVs will only be allowed in certain areas, and will be heavily restricted. Only hunters aged 70 and older will be allowed to access hunting areas on ATVs, with one exception.
“If you have killed an animal, such as a big deer or hog, and you need to go and get it, we will allow you to retrieve it with an ATV in some areas,” Sigman said. “That is the only exception for hunters under 70.”
Both Castle and Latham were adamant that a regulation requiring a fall-restraint system be used by anyone using a tree stand, and that requirement is included in the proposals. Also, no stands can be built that require hammering nails or spikes in a tree.
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