Wildlife Commission votes on management changes
A proposal to add two weeks to the bear-hunting season in North Carolina’s Mountain Bear Management Unit didn’t pass muster during an N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission meeting held Feb. 28 in Raleigh.
However, the Commission did decide to enact several changes to deer hunting rules.
“Throughout the public hearing process, the Commission received passionate, well-articulated concerns from constituents regarding the cultural and traditional impacts of proposed deer season changes,” reads a press release from the Wildlife Commission. “Commissioners carefully weighed those comments along with biological information.”
In the end, the Commission decided to enact the following deer season changes:
- Implement a statewide bag limit of two antlered and four anterless deer.
- Restrict the Bonus Anterless Deer Harvest Report Card to the Urban Archery Season only.
- Allow Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) participants to retain harvest flexibility.
- Shift either-sex days to the beginning of the Introductory, Conservative and Moderate Gun Either-Sex Seasons.
- Move Polk, Rutherford and Cleveland Counties to the Northwestern Deer Season, and retain the Moderate Gun Either-Sex Season.
The Commission also adopted rules to align bear hunting seasons in the Coastal Bear Management Unit with the five bear hunting zones with one modification: moving Pamlico County into Zone 5 of the coastal unit.
A table of upcoming season dates, approved by the Commission, is online at www.ncwildlife.org/blog/changes-in-regulations-for-2018-2019.
