Luke Treewalker
New Member
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2015
- Messages
- 3
I am re-posting this here to make sure everyone with an interest in this matter has a chance to speak up on the issue. I will send all responses on to the TWRA regional office.
I have been informed that with Randy Cromer's (manager) retirement and not having a replacement decided on as of yet, the current staff members have decided among themselves, that it is in our best interest to close all of the side/secondary roads at Cheatham WMA. Surely there has to be an opportunity for the taxpayers and licensed hunter's to have input on this and given an opportunity to have their voices heard. I absolutely love the state of Tennessee and all it stands for, especially the TWRA. I may not always agree with the decisions that are made, but at least I have always felt that my opinion as a tax paying, law abiding, sportsmen is heard and considered. My initial reaction to this is mostly just plain disappointment. I fully supported TWRA's decision to reduce the buck limit. I did not however agree with the reasoning for reaching their decision. I was for keeping the harvest limits at whatever numbers will support the healthiest herd size as opposed to which will grow bigger bucks. That is another story and water under the bridge though. Personally I feel like i have been totally let down by the organization I have loved, believed in, supported, and bragged on to my friends in other states. On the surface it feels to me like the folks behind this decision have taken a page out of the California department of fish and wildlife's backwards way of thinking and enforcing whatever rules they want without public opinion.
Just for a second I want to brag on the job Randy Cromer has done out at Cheatham in my time of using this WMA. Randy may not be the biggest deer hunter, but he has unquestionably had all hunters best interest at the forefront of his decisions and used the lost art of common sense. The timber program he has been involved with out there has created an immense caring capacity for the wildlife. It's has been run in such a way to generate revenue for the state, and create great opportunities for those whom hunt and enjoy spending time there. Cheatham is a vast area with very steep draws etc. which does create challenges for some hunters not willing or able to follow the natural deer movements into those travel corridors. But, never have I seen or heard of someone going out of their way to help hunters until I crossed paths with Randy. If you were willing to hike and get down to those deer, he wouldn't let you have to get it out by yourself. He has numerous times taken tractors, quads, equipment and staff to help retrieve harvested animals. This type of leadership and support is unheard of in this day and time. If you had a OHV to help retrieve you harvest, he would issue passes to use that to get it out, and if you happened to get stuck, he'd be down there with more equipment to get you out. He always kept those with physical handicaps in mind and kept a few blinds exclusive for their use through season. He would close all of the secondary roads during turkey season for several obvious reasons. Safety, and the nature of spring turkey hunting made this a great way to be fair to all and for people to know if someone else was hunting a given ridge as well. Turkeys love to nest in the bottoms and come up to the ridges and fields to chase hens and all of the other mating behaviors. Then when it came to squirrel and deer season, usually around mid-August-Sept. 1st. he would open all the secondary roads with the exception of a few of the shorter 1/4 to 1/2 mile roads restricted to foot traffic only. Certainly this didn't affect anyone's ability to hunt an area. He also designated a couple roads to handicapped use as well. After the "blue tongue" decimated the deer herd 7-9 years ago, he closed all doe harvesting during gun and muzzleloader season to help the herd regenerate. The results have been great and it won't be long until we will be back to shooting does there, as the herd has responded. Anyone whom has spent any time at Cheatham knows it can be a tough place to hunt, but they can't say enough good things about Mr. Cromer and the way he ran the WMA.
He has created programs for food plots, which included crop rotation. There was never a question that Mr. Cromer's decisions were made with selfless common sense and the hunter's best interest at the forefront.
Now it seems that he hasn't even left his post, and those that are left are undoing the great environment for outdoorsmen/women he has worked so hard to create.
I only wish to voice my personal opinion which is shared by those whom I have spoken to who hunt there as well. It is not my intent to throw anyone under the bus or persecute someone for their decisions which I disagree with. Therefore, I won't site my sources or use any names. Below are the reasons I have been given by TWRA staff for the road closures.
TWRA Cheatham WMA staff's reasons for closing all secondary access roads (there may be more, but this is a list of the ones I have been directly given by TWRA staff)
1. We do not have enough staff to patrol the roads due to the size of the WMA. By closing the side access roads, we can better prevent people from breaking the rules.
The way I see it, that is a state budget issue. There will always be rule breakers, whether we are talking about public or private land, and there will never be enough staff to prevent it from happening, period. As sportsmen, we all have a responsibility to turn in people whom break the laws/rules to preserve our freedoms. I hate it as much as the next guy. I hate seeing trash when I walk through the woods or pull into a parking spot. It is truly outrageous that people are given the opportunity to recreate in such beautiful wilderness and don't appreciate it enough to just take care of it and throw away your dang trash! I hate it when I leave the house at 3:00 am to get in my tree before sun up only to have a guy in a blue pick-up drive slowly up and down the road 2 times trying to glass the fields along the way. However, I've yet to hear one of those folks take a shot. I've also had it several times when i had deer in sight when a truck drives by, and the deer all pick up their heads and follow the sound of the vehicle until it passes and then go on feeding on acorns or whatever they are doing. Now, if the car stops, they bolt every time, but that's what you always have to be willing to accept when hunting public land. Further to the point, by closing the roads due to lack of staff, effectively all you are doing is reducing the size of the refuge. It is a terrible thing to punish those that follow the rules and do things the right way because of a few law breaking individuals. Eventually they will be caught. Also, one of the most enjoyable if not the most enjoyable aspect of Cheatham WMA is its sheer size and vast expanses. In the years I've hunted there, I have yet to have a hunter walk through the area i'm hunting in. I quite enjoy that I can go just about anywhere off the main road and know that I won't cross paths with another hunter. More on this at the end of this letter.
2. "The vast majority of hunters whom successfully harvest mature deer at Cheatham will openly tell you that "if you want to kill a mature buck here, you need to get down in the bottoms". Our way of thinking is that if we close all the side roads, deer will be more likely to frequent the ridgetops and make it easier to harvest mature animals in the fields etc. without having to go down into the steep draws."
This is certainly open to criticism. Mine is based on my collection of hunting experiences. With Cheatam's high ridges and deep draws, clear cuts, fields, hard woods and softwoods mixtures; there will be certain characteristics animals that live there will exhibit. For instance, when its 85 degrees out side, it will be 10-15 degrees colder in the bottom of the deep draws. When its 25 degrees with a 15 mph wind, it will be considerably warmer and out of the wind in those same draws. when the leaves are all gone in the late fall the deer will will be drawn to the safety of the deep draws and thick clear cuts for safety and comfort. Guess where the deer will be? Animals are survivalists and their movements are calculated. One wrong move and they may not get another chance. All of these variables are before you add in the human /hunter presence. I do believe it is possible to see a few more deer during daylight hours in areas hunters wont be able to get to. However, I also believe that the vast majority and certainly the mature deer are going to still live in the comforts that the geography affords them.
3."We put food plots in here to help the animals and the hunters. If you come here on a weekend during gun season, you will hear cars/trucks going up and down the roads all day trying to illegally road hunt. This disturbs the hunters in the woods and fields alike, and scares the deer off of the fields and ridges. We simply don't have the staff to patrol for this, so by closing the secondary roads, we will eliminate most of this and make the deer more comfortable to using the food plots we work so hard to plant and maintain."
From my perspective, I love the food plots, and I choose to hunt the travel corridors between all food sources not just food plots. In my experience, food plots on public land just tend to draw more hunters attention. For that reason I try to steer clear of the food plots and find my own secluded hunting locations. All the wildlife benefit from these food sources, and I am thrilled that the state allows for this in the budget. It may very well contribute to an overall healthier herd. That doesn't mean that it is going to be like a hunting show filmed on private cornfields in Iowa where there are 150" bucks walking all over the place. The deer will use them as needed, and these food sources will affect there movement patterns. That doesn't mean we should all go set up treestands in every corner of a corn field at the WMA. The most important point of all this is that, by closing the secondary roads, all you are doing is restricting the areas the true hunters and law abiding sportsmen have to enjoy. The cheating, law breaking poachers are still going to drive up and down those roads that are closed. Just to prove my point, If you were there at anytime near the end of hunting season over the last 3 years you would have seen the tire tracks on all the foot path roads, and the staff has and will confirm that guys drive through the fields and foot travel roads so much that it looks like someone had mowed it with a finish cutting mower. This is the reason for closing all the roads!! Come on, It's not fair or well thought out to punish the masses who follow the rules and love spending their free time recreating there.
Conclusion:
As per reason #1 there is a now a reduction by close to 75% of the huntable areas at Cheatham do to the road closures. While this would enable TWRA staff to regulate and enforce rules, it certainly would create a safety concern as hunters will be hunting on top of each other. We certainly will be hiking through where others are hunting un-be known to us. The pressure we will be putting in these confined areas will certainly drive the animals back in further, making it even harder to harvest an animal. Our overall hunting experience at Cheatham will be greatly diminished due to the lack of privacy from other hunters, and the distances we will have to travel by foot to get to an area. (I can't see myself coming back after this year as long as this rule is in place). To add to my angle of the art of deer hunting, there are a great many details and challenges to hunting the whitetailed deer in forestland. Some say this is one of the most challenging environments to hunt in. However, to those whom develop a keen eye to the sign and variables that matter most, there may be nothing more enjoyable and rewarding than hunting deer in the mature hardwood forests. A lot of the variables have to do with scouting the terrain, finding travel patterns, and hunting in locations when the wind is favorable. If I want to hunt a certain place due to prevailing winds or travel corridors, but the only way to get there is to walk 2 miles down a perfectly good road before I have to hike another ½ mile into the woods, all the while packing a 30lb. tree stand, weapon and pack; I might as well take up golf. Now, I may have been able to do that when I was a young man, but those days have long since passed. Reality is I won't be able to hunt and follow my outdoorsman instincts in the places I feel will offer the best chances at success given the new logistical confines of this rule.
As per #2, who's to say that everyone wants to hunt the food plots, fields, and ridges right off the main roads? Shouldn't I be able to decide the places I want to hunt, and be afforded the same access to those areas as the guys who want to hunt the ridges and fields?
As per #3, This is just backwards thinking in my opinion. I am certainly paying a high price for the transgressions of others whom choose to break the rules. Maybe a better idea would be to post signs showing punishable by $500 fine if found driving vehicles on foot travel paths or off of maintained roads.
When did the hunters and outdoors people who this new rule will affect get to have there voice heard before the decision was made to do this? Since we weren't given notice prior to hunting season or given due process, shouldn't this rule at the least be shelved until due process is afforded to those it affects? I don't believe there to be any environmental impacts and concerns pertaining to the well being of the ecosystem that would make this rule to be put in place as a preventative measure.
Those that are employed by the TWRA and the outdoorsmen of this state should always remain allies. We share common goals and a love of the outdoors. We will not always see eye to eye on issues, but if forward thinking common sense prevails we will always have the great state of Tennessee's resources to enjoy for generations past and long into the future.
My hope is that this letter finds someone with open ears and an aggressive nature to uphold his or her civic duty to protect the Tennessee tax payers and outdoorsmen & womens best interests.
Sincerely,
Disappointed Tennessee resident and Outdoorsman
I have been informed that with Randy Cromer's (manager) retirement and not having a replacement decided on as of yet, the current staff members have decided among themselves, that it is in our best interest to close all of the side/secondary roads at Cheatham WMA. Surely there has to be an opportunity for the taxpayers and licensed hunter's to have input on this and given an opportunity to have their voices heard. I absolutely love the state of Tennessee and all it stands for, especially the TWRA. I may not always agree with the decisions that are made, but at least I have always felt that my opinion as a tax paying, law abiding, sportsmen is heard and considered. My initial reaction to this is mostly just plain disappointment. I fully supported TWRA's decision to reduce the buck limit. I did not however agree with the reasoning for reaching their decision. I was for keeping the harvest limits at whatever numbers will support the healthiest herd size as opposed to which will grow bigger bucks. That is another story and water under the bridge though. Personally I feel like i have been totally let down by the organization I have loved, believed in, supported, and bragged on to my friends in other states. On the surface it feels to me like the folks behind this decision have taken a page out of the California department of fish and wildlife's backwards way of thinking and enforcing whatever rules they want without public opinion.
Just for a second I want to brag on the job Randy Cromer has done out at Cheatham in my time of using this WMA. Randy may not be the biggest deer hunter, but he has unquestionably had all hunters best interest at the forefront of his decisions and used the lost art of common sense. The timber program he has been involved with out there has created an immense caring capacity for the wildlife. It's has been run in such a way to generate revenue for the state, and create great opportunities for those whom hunt and enjoy spending time there. Cheatham is a vast area with very steep draws etc. which does create challenges for some hunters not willing or able to follow the natural deer movements into those travel corridors. But, never have I seen or heard of someone going out of their way to help hunters until I crossed paths with Randy. If you were willing to hike and get down to those deer, he wouldn't let you have to get it out by yourself. He has numerous times taken tractors, quads, equipment and staff to help retrieve harvested animals. This type of leadership and support is unheard of in this day and time. If you had a OHV to help retrieve you harvest, he would issue passes to use that to get it out, and if you happened to get stuck, he'd be down there with more equipment to get you out. He always kept those with physical handicaps in mind and kept a few blinds exclusive for their use through season. He would close all of the secondary roads during turkey season for several obvious reasons. Safety, and the nature of spring turkey hunting made this a great way to be fair to all and for people to know if someone else was hunting a given ridge as well. Turkeys love to nest in the bottoms and come up to the ridges and fields to chase hens and all of the other mating behaviors. Then when it came to squirrel and deer season, usually around mid-August-Sept. 1st. he would open all the secondary roads with the exception of a few of the shorter 1/4 to 1/2 mile roads restricted to foot traffic only. Certainly this didn't affect anyone's ability to hunt an area. He also designated a couple roads to handicapped use as well. After the "blue tongue" decimated the deer herd 7-9 years ago, he closed all doe harvesting during gun and muzzleloader season to help the herd regenerate. The results have been great and it won't be long until we will be back to shooting does there, as the herd has responded. Anyone whom has spent any time at Cheatham knows it can be a tough place to hunt, but they can't say enough good things about Mr. Cromer and the way he ran the WMA.
He has created programs for food plots, which included crop rotation. There was never a question that Mr. Cromer's decisions were made with selfless common sense and the hunter's best interest at the forefront.
Now it seems that he hasn't even left his post, and those that are left are undoing the great environment for outdoorsmen/women he has worked so hard to create.
I only wish to voice my personal opinion which is shared by those whom I have spoken to who hunt there as well. It is not my intent to throw anyone under the bus or persecute someone for their decisions which I disagree with. Therefore, I won't site my sources or use any names. Below are the reasons I have been given by TWRA staff for the road closures.
TWRA Cheatham WMA staff's reasons for closing all secondary access roads (there may be more, but this is a list of the ones I have been directly given by TWRA staff)
1. We do not have enough staff to patrol the roads due to the size of the WMA. By closing the side access roads, we can better prevent people from breaking the rules.
The way I see it, that is a state budget issue. There will always be rule breakers, whether we are talking about public or private land, and there will never be enough staff to prevent it from happening, period. As sportsmen, we all have a responsibility to turn in people whom break the laws/rules to preserve our freedoms. I hate it as much as the next guy. I hate seeing trash when I walk through the woods or pull into a parking spot. It is truly outrageous that people are given the opportunity to recreate in such beautiful wilderness and don't appreciate it enough to just take care of it and throw away your dang trash! I hate it when I leave the house at 3:00 am to get in my tree before sun up only to have a guy in a blue pick-up drive slowly up and down the road 2 times trying to glass the fields along the way. However, I've yet to hear one of those folks take a shot. I've also had it several times when i had deer in sight when a truck drives by, and the deer all pick up their heads and follow the sound of the vehicle until it passes and then go on feeding on acorns or whatever they are doing. Now, if the car stops, they bolt every time, but that's what you always have to be willing to accept when hunting public land. Further to the point, by closing the roads due to lack of staff, effectively all you are doing is reducing the size of the refuge. It is a terrible thing to punish those that follow the rules and do things the right way because of a few law breaking individuals. Eventually they will be caught. Also, one of the most enjoyable if not the most enjoyable aspect of Cheatham WMA is its sheer size and vast expanses. In the years I've hunted there, I have yet to have a hunter walk through the area i'm hunting in. I quite enjoy that I can go just about anywhere off the main road and know that I won't cross paths with another hunter. More on this at the end of this letter.
2. "The vast majority of hunters whom successfully harvest mature deer at Cheatham will openly tell you that "if you want to kill a mature buck here, you need to get down in the bottoms". Our way of thinking is that if we close all the side roads, deer will be more likely to frequent the ridgetops and make it easier to harvest mature animals in the fields etc. without having to go down into the steep draws."
This is certainly open to criticism. Mine is based on my collection of hunting experiences. With Cheatam's high ridges and deep draws, clear cuts, fields, hard woods and softwoods mixtures; there will be certain characteristics animals that live there will exhibit. For instance, when its 85 degrees out side, it will be 10-15 degrees colder in the bottom of the deep draws. When its 25 degrees with a 15 mph wind, it will be considerably warmer and out of the wind in those same draws. when the leaves are all gone in the late fall the deer will will be drawn to the safety of the deep draws and thick clear cuts for safety and comfort. Guess where the deer will be? Animals are survivalists and their movements are calculated. One wrong move and they may not get another chance. All of these variables are before you add in the human /hunter presence. I do believe it is possible to see a few more deer during daylight hours in areas hunters wont be able to get to. However, I also believe that the vast majority and certainly the mature deer are going to still live in the comforts that the geography affords them.
3."We put food plots in here to help the animals and the hunters. If you come here on a weekend during gun season, you will hear cars/trucks going up and down the roads all day trying to illegally road hunt. This disturbs the hunters in the woods and fields alike, and scares the deer off of the fields and ridges. We simply don't have the staff to patrol for this, so by closing the secondary roads, we will eliminate most of this and make the deer more comfortable to using the food plots we work so hard to plant and maintain."
From my perspective, I love the food plots, and I choose to hunt the travel corridors between all food sources not just food plots. In my experience, food plots on public land just tend to draw more hunters attention. For that reason I try to steer clear of the food plots and find my own secluded hunting locations. All the wildlife benefit from these food sources, and I am thrilled that the state allows for this in the budget. It may very well contribute to an overall healthier herd. That doesn't mean that it is going to be like a hunting show filmed on private cornfields in Iowa where there are 150" bucks walking all over the place. The deer will use them as needed, and these food sources will affect there movement patterns. That doesn't mean we should all go set up treestands in every corner of a corn field at the WMA. The most important point of all this is that, by closing the secondary roads, all you are doing is restricting the areas the true hunters and law abiding sportsmen have to enjoy. The cheating, law breaking poachers are still going to drive up and down those roads that are closed. Just to prove my point, If you were there at anytime near the end of hunting season over the last 3 years you would have seen the tire tracks on all the foot path roads, and the staff has and will confirm that guys drive through the fields and foot travel roads so much that it looks like someone had mowed it with a finish cutting mower. This is the reason for closing all the roads!! Come on, It's not fair or well thought out to punish the masses who follow the rules and love spending their free time recreating there.
Conclusion:
As per reason #1 there is a now a reduction by close to 75% of the huntable areas at Cheatham do to the road closures. While this would enable TWRA staff to regulate and enforce rules, it certainly would create a safety concern as hunters will be hunting on top of each other. We certainly will be hiking through where others are hunting un-be known to us. The pressure we will be putting in these confined areas will certainly drive the animals back in further, making it even harder to harvest an animal. Our overall hunting experience at Cheatham will be greatly diminished due to the lack of privacy from other hunters, and the distances we will have to travel by foot to get to an area. (I can't see myself coming back after this year as long as this rule is in place). To add to my angle of the art of deer hunting, there are a great many details and challenges to hunting the whitetailed deer in forestland. Some say this is one of the most challenging environments to hunt in. However, to those whom develop a keen eye to the sign and variables that matter most, there may be nothing more enjoyable and rewarding than hunting deer in the mature hardwood forests. A lot of the variables have to do with scouting the terrain, finding travel patterns, and hunting in locations when the wind is favorable. If I want to hunt a certain place due to prevailing winds or travel corridors, but the only way to get there is to walk 2 miles down a perfectly good road before I have to hike another ½ mile into the woods, all the while packing a 30lb. tree stand, weapon and pack; I might as well take up golf. Now, I may have been able to do that when I was a young man, but those days have long since passed. Reality is I won't be able to hunt and follow my outdoorsman instincts in the places I feel will offer the best chances at success given the new logistical confines of this rule.
As per #2, who's to say that everyone wants to hunt the food plots, fields, and ridges right off the main roads? Shouldn't I be able to decide the places I want to hunt, and be afforded the same access to those areas as the guys who want to hunt the ridges and fields?
As per #3, This is just backwards thinking in my opinion. I am certainly paying a high price for the transgressions of others whom choose to break the rules. Maybe a better idea would be to post signs showing punishable by $500 fine if found driving vehicles on foot travel paths or off of maintained roads.
When did the hunters and outdoors people who this new rule will affect get to have there voice heard before the decision was made to do this? Since we weren't given notice prior to hunting season or given due process, shouldn't this rule at the least be shelved until due process is afforded to those it affects? I don't believe there to be any environmental impacts and concerns pertaining to the well being of the ecosystem that would make this rule to be put in place as a preventative measure.
Those that are employed by the TWRA and the outdoorsmen of this state should always remain allies. We share common goals and a love of the outdoors. We will not always see eye to eye on issues, but if forward thinking common sense prevails we will always have the great state of Tennessee's resources to enjoy for generations past and long into the future.
My hope is that this letter finds someone with open ears and an aggressive nature to uphold his or her civic duty to protect the Tennessee tax payers and outdoorsmen & womens best interests.
Sincerely,
Disappointed Tennessee resident and Outdoorsman
) and started going out in the woods alongside my dad deer hunting as long as I can remember up there. If Cheatham WMA thinks they have anything remotely approaching problems compared to where I moved from heaven forbid they actually get a serious amount of trouble to deal with. Michigan hunters probably harvest more deer every year than the number of total hunters that exist in Tennessee each year. When talking about public land up there compared to the size of Cheatham it is not even in the same universe. Cheatham is a tiny piece of ground comparably. Very tiny. And the current staff claims it cannot handle it?? The ratio of wildlife agents to acres in Michigan is stretched way thinner than anything even close down here in Tennessee. Closing down available land due to a staffing issue hardly seems like a plausible reason. My point being that there is already an extreme shortage of available PUBLIC land for Tennessee hunters. Even with the gates open at Cheatham, it took some work and time to find those out of the way spots that would be safe for me and my kids while still being respectful of other hunters and the areas they choose to hunt. Granted, nowhere near the amount of pressure up in MI. That is something that most folks down here would not believe or comprehend. But to take one of the few tracts of PUBLIC land available and shut most of it down is hard to even fathom a wildlife department or manager doing. 
