State natural areas, state parks and other states owned land.

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timberjack86

timberjack86

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Polk County
Was out driving around and passed a state natural area with no hunting signs. Why not? The state keeps going up on our License fees why not open up some of these areas to hunt. At least bow hunt some of these areas. Look at Savage Gulf, South Cumberland and piney falls state natural area.
Piney falls over 800 acres
https://www.tn.gov/environment/prog...st-region/east-region-/na-na-piney-falls.htmlSavage Gulf 19,000 acres!
https://tnstateparks.com/parks/savage-gulfSouth Cumberland 12,000 acres!
https://tnstateparks.com/parks/south-cumberlandHow would we lobby the state to allow hunting on these large tracks of land?
 
There's a big tract in my county off limits as well due to being a State Natural Area. It still gets hunted plenty, just not legal. I have brought this up with my TWRA regional office and they basically don't have an answer. The similar scenario I use is Georgia having an expansive state park hunting program. There's no reason we can't as well on properties like these. There's no reason we can't shut down state parks and the like for 2-3 day hunts either. The SNA in my county is over 3,000 acres of remote property with no tourist activities. The state departments just need to work together.
 
PickettSFHunter said:
There's a big tract in my county off limits as well due to being a State Natural Area. It still gets hunted plenty, just not legal. I have brought this up with my TWRA regional office and they basically don't have an answer. The similar scenario I use is Georgia having an expansive state park hunting program. There's no reason we can't as well on properties like these. There's no reason we can't shut down state parks and the like for 2-3 day hunts either. The SNA in my county is over 3,000 acres of remote property with no tourist activities. The state departments just need to work together.
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MY buddy had an outstanding hunt on a Georgia state park this past season and your absolutely right there's no reason why we can do that in TN. TN public land sucks compared to other states. Especially Georgia. Heck they at least plant a little something in the openings on their wmas. There's more land than what I originally listed but those three properties would really add something special to public land hunting in TN.
 
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The state park system also doesn't have the manpower to police all the natural areas.

Here is an idea… I love state parks, but you could make a 10-20 acre state park, surrounded by 3000 acres of state forest that you allow hunting on. It would allow TWRA to police the forest area, but still allow for the park activities
 
State parks and natural area get zero dollars from hunting license sales. I agree hunting would be great at some state parks and natural areas.
 
Rackseeker said:
Savage Gulf use to give out a few permits. We use to go and wait in line all night to get a permit. Killed a really nice 8pt one year. The only access was off Cherry Branch road across private property.
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Yes
Rackseeker said:
Savage Gulf use to give out a few permits. We use to go and wait in line all night to get a permit. Killed a really nice 8pt one year. The only access was off Cherry Branch road across private property.
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I remember goin out there for the permit, was told a tree hugger took over running the ground and stopped all hunting.
 
GA state park hunts are popular and require some preference points. They just shut the park down for 2-3 days during middle of the week. They have a safety briefing and encourage shooting does. Some nice bucks get killed and everybody is happy.

I'm afraid over browsing has already happened in Davy Crockett state park.
 
Antler Daddy said:
GA state park hunts are popular and require some preference points. They just shut the park down for 2-3 days during middle of the week. They have a safety briefing and encourage shooting does. Some nice bucks get killed and everybody is happy.

I'm afraid over browsing has already happened in Davy Crockett state park.
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I can't imagine that weekdays after leaf drop would be busy times in our parks. Seems like November deer hunts would be a great way to keep the rooms and campgrounds full
 
I think most State Parks now have hiking /biking trails and workout stations..many have horse trails now as well.

So shutting the park down too allow hunting would be a must..
Unless the Government opens season on the elderly again..🤬

But as mentioned, many have Richard Crainum rangers that aren't 2 Amendment friendly…

More than once has the State Parks stopped shooting events , some that had taken place there for years..🥴

Apparently the Head Ranger at each individual park makes the call.. Or at least that how it appears too me..🤷‍♂️
 
The company I work for does work for the state parks and natural areas. I spoke to someone about this at TDEC several years ago. The person was not opposed to having hunting in the natural areas and actually felt it was good for the control of deer and other wildlife in the areas. The issue they have is the few places they have allowed hunting they have constantly had issues with the "locals" as they called it baiting for deer, hunting animals not approved to be hunted in the natural areas, using guns in archery only, building permanent tree stands, leaving trash in the woods (could be hikers but who would leave a bunch of AA in the woods other than a hunter checking a game camera) were the examples they gave. So basically the people that feel like they are above the rules and can do whatever they want have ruined it for the rest of us. From talking to them I also got the feeling they would be perfectly fine shutting all natural areas down to hunting and all it would take is a couple of bad events or instances to happen for them to do that.
 
JN said:
The company I work for does work for the state parks and natural areas. I spoke to someone about this at TDEC several years ago. The person was not opposed to having hunting in the natural areas and actually felt it was good for the control of deer and other wildlife in the areas. The issue they have is the few places they have allowed hunting they have constantly had issues with the "locals" as they called it baiting for deer, hunting animals not approved to be hunted in the natural areas, using guns in archery only, building permanent tree stands, leaving trash in the woods (could be hikers but who would leave a bunch of AA in the woods other than a hunter checking a game camera) were the examples they gave. So basically the people that feel like they are above the rules and can do whatever they want have ruined it for the rest of us. From talking to them I also got the feeling they would be perfectly fine shutting all natural areas down to hunting and all it would take is a couple of bad events or instances to happen for them to do that.
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So basically trashing them like WMAs…
 
JN said:
The company I work for does work for the state parks and natural areas. I spoke to someone about this at TDEC several years ago. The person was not opposed to having hunting in the natural areas and actually felt it was good for the control of deer and other wildlife in the areas. The issue they have is the few places they have allowed hunting they have constantly had issues with the "locals" as they called it baiting for deer, hunting animals not approved to be hunted in the natural areas, using guns in archery only, building permanent tree stands, leaving trash in the woods (could be hikers but who would leave a bunch of AA in the woods other than a hunter checking a game camera) were the examples they gave. So basically the people that feel like they are above the rules and can do whatever they want have ruined it for the rest of us. From talking to them I also got the feeling they would be perfectly fine shutting all natural areas down to hunting and all it would take is a couple of bad events or instances to happen for them to do that.
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Instead of controlling the public lands with their wildlife officials so the public can access these areas they spend their time trying to patrol private landowners. Sounds like a great idea, shut the public hunting down because of a few bad apples and focus on private property owners.
 

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