# NC Hunters--Please Oppose Senate Bill 79



## Sneaky (Oct 21, 2003)

Please read.. Need your help to turn down this Bill! 

Sent: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 8:55 AM
Subject: NCBA eNews: ATTENTION!!! Senate Bill #79

Date: February 9, 2007

To: NCBA Members, Officers..

A state Senator, Jerry Tillman, who lives in Randolph County, has introduced a bill (S-79) into the NC Senate to extend the deer (gun) season by two weeks.. one week at the beginning and one at the end of the present gun seasons statewide. He has also proposed removing all deer bag limits statewide. NCWRC Executive Director Dick Hamilton has contacted us and asked for our assistance in mounting a massive mail and/or email campaign to request the legislators that have signed onto this bill.. to drop their support of it. A sample letter to send to these senators is shown below. You may revise it as necessary before sending anything. Director Hamilton says our message should be 'soft' and polite, and simply request that they drop their support of the bill.. for reasons mentioned in the letter below. Copy and paste the letter ONLY.! . and email or U.S. Mail it to all senators on this list.. specially to those that represent YOUR district. 

Here's a list of senators and their email addresses. You can get their residential mailing address from the NC General Assembly website if you wish to send a letter via U.S. Mail. We request you act quickly on this matter as possible before any further action and/or support is gathered on it from other legislators..
Thank You,
Ramon Bell
President, NCBA and
Tommy Kimball, NCBA Legislative Chairman

Senator's Name Email County
Jerry W. Tillman [email protected] Montgomery, Randolph
Tom Apodaca [email protected] Buncombe,Henderson,Polk
Bob Atwater [email protected] Chatham,Durham,Lee
Stan Bingham [email protected] Davidson,Guilford
Harris Blake [email protected] Harnett,Moore
Julia Boseman [email protected] New Hanover
Andrew C. Brock [email protected] Davie, Rowan
Harry Brown [email protected] Jones, Onslow
Peter Brunstetter [email protected] Forsyth
Don East [email protected] Alleghany,Stokes,Surry,Yadkin 
James Forrester [email protected] Gaston,Iredell,Lincoln
Eddie Goodall [email protected] Mecklenburg,Union
Fletcher Hartsell, Jr. [email protected] Cabarrus, Iredell
Robert Pittenger [email protected] Mecklenburg
David Weinstein [email protected] Hoke, Robeson 

Below is the "sample" letter... Delete all info above this line before sending or mailing any messages. Be sure to sign YOUR name to the letter below..
**************************************************
Dear Senator,

Senate Bill 79, which you have signed, would extend the deer season in all of NC for two weeks and eliminate the bag limit on deer for three years. This is not progressive legislation. We appeal to you to drop this bill. 

The Wildlife Resources Commission has already proposed unlimited "bonus" (antlerless) deer tags for next year, 2007-08 They have also proposed a special "Urban Deer Season" that municipalities may utilize at their individual option, along with other innovative deer and wildlife management proposals for the 2007-08 hunting seasons.

For many years, the Wildlife Resources Commission has been given regulatory authority to manage the deer resource through seasons and bag limits, and they do a very good job. They are our wildlife management professionals. The Wildlife Commission adjusts the regulations every year in different areas of the state based upon the need to harvest and manage the herd relative to its habitat and other interests. Proposed changes are based upon carefully recorded and analyzed data collected from the deer herd and analyzed by wildlife biologists. The proposals are taken to hearings across the state where the interested public can hear them first hand and have input into their consideration. This system works very well and would be seriously disrupted by legislative intervention. 

As a lifelong hunter, I request you to please reconsider your support for this unsound approach to deer management. 

Sincerely,

Type in Your Name
Address.. 
Phone Number(s)


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## BogeyMan (Feb 11, 2004)

Ttt


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## kraven (Jan 25, 2006)

*Read this NC hunters*

Having interviewed a lot of the interested parties in this matter, including Sen. Tillman (the author of the bill) and Ramon Bell of the North Carolina Bowhunters Association, I've uncovered a lot about the situation. 

Senator Tillman told me yesterday in a phone interview that the piedmont and coastal regions have suffered an increase in traffic accidents and fatalities because of the deer overpopulation in that part of the state. Also directly attributed to the overpopulated whitetail deer is over 130 million dollars in property damage. 
Tillman's bill is an attempt to help the constituency he represents by trying to do something about the herd that involves sportsmen. 
A hunter himself, Tillman amended the bill to accommodate the hunters who contacted him in opposition to the bill by changing the wording to include only antlerless deer and reduce the extension of rifle season from 2 weeks to 1. 
A lot of people still don't think that increasing the season or losing limits on antlerless deer is the answer. Ramon Bell made the point to me that removing limits statewide may not do anything because so many sportsmen either don't have time to harvest and process more deer or choose not to do so. So relaxing the laws becomes more of a political gesture than a solution. 
The biggest concern on both sides is about the NC WRC (Wildlife resources commission) and whether or not it is doing the job as well as it could. 
Most hunters feel that politicians shouldn't be poking their nose in the WRC's business, and politicians like Tillman think that it's time that Raleigh gave them a little help since the population has exploded while the WRC was minding the store. 

So, this isn't a particularly simple issue that can be solved with a letter writing campaign and a few posts. NC hunters need to contact their Senators and let their opinions be known about this issue. But, first we need all the information. 
I've written a lengthy article and after the committee votes on this issue today, I'll be including that information (if it passes, if it doesn't pass then it's a non issue) in any articles I write for the media and will link to them here. If I can get any outdoor sections to care about anything besides the latest hiking trends, that is. 
This isn't an easy fix, people. It's wildlife versus people and we all know what happens when that situation rolls around. 
This is going to require a well thought out solution.
Cheers.
Andrew White


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## kraven (Jan 25, 2006)

Correction: The bill is going to its second reading in the State and Local committee, not up for a vote. Though, it will have to get out of committee.


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## kraven (Jan 25, 2006)

The bill moved committees today. Now it's in the agriculture, environmental, etc committee and awaiting approval there. 

Won't be long and the Senate will be voting on it.


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## Rye77 (Feb 4, 2006)

Tillmans explination is unacceptable to me when you still have counties in the East that are on a conservative doe harvest (first and last week +bow season) This is absurd! I've written several emails and made a few calls to to let my position on this be known. They need to open the season on the counties in the east before they start opening up the bag limit. 

Rye


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## Rye77 (Feb 4, 2006)

Forgot to add, these are the same people that refused to allow us to hunt on Sundays during the regular season. What kind of logic is this putting forth? Kill more deer PLEASE! Just dont' do it on a sunday.

Rye


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## ban_t (Dec 27, 2005)

Wow What is your local DNR say. Do they have any say on Deer Populations. Can there be a special bonus tag for that region. It is always a problem with deer /people only when it interfers with their life(poeple). 
Icould write a letter but I live in Indy. but have seen some things like that also.

You could also try posting on other pages like the NAHC in the local NC section for more contact with people in your area.
Wish I could help more I have freinds in that area and will call them also.


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## archertom (Oct 19, 2006)

I live in an Eastern North Carolina County where the bag limit is 6 deer a year. Out of the 6 at least 2 of them have to be does. Even with a 6 deer bag limit the deer population is exploding here. I know alot of men and women who would like to hunt, but hunting land is getting harder to come by, and saturdays are the only free time most people have to hunt. I voted on an online pole for sunday hunting. If they want to control the population of deer, then more land needs to be avalible for hunting activities. Setting unrestricted bag limits isn't going to solve the problem if people don't have a place to go and hunt, and Saturday is the only day off a week that they can do it on, most people I know are working 6 days a week now just to make ends meet.


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## kraven (Jan 25, 2006)

*March 25th, Asheville Citizen-Times*

Here's the article I wrote for the Citizen-Times regarding the matter. I tried to stay balanced without villifying Tillman, since I do believe that he means well and is genuinely interested in the health and welfare of his constituency.


Bill would change deer limit
Lawmakers, sportsmen also debate extending season to control population
by Andrew White, Special to the Citizen-Times
published March 25, 2007 12:15 am
Read all 10 comments »
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A proposed bill in the state Senate would end statewide bag limits for antlerless whitetail deer during rifle season and extend the season one week.

Sportsmen and politicians are split on the issue, torn between concern for the welfare of whitetail deer and dealing with overpopulation of deer in the Piedmont and coastal regions.
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“This bill was created because of an increase in automobile accidents, fatalities and over $130 million in property damage due to deer in the Piedmont and Coastal regions,” said Sen. Jerry Tillman, R-Randolph, who introduced the bill, S79. “I’m a deer hunter myself … but we have a real problem down here.”

Ramon Bell, president of the N.C. Bowhunters Association, says that politicians simply aren’t the right people to handle the issue of deer population.

“The Wildlife Resources Commission can easily change seasons from year to year as needed in various areas of the state. I’m afraid that legislative interference would only serve to stymie the WRC’s ability to effectively manage wildlife populations statewide.”

“I agree with the premise of the bill as long as we do a good job of monitoring the deer population,” said Sen. Steve Goss, D-Alexander. “I can support the bill.”

Sen. John Snow, a Democrat who represents parts of Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain and Transylvania counties, says he cannot.

“I believe the legislature should not override the efforts of the Wildlife Resource Commission’s trained wildlife biologists by micromanaging,” Snow said. “Likewise, removal of bag limits and extending the rifle season in areas such as the mountains, where there is not an overpopulation of deer, would be extremely detrimental to the health and viability of the deer herd.”

Richard Hamilton, director of the Wildlife Resources Commission, says Tillman’s bill was written out of good intentions, but legislation isn’t the right tool to manage wildlife, especially in the mountains.

“We’ve worked hard to preserve and even bring back wildlife like deer in the mountains, and this law could really damage the western part of the state’s herd,” Hamilton said.

On Thursday, the bill was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources for consideration.
end

link:
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770324066


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## Yellowfin (Mar 6, 2007)

I wonder why the rest of the country doesn't follow the pattern here in Alabama where you can get one doe and one buck every day of the season from Nov 18 to Jan 31st. Are the legislators too squeamish elsewhere?


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## kraven (Jan 25, 2006)

Yellowfin,
Our state doesn't have the same deer population density throughout its entirety. A law that would allow that in the the east would decimate the population in the mountains where I hunt and live (though, for me they're the same thing). 
Our WRC is already implementing programs to control population growth in the East and Piedmont areas.


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