The Wildlife Resources Agency is scheduled to deliver recommendations for the 2008-2009 seasons when the Wildlife Resources Commission meets in regular session on Wednesday at the Ray Bell Building in Nashville.
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Chief of Wildlife Greg Wathen, Assistant Chief of Wildlife Ed Warr, Tim White, Gray Anderson and Daryl Ratajczak will deliver the agency's recommendations to the governing board. The commission will then have a month to ponder the recommendations before setting the 2008-2009 seasons at its May meeting in five weeks.
TWRA accepted public recommendations for the season-setting process earlier this year. While most of the changes that will be recommended to the commission next week have already been finalized, the agency does not make those recommendations public until the commission meeting. And while some years see some recommendations ooze into the database of public knowledge before the commission meeting arrives, mum has been largely the word so far this year.
One thing some hunters thought might emerge as a hot-button topic this year is the Telecheck system — similar to systems used in Alabama and Kentucky — for checking in big game animals. The system allows hunters to telephone their kills to TWRA rather than making a physical appearance at a checking station.
However, hunters shouldn't expect that change this spring, according to Ratajczak, the agency's big game coordinator.
"We have considered [the telephone system] in-depth," Ratajczak said in a TnDeer.Com forum discussion. "For the time being, our current system outperforms all other methods in financial costs, administrative costs, data collection and law enforcement capabilities."
Another issue that has received much discussion among hunters involves potential changes to the muzzleloader season. Currently, the season opens on Saturday and closes the following Friday. The season is either sex in most of the state, but is buck-only in East Tennessee (Unit B) the final two days of the season.
This spring marks the 10-year anniversary of one of the most explosive series of season-setting meetings ever by TWRC. It began in April 1998 when TWRA biologists recommended Tennessee's almost unmanaged buck limits — which allowed most hunters to kill a dozen or more if possible — to be reduced to six per year. TWRC took it a step further and reduced the buck limit to two per year. The following year, 1999, the commission increased the limit to three. However, it was later lowered to two once more in Unit B.