Ducaholic wrote:Darren wrote:Rick wrote:The sky is falling, the sky is falling!!!
You and I will be long gone when large parcels of well managed, particularly in terms of pressure, private Louisiana habitat quits holding ducks.
Public hunting land management is a far less effective draw, because as our head upland bird manager once said of quail, "Every time you create a public land covey, you also create two more public land hunters with four more dogs."
If it's huntable habitat, didn't notice where it might have said "refuge use only, no hunting", then Rick's on point, public land yahoos will be shoulder to shoulder in there and pressure will counteract the initial draw.
As you know that's already the case in a lot of areas. That does not mean we can't or shouldn't do more on public land to restore it and make it as attractive to waterfowl as it once was. Even if that means more hunting restrictions namely days and time allowed in the field.
Exactly zero people will support any such measures if it results in reduced opportunity (e.g. days afield), that's first and foremost. Hell we hardly got away with (and likely never will again) opening on a Friday in an effort to boost the effectiveness and hunt quality of the entire teal season last year (regardless of how it ended up turning out). People whined about losing ONE DAY of opportunity, and that didn't even apply to those that could take off. So best of luck improving habitat but then saying can't hunt it as much, drawing a distinct line in the sand.
I'd counteract that with areas where hunters are able to make a CHOICE, such as our limited access areas on state WMAs......no one's saying you can't hunt there, you're just going to have to make a choice whether you're willing to put in a little extra effort to reap the rewards. But in that case hunt opportunity, save for the handicapped or elderly, is not reduced.
While we're on this and know they're in the background from previous discussions, through a friend that apparently visits regularly, recently came across some "hero shots" of hunts from Little Pecan last season......piles and piles of those long birds with the red/brown "chocolate" heads with white trim and long pointy tail, and those others so many talk about that don't exist in Louisiana, allegedly, with the iridescent solid green heads, yellow bill, curly black feathers at the rump.
Those who can will make the referenced habitat upgrades and then leave it up to themselves to manage pressure instead of being yahoos and invading it day after day. And they're steadily being rewarded......... To contrast, marginally decent coastal habitat in Delacroix area, though "private" is degraded by the yahoos that joy ride all day in mud boats just to see the birds take flight en mass. Can we not work to combat that as another angle in preserving (and improving) what habitat we DO have? Dave? What's the FFL's stance on that?