Posts by Steve Burch

The results of the first deer hunt at Hard Labor Creek State Park are in, and these results are both stunning and depressing. The results are simple. In only two days of hunting, 207 hunters took 214 deer. As stunning as those results are, the story is actually even more incredible. The number of hunters was…

On page 38 of this issue you will find a letter from DNR Commissioner Noel Holcomb responding to an article that appeared in the October issue of GON critical of the funding recommendations made by the DNR. When you read the letter, you will notice a personal nature to it. That is a recognition of a…

There are special times when everything fits exactly right for things to work out, and I seem to have once again been extremely lucky. Now there is real hope for sportsmen. Two issues have brought this hope into focus. The first is the action of the Georgia House of Representatives Special Committee on supplemental feeding,…

Hunting season in Georgia is just beginning this year and we should note this beginning because this may be last time hunting season begins this way again. There is a House study committee holding hearings about whether hunting over feed carried to the field is legal for deer. If it is legal for deer, then…

There has been a small earthquake in northwest Georgia that may have a significant impact on deer hunting all over Georgia. The old Inland and Bowater timber lands are now under management by Timberland Investment Resources. They are leaseing the tracts to the highest bidder. This is a new and very unsettling change to Georgia…

There is a storm coming and we have to prepare for it now. The coming storm is an attack by anti-hunters on hunters and hunting right here in Georgia. The storm is scheduled to hit about 16 months from now. The cause of this storm is home-grown. State Senator Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) has spear-headed a…

Conventional wisdom suggests that if you do anything positive to promote hunting in an urban setting, you are bound to fail. The antis will come out and shout you down. Conventional wisdom has some holes in it. If you are a sportsman in Georgia, you just had a positive month. May was good. I think…

It is amazing to think of the efforts sportsmen have gone to, and the positive results that appear to be coming from those efforts. The world is different, the world is better, because sportsmen showed up, stood up, and spoke up. Let me give you four examples. The National Park Service (NPS) administers the Chattahoochee…