Editorial Opinion – April 2025

If you follow mainstream news, the drum beat of national politics never ends—budgets, departments, confirmation hearings, waste, fraud, taxes, tariffs and Trump… but you’re not going to hear anything about where the crappie are biting or whether there will be any turkeys willing to gobble this spring. At GON, we try to leave national politics to those other folks. Stories about local fur and fin suits us better. However, we do try to keep up with Georgia politics when it might impact fur, fin and those of us passionate about chasing it.

The Georgia Legislature is in session in Atlanta. That you haven’t heard much about it this year is actually fantastic news. Quiet at the Georgia Capitol is generally positive for sportsmen and wildlife—no news is good news.

In general, I prefer to be left alone. So, I begin my view of any proposed new law or new regulation with a side-eye. At best. I am a firm believer that those in power too often feel like they have to do something… they have to try to fix something… and that happens through a new law or new regulation. That’s true in Washington at the federal level, it’s true in Atlanta at the state level, and it’s true at your local county commission meeting, and for those of you living in a nightmare—true for your local homeowner’s association.

What gets glossed over in “doing good” is that every new law or regulation has an impact on someone, or lots of someones. As of yet, no politician has introduced my proposal for a new law. It’s quite simple. For every new law or regulation, before it can even be considered, two old unnecessary laws or regulations must be rescinded.

Meanwhile, there are some proposals at the Gold Dome being considered by our legislators this year…

House Bill 451: Everything I said about just being left alone and how no new laws should be passed… forget all that when it comes to HB 451. If passed, this would allow local school boards the option to offer hunting safety education for grades 6 through 12, taught by certified instructors. Kids could get their hunter safety certification in school. Offering it would be optional for local school boards, and obviously some wouldn’t do it, but I bet quite a few rural schools would offer it, removing a hurdle for new hunters. I’m in favor of smoothing out friction for new folks getting involved in hunting, and I think HB 451 would do just that. It passed the House by a vote of 159 to 16. I’ve been told this legislation originally came from Rep. Chas Cannon, of Moultrie, who is a new co-chair of the Sportsman’s Caucus in the House. Chas played football at West Point—the U.S. Military Academy—then served as an officer in the U.S. Army and was combat deployed three times to Iraq, later had top-secret Pentagon clearance working in D.C., before returning home to Colquitt County. Good bill from a statesmen with an impressive bio.

House Bill 432: This would add a turkey permit to our license requirements. The latest version of HB 432 states that a resident Georgia turkey permit would be free, but it would be $100 for non-residents. There’s belief that once this legislation is passed, the framework would be in place and resident turkey permits will cost $10, at least at some point. DNR would also design and sell collectible Georgia turkey stamps, which would be voluntary, not required to hunt turkeys in Georgia.

HB 432 passed the House by a vote of 166 to 1. The $100 non-resident turkey permit is basically a reaction to South Carolina and Florida having that in place—sounds kind of like those reciprocal tariffs they’re talking about in the national news. There’s also hope that it will provide more funding for turkey research in Georgia. My hope is that it doesn’t add friction that could exacerbate the dramatic decline in turkey hunter numbers here.

House Bill 443: This establishes a new recreational reef/migratory fish “license” with a $10 annual fee for residents and $20 annual fee for non-residents. HB 443 passed the House by a vote of 165 to 1. The goal and hope for HB 443 is that it could raise money for research and data to show that Georgia’s saltwater fish populations are in much better shape and should be managed differently than the “kitchen-sink” restrictive seasons in Southern Atlantic waters. Like our red snapper “season” that is open for a paltry three days. Alabama is a great example of good research and data demonstrating healthy populations, which led to more fishing opportunity.

Visit the Georgia General Assembly website to contact your legislators and monitor status of proposed bill at https://www.legis.ga.gov/