Letters To The Editor – February 2022

Georgia’s Pre-Season Turkey Thoughts

Dear GON,

I am OK with changes that preserve our turkey population (reducing season limit, reducing daily limit, etc.) I am also OK with changes that apply to EVERYONE, but we all know the best turkey hunting is the first week. Having two different regular season openers (one on private land and one on public land) is like only allowing certain people to hunt deer during the rut. REALLY?  

This was a horrible decision. The DNR folks must have high-powered friends with private land. Having two different openers is unfair. Isn’t the DNR supposed to manage our resources for all of us?

Scott Biondich, Alpharetta

Dear GON,

I’d like to vent about the turkey situation. I have been hunting in Stewart and Webster counties since the early 90s and seen some big changes to the land. 

Some think the turkey regulation changes have come because hunters are damaging the turkey population, but this just isn’t true. I’ve witnessed the damage done by logging companies when they come in and wipe out hundreds upon hundreds of acres and leave huge piles of wood scrap and trash. They literally leave the land  uninhabitable. It’s a huge barren of waste land that will take years to decompose.

Also in the mid 2000s, the hogs started invading and taking over because corn became legal for deer hunting. Unfortunately the only thing that has grown as a result of corn is hogs. 

The turkeys still have to deal with their normal predators—coyotes, coons and opossums—but now they have to deal with a barren wasteland and an abundance of hogs. 

So instead of hurting the integrity of the hunter, lets face the real problems. Why can’t loggers grind their piles of wood or burn it? What if they were required to plant a CRP field in order to leave something for the wildlife? Maybe place a bounty on hogs like they did coyotes years ago?

In this area there is a small handful of people who still turkey hunt and they can barely find a turkey across thousands of acres of leased land that has been logged. At one point in the 90s, there were turkeys in every direction. Now when you walk into this desert waste land the only thing you see is trash and swine sign. So where do we go from here?

Charles Ligon, Richland

GON Social

GON Facebook: Tyler Rehberg sent this in: “Me and my 4-year-old son Thomas Rehberg with a bobcat he caught in Lowndes County. The picture with the gray fox is my youngest son (1 1/2 year old) Talon Rehberg.” Nice hat, Tyler!

GON Twitter: Jared Griffis tweeted, “My main man @CalebGriffis4 closed out our hunting season on a positive note! #DoeDown @Realtree @GONMagazine.”

GON Instagram: Matt Edwards, of Buckhead, with a trophy trout caught from the Toccoa River in May using a fly rod.