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It was a day long awaited in Houston County, but it finally arrived. Flat Creek PFA is now open. Former Georgia Representative Larry Walker said at the opening ceremony that at one time he wondered if he would live long enough to see the PFA opened, since it was talked about, and then planned for…
In tough economic times, decreased revenues at the state level have trickled down. A lack of funding is putting a squeeze on DNR, and the latest spending cut is mandatory furloughs for all DNR employees, except for employees with the Environmental Protection Division (EPD). DNR Commissioner Chris Clark said his department is looking at a…
The catch-and-release purists might want to take a seat for this one… On May 14, a Douglas angler caught a largemouth bass from a 50-acre Jeff Davis County farm pond that pulled a set of hand-held digital scales to 18-lbs., 8-ozs. If certified scales had taken that weight, there would be a new No. 2…
In late 2006, Congress passed a significantly strengthened Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management and Conservation Act, the overriding piece of legislation that guides federal fisheries management. Among other progressive provisions, the new law required managers to end overfishing by 2010. Only a year later, a stock assessment for South Atlantic red snapper, the first modern stock assessment…
This week DNR Law Enforcement busted up an extensive poaching ring in Dodge and Laurens counties and served seven individuals with warrants on 113 poaching-related charges. “In my 28 years with DNR Law Enforcement, I have worked a lot of cases, and I have never seen anything like it,” said Section Supervisor Sgt. Keith Byers.…
When DNR enforcement officers began looking closer at two men charged with turkey-related violations in south Georgia, it sparked an investigation that could bust up wide-spread illegal-hunting activities in and around Dodge and Laurens counties. On April 18, Ranger Johnny Ashe charged William Stacy Jones, of Eastman, with possession of illegally taken wildlife and hunting…
It may not be as bad as originally expected, but the WMA cuts settled on by the Wildlife Resources Division (WRD) are significant — approximately 51,000 acres on three and a half areas, said Mark Whitney, WRD’s Chief of Game Management. Sportsmen should be upset by any cuts to services provided by WRD to hunters…
On April 3, Eastanollee’s Terry McConnell caught a Lake Russell striper that pulled a set of certified propane scales to 63 1/4 pounds. That translates to 63-lbs., 4-ozs., which would beat the current Georgia state record. However, because the scales did not read in 1-oz. graduations, Georgia DNR may not accept Terry’s fish as the…
While the budget news for sportsmen could have been worse, the reality of losing up to a half-dozen Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) is starting to sink in, and rumors of which WMAs will close are spreading through local communities. Dan Forster, director of the Wildlife Resources Division (WRD), said he could not yet identify which…
About 200 hunters packed a recent Gilmer County meeting, upset over what they heard were the county commission’s intentions for the Cartecay Tract, a state-owned property east of Ellijay managed by WRD as a WMA. While some may have had hopes to develop the Cartecay Tract with more park-like features, hunters had other ideas, and…