New hunting season dates approved

I like the July Aug. change. The rut will be on fire in the Glades and most people will stay home because of the heat. Not I, I'll be slinging arrows and dripping sweat.

:toast I'll be out there with ya!

Not trying to argue with you FLDXT. I was just shedding some light on the process and how things took place. You are entitled to your opinion and I have no problems with how you feel. However, I just wanted the record set straight on the how and why things transpired so that you knew for sure how it all went down. You can dislike the changes all you want to and that's okay. As I said before, not everyone will be happy with it, but the majority are very pleased. I just don't want you to blame the wrong folks or defend your beliefs on false information and incorrect assumptions. Sufice to say the decission was based on a large amount of scietific data, user satisfaction, and tremendous input from many and various user groups.

As far as getting seasons lengthened or adding days. If you look at the new regs, you will see we picked up 3 days of archery, stretched black powder to 14 days, increased crossbow to 5 days, and lengthened the overall season to 112 days. That's a big increase across the board. With the exception of the south zone, now zone A, The remainder of the zones will have no closed days or splits in the middle. The split was done by request of the majority of hunters in the new Zone A so that they could hunt both the late summer rut and again later into the season when it's cooler.

The problem we find in trying to increase the number of hunting days in various WMAs is that many are under the control of other agencies. FWC has to negotiate the season dates with those land managers and everything has to fall within the sideboards of the season dates. So for an area like Corbett which is run by SFWMD, the water Distric has the final say on the total number of days hunted and which days will be open. It's a very difficult task to coordinate all these areas, dates and hunts. You have to remember that hunting is only one of many activities that take place on many of these lands. There are a large number of non-consumptive users on those areas as well and we all have to share time.

Over It! It is not right and it will cost some people some nice deer but whatever.

You definitly can't change the laws but at least you can manage you and your buddies ranches the way you want to.