Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 18, 1993 TAG: 9307180077
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
But that's changing.
The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has set a dove season for this fall that offers morning hunting for the majority of its length. Here's how it works:
Sept. 4-30 will have the traditional noon-to-sunset hunting hours.
Oct. 1-30 will have hunting extended to one-half hour before sunrise until sunset each day.
Dec. 27-Jan. 8 will have all-day hunting.
The modest number of dove days around Christmas and New Year's Day have been all-day hunting in the past, but that's never been the case in October.
It wasn't something the department's biologists recommended; rather, a couple of board members were anxious to try it, especially vice chairman Gerald Spates of Farmville.
"There has been no grass-roots support for all day," said Bob Duncan, chief of the department's game division. But, then, the department hasn't had the funds to poll hunters to see how they feel. A survey in North Carolina revealed that 56 percent of the hunters wanted day-long dove hunting; 36 percent wanted half-day.
"It is not going to adversely impact the resource," said Duncan. "It is not a biological problem; it has to do with other factors."
One of those factors, said Leon Turner, board member from Fincastle, is landowners' acceptance. Will landowners who tolerate hunters on their property in the afternoon also welcome them in the morning?
"The farmer at the place I hunt said he wasn't going to allow it," Turner said.
Malcom Wells of the Richmond Dove Hunters Association didn't like the idea, either. He said it would put pressure on the birds and compact the season into about a three-day shoot, after which the doves would be gone.
Turner cast the lone vote against it.
Turner, by the way, hadn't been scheduled to participate in the decision. He has served two terms on the board and is not eligible for reappointment. But Gov. Wilder has failed to appoint new members to the four slots open on the 11-member board, so Turner was called back to Richmond, and others were left wondering what the holdup is at the governor's office.
Julian Moore, a retired Roanoke school official, is expected to be appointed as Turner's replacement to represent the 6th District.
The extra hours of dove hunting won't be the only new wrinkle for hunters this fall. Also set was an early goose season, which will allow hunters to shoot for resident Canada geese during a Sept. 7-15 season in Albemarle, Caroline, Charles City, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Fluvanna, Goochland, Greene, Hanover, Henrico, James City, Loudoun, Louisa, Madison, New Kent, Orange, Prince William, Rappahannock, Spotsylvania, Stafford and York counties.
There are two types of Canada geese in Virginia, said Gary Costanzo, the waterfowl project leader for the game department. One migrates into Virginia after nesting in Canada. The other is a resident that hangs around all year.
The numbers of migratory birds are declining, while the resident birds' population is booming, with an estimated population of 35,000 that is causing damage to crops, golf courses and public parks.
"The main objective is to see if we can control the growth rate of this population and provide some hunting opportunities for our hunters," Costanzo said.
The season is expected to be over before the migratory geese arrive, he said.
Officials set a split woodcock season: Oct. 25-Nov. 20 and Dec. 22-Jan. 8. That is a week earlier opening and a week later closing than last season. The earlier start gives the woodcock and grouse seasons the same opening day.
A Sept. 11-Nov. 19 rail season and Oct 18-Jan. 31 snipe season were set.
Also approved was Sunday hunting on licensed shooting preserves where pen-raised game birds are released. That will mean 26 additional hunting days for shooting preserves.
"This will be a considerable financial boost to our commercial preserves, who are in dire need of the Sunday hunting to assist in operating at a profit," said Peter Easter, president of the Virginia Game Breeders and Hunting Preserve Association.
But one hunter-farmer said he hoped it wouldn't open the door to additional Sunday hunting.
Game animals, like people, need a day of rest, said Robert Woolfolk of Louisa.
by CNB