I inquired yesterday about increasing public usage and what movement, actions, plans SCNDR has for increasing this under utilized resource as to waterfowl CAT 1s and public draw hunts.
I received this today from the Deputy Director of Fisheries and Wildlife :
Hey David,
We are continuously working to expand hunting opportunities on our Cat 1s. Our primary focus over the past couple of years has been to repair and enhance impoundments so that we have more available locations under management for hunting. Just this past year, we sprayed a large amount of acreage at SCR to reclaim the habitat from our inability to manage specific impoundments while they were breached. We had a couple of years during the storms and aftermaths that we had to draw fewer hunters simply because we could not control the water in the impoundments. We have now recovered from that and are able to go back to what our normal numbers were. In addition, we were able to begin draws on Samworth last year and have been able to continue that for this year. While it may seem slow, we have been working very hard, and I am delighted that are making great progress. Our goal is to continue to expand quality hunting opportunities on these areas.
I am also excited about what we are doing this year with the SC Wildlife Partnership. By working with this new organization and partnering with private landowners, we are able to offer private land waterfowl hunting opportunities to our draw hunt applicants while they gain preference points in our system. It doesn’t cost the hunter anything and it gives him/her an opportunity to hunt while they wait to get drawn in our system. I am extremely hopeful this will be successful and am grateful to the private landowners for being so generous!
In the meantime, we are working to obtain more waterfowl hunting areas and obtain the resources we need to expand hunting opportunities on our existing areas.
Hope you are doing well and finding some time to enjoy the woods during the nice cool snap!
Emily
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