Wildlife Subcommittee Meeting, Wednesday @10;30AM....

[Calibogue]

Please, if you have an opinion on this, make your voice heard by attending the meeting in person or contacting the Subcommittee members directly to voice your concern.



The Wildlife Subcommittee of the House Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Environmental Affairs Committee will be meeting on Wednesday, January 17, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. in Room 410 of

the Blatt Building at the State House complex. On their agenda is H 4820, a bill which will amend turkey seasons (agenda attached).



The current version of that bill can be found here: https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess125...0_20240110.htm



If you support these changes to benefit turkey populations in South Carolina, you can go to the subcommittee meeting, sign up to speak and give a brief testimony regarding your position on the bill.



Another way to voice support is by calling or emailing Wildlife Subcommittee members or any of the members of the full Ag, Nat. Resources & Env. Affairs Committee. The membership of the committee can be found here https://www.scstatehouse.gov/Committ.../houseagri.php and by clicking on each member you will see their contact information and a link to send them a message (email through the website). You can also find legislator’s email addresses at this link https://services.statescape.com/Legi...South+Carolina



The Chairman of the committee is Representative William M. "Bill" Hixon. Rep. Hixon has been very supportive of the science, data, research, and discussions that have gone into the SCDNR recommendations. Any appreciation and respect that can be shown to him and other sponsors (Reps. Forrest, Hixon, Hayes, Chumley, Burns, Haddon, Magnuson, Chapman, and McDaniel) of the legislation for following the professional recommendations would go a long way to demonstrating the public support for substantive changes needed to improve the declining turkey populations in most of the State. These legislators need to get a better understanding of the amount of public support for change and the real declines in turkey numbers seen around most of South Carolina.



When contacting these legislators make sure to give them your name and let them know where you are from. At this point in the process, they are happy to hear from any resident of South Carolina, don’t feel like you can’t reach out to them if you don’t live in their district. They are dealing with a bill that effects all South Carolinians, so they want to hear from you. The time to contact your local representative is when the bill leaves committee and goes to a vote on the House floor. This will eventually show up in the Senate and at that time you can reach out to Senators in a similar fashion.



Wildlife Subcommittee:

Rep. Cal Forrest, Chairman

Rep. Heather Bauer

Rep. Daniel Gibson

Rep. David Hiott

Rep. Ryan McCabe


IT IS IMPORTANT THAT YOUR VOICE AND OPINION ARE HEARD, PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO REACH OUT TO THE WILDLIFE SUB-COMMITTEE AND YOUR REPRESENTATIVES!