Video-SCDNR Cat 1 WMA MISMANAGEMENT

[mudflat]

Ducks=money>public land hunter

[coot nasty]

SC management sucks and they should open the refuge to be hunted. A damn duck will find a place to get away from pressure. Probably not SC ducks though because they are breed just like the ones that hangout behind flea markets. It’s just really sad how SC handles things here. When You go out of state and see it can be managed so much better.

[2thDoc]

What’s more astonishing:

Tax payers in SC wanting some limited access to properties they fund.

Or:

Humans thinking so strongly that God created wild animals so fragile that they need man to block off areas for them, feed them genetically modified row crops, so they’ll be safe for the winter.
Despite the fact these animals navigate survival, breeding, feeding, and migration without the aid of man and have done so since God created them.

In our in pompous thinking, we have forced them to be creatures they aren’t, by concentrating them in these “refuges” altering their natural behaviors, feeding them and making them lazy.

This is the part where you tell me without refuges and private bait fields they would cease to exist….

you do realize we kill them, right?

[swampknob]

You can duck hunt Savannah NWR. The impoundment's are however youth only via draw....and those have been cancelled for awhile due to ongoing dike work.

[fro]

Savannah NWR does not allow waterfowl hunting.

Actually, they do a youth waterfowl hunt. Three total I think

[Catdaddy]

Once they run all the ducks off the refuges, that crowd will spend the rest of their life hating the private land owner.

They even hate aunt Evelyn ,who doesn't allow hunting on the 200 acre beaver swamp she inherited. By Christmas the duck count is up to 800 and still rising. After every cold front the new ducks follow the local ducks back. They roost on some protected waters within 5-15 miles. They come and go before and after legal shooting times.

This crowd hates, refuges, private land owners, and especially aunt Evelyn.

Sent from my motorola edge plus 5G UW (2022) using Tapatalk

[Calibogue]

Actually, they do a youth waterfowl hunt. Three total I think

Hmmmm...... Didn't realize that.

[fro]

Hmmmm...... Didn't realize that.

Probably cause it's not very good...

[Duckman#1]

Might as well open it all up to the public. I mean it’s all about opportunity right ? Soon as that falls to its death like cat 1 then we can stop talking about it

[JABIII]

Might as well open it all up to the public. I mean it’s all about opportunity right ? Soon as that falls to its death like cat 1 then we can stop talking about it

Yep.

Maybe that ruddy shelduck is still hanging around...

[centurian]

Funny thing I hunted the upper Broad river and Tyger river for years and never saw another duck hunter killing plenty of ducks. Now most of the huntable areas are in WMA with limited, draw. or no hunting. There are more duck hunters these days than there are ducks in the SE and i dont see that changing.

[flopduster]

I stepped 50ft into a refuge in Kansas and had the best hunt I’ve ever had. No idea I was even in a refuge, since it wasn’t marked. Local gendarmes had issue and said ignorance of the law was no excuse. Pretty sure refuge means refuge anywhere.

I’ve hunted several NWR out west, lots of them allow hunting in some areas and for certain species. Trump made more refuges offer some access.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[huntinghagen#12]

I stepped 50ft into a refuge in Kansas and had the best hunt I’ve ever had. No idea I was even in a refuge, since it wasn’t marked. Local gendarmes had issue and said ignorance of the law was no excuse. Pretty sure refuge means refuge anywhere.

I hunt refuge land 40+ days per season in multiple states.

[Rubberhead*]

I won't get into the management thing since I don't know anything about managing moist soil for waterfowl. But, I know how the lakes work so I want to say a few things...

The physical parameters and limitations of the system (ignoring local rain, evaporation, etc)

A) All the inflows into the Santee Cooper lakes system (Marion and Moultrie) come into Marion through the Congree/Saluda and Wateree rivers (the highest inflows I know of were around 140,000 cfs),
B) There are three ways for these inflows to get out of Marion 1) The Diversion Canal, 2) The Marion hydro (tiny only about 600cfs), and 3) Spilling through the Marion Dam
C) The only way significant inflows get into Lake Moultrie are through the Diversion Canal,
D) The only ways to get water out of Moultrie are through Jefferies Hydro (28,000 cfs max) and St. Stephen Hydro (24,500 cfs max),
E) The maximum through the Diversion Canal is about 30,000 cfs so Jefferies and St. Stephens can't be run at maximum for any length of time,
F) The only way to get water through the Diversion Canal is to have a differential between the elevations of Lakes Marion and Moultrie. Moultrie has to be about 2 feet lower than Marion in order to get 25,000 cfs flowing through the Diversion Canal (this is why Moultrie is so much lower than Marion during times of heavy inflows),
G) Water down the Santee = 1) Marion Hydro + 2) Spilling at Marion Dam + 3) St. Stephen Hydro + 4) local rain into the Santee watershed below Lake Marion,
H) Water down the Cooper = 1) Jefferies Hydro - Note: the Cooper River watershed is very small below Jefferies so there is very little flow from local rain below Moultrie.

Operational parameters:

1) It's the Corp. of Engineers that limits the water that Santee Cooper (the utility) can send water down the Cooper, not the FERC (to reduce the amount of dredging in Charleston Harbor),
2) By contract, Jefferies Hydro must average 4,500 cfs +/- 5% every week - the only exception is during times of drought when the Corp. of Engineers will allow a lower amount of water to be run through Jefferies,
3) Jefferies Hydro is never allowed by the Corp. of Engineers to exceed the 4,500 cfs average,
4) Santee Cooper can't, nor should they able to, run both St. Stephen (about 24,500 cfs max) and Jefferies hydros (about 28,000 cfs max) at the their maximum since the Diversion Canal was only designed for about 30,000 cfs.

So, what can be done to reduce the big water events in the area between Winyah and Cape Romain?
During significant spilling (say >10,000 cfs), St. Stephens should be limited to <3,000 cfs and Jefferies Hydro run at or near its maximum - this will shave 20,000 cfs of the top of every flood event in the lower Santee.

As I mentioned in G4 - there is significant additional inflows into the lower Santee during coastal rain events. I suspect, but don't know for sure, that development in these coastal areas has made this worse, maybe much worse. I know how to fix that but people won't like it...haha