This past weekend was the Alabama Youth Waterfowl Hunt. Who would of thought we'd be having balmy 70 degree weather. From my observations most of the ducks have left the valley.
Sunday evening Thomas and I were the last off the area and stopped and talked to the Biologist in charge of several North Alabama Waterfowl Management Areas (WMAs). Hunter reports were terrible. There were no ducks logged on Sunday and only a handful on Saturday.
During our conversation I learned that the lease the state has with TVA for the lands that comprise the WMAs has run out. The last lease, which ran for 30 years, expired three years ago and has not been renewed. They are going year to year with no formal agreement and plenty of disagreements on the terms of the proposed new lease. The way it was described to me is TVA wants to place restrictions in the lease that would make farming the land difficult for the state. For example no tilling greater than 6". Evidently the tilling restriction is stemming from TVA's archeologist who doesn't want to disrupt possible archeological sites. Also they want any spill that might occur, even if not the fault of the state, to be cleaned up by the state at the state's own expense. The whole thing sounds like a mess the way the biologist described it. I suspect in the end some agreement will be reached but am worried TVA will place more cost on the strapped state or more guidelines that make their job difficult or less productive. It appears TVA has swung away from it's once former position of supporting hunting as part of it's recreational use mission.
Sunday evening Thomas and I were the last off the area and stopped and talked to the Biologist in charge of several North Alabama Waterfowl Management Areas (WMAs). Hunter reports were terrible. There were no ducks logged on Sunday and only a handful on Saturday.
During our conversation I learned that the lease the state has with TVA for the lands that comprise the WMAs has run out. The last lease, which ran for 30 years, expired three years ago and has not been renewed. They are going year to year with no formal agreement and plenty of disagreements on the terms of the proposed new lease. The way it was described to me is TVA wants to place restrictions in the lease that would make farming the land difficult for the state. For example no tilling greater than 6". Evidently the tilling restriction is stemming from TVA's archeologist who doesn't want to disrupt possible archeological sites. Also they want any spill that might occur, even if not the fault of the state, to be cleaned up by the state at the state's own expense. The whole thing sounds like a mess the way the biologist described it. I suspect in the end some agreement will be reached but am worried TVA will place more cost on the strapped state or more guidelines that make their job difficult or less productive. It appears TVA has swung away from it's once former position of supporting hunting as part of it's recreational use mission.
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