During Sunday’s Natural Resources Commission meeting in Flatwoods, about 152 bowhunters opposed expanding hunting in Logan, McDowell, Mingo and Wyoming counties from an archery-only season.
“We need the NRA to advocate for our Second Amendment right to bear arms, but we don’t need the NRA’s attempts to manage our wildlife,” said Ed McMinn, president of the West Virginia Bowhunters Association.
The Division of Natural Resources closed the four counties to gun season in 1979, citing a depleted deer population. The agency has resisted attempts to reinstate a gun season saying the deer population hasn’t sufficiently rebounded.
Department of Natural Resources Director Frank Jezioro said he heard rumors last year that the NRA would try to reverse the four-county gun ban. During Sunday’s meeting he held up a stack of postcards he said were from NRA members seeking the change.
No one from the pro-gun organization spoke at the meeting.
“It’s not on our agenda to open a gun season,” Jezioro said, adding that it’s up to the commission, and not the DNR, to decide whether to change the season.
If deer populations increase to the DNR’s satisfaction in the future, Jezioro said the agency might consider proposing a limited gun season in the four counties. But, he added he doubted the four would ever be open to general hunting.
Of the 30,749 deer killed by bowhunters last year, 2,513 were killed in the four counties.
Meanwhile, the commission is considering a DNR proposal to start West Virginia’s anterless season in September, rather then October.
Wildlife biologists are proposing a weeklong archery season in mid-September and a weeklong muzzleloader season in late September. The seasons could be held in either 22 or up to 37 of the state’s 55 counties.
The commission is expected to consider the two proposals at its next meeting in either April or May.
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