Abstracts

Abstract: During the summer of 1994, the issue of hunting on national wildlife refuges became a volatile and heavily debated issue in the Southeast, but particularly in the Arkansas-Louisiana-Mississippi Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV). The refuges in the affected states represent not only traditional public hunting grounds, but produce some of the best deer in their respective states. It is important to analyze the public hunting that these refuges represent from a deer management standpoint and to understand why there is so much concern over a few national wildlife refuges in the LMV. Public concern is even more important when one normally thinks of refuges as waterfowl sanctuaries. In the LMV alone, over 45,000 hunters participated in some form of refuge deer hunting, harvesting over 3,500 animals. The bulk of the harvest came from a handful of large refuges such as Tensas River, which led all refuges (1,373), Felsenthal, White River, Noxubee, Yazoo, Panther Swamp, and Hillside NWRs. The tremendous popularity of most of these refuges where deer hunting is almost a by-product of other management has been caused by excellent habitat, either-sex hunting, restrictions on hunter numbers, and specialized hunts such as primitive weapons youth hunts, and antler restrictions. Many refuge hunts are recognized as beacons of public lands. Acceptance of new and different public hunts have often led to similar hunts on other public lands. If these hunts are to continue under present budgetary constraints, it will require increasingly innovative management approaches by the Service and support by the public for their continuation.