Nashville, TN – Changes to deer hunting regulation has been made by the Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission (TFWC) in continued response to chronic wasting disease (CWD) which was found in three southwestern Tennessee counties last winter.
The commission approved the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s recommendation to establish a new CWD deer hunting unit for the counties in which we have found CWD-positive deer (Fayette County, Hardeman County, and Madison County) and counties within 10 miles of a positive CWD deer location (Chester County, Haywood County, McNairy County, Shelby County and Tipton County).
The goal of these modified regulations in unit CWD is to keep CWD from spreading and to keep the number of infected deer to a minimum.
For the three-day August (23rd-25th) deer hunt, muzzleloaders were authorized, in addition to archery, for use in Unit CWD.
Selected public lands will also be open to hunting in Unit CWD for the August season.
Other major outcomes of the commission’s actions include:
- Earn-A-Buck Program – Hunters are entitled to additional antlered deer through a new “Earn-a-buck Program” in Unit CWD. A buck may be earned by harvesting two (2) antlerless deer in Unit CWD and submitting both for CWD testing. This may be done twice for a total of 2 earned bucks to be harvested in Unit CWD during the 2019-2020 season.
- Replacement Bucks – Unit CWD hunters are entitled to replacement bucks if they harvest a CWD-positive buck and the lab result in confirmed by TWRA.
- Extended Seasons – Unit CWD muzzleloader and gun season dates have been extended from the traditional statewide season dates. Archery-only dates will be September 28th-October 25th. Muzzleloader/archery will be October 28th-November 8th and gun/muzzleloader/archery will be November 9th-January 5th, 2020.
- Antlered harvest, in addition to antlerless, was authorized for the January 5-day, private lands-only hunt, January 6th-10th, 2020.
- Mandatory Check Weekends in Unit CWD will be November 2nd-3rd and November 9th-10th.
In other business, a report on 2018-19 big game hunting seasons was given. Seven archery, seven gun, and one young sportsman elk permits are issued. All seven archery hunters, four gun hunters and the young sportsman were successful.
The bear season had a record harvest of 762 animals. Four of the five bear hunt zones had their best years.
The state’s total deer harvest was close to 147,682, a slight increase over 2017-18. The recently-completed spring turkey season harvest was back above the 30,000 mark, 11 percent above 2018.
A preview to the Fish Dealer Rule was given regulates fish farmers, bait dealers, and catch-out operations will be revisited. The changes would address invasive species issues and specify approved fish species by scientific name rather than generic phrases like “native fish” or “trout.”
The first session of the 111th Tennessee General Assembly, which concluded earlier this month, was reviewed. One of the amendments passed requires persons who rent motorized watercraft be given an orientation for the specific type of vessel being rented. Tennessee residents who have successfully completed a monitored National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) exam and hold the TWRA-issued wallet certification card are exempt from this orientation.
An Outreach and Communications Division quarterly report was given. The report outlined license sales, media coverage, emails communications, social media stats, regional outreach efforts, and a summary of things this quarter.
The two-day meeting concluded Friday at the TWRA Region II Ray Bell Building.
