Indiana Sets First Ever Fall Turkey Season
Deer and elk farmers looking for public dole in Washington
Senator Lugar their pal?

Herald Times August 7, 2005

A new hunting season for wild turkey has been added to Indiana’s outdoor menu.  Hoosier wild turkey hunters will take the field this October in Indiana’s the first-ever fall wild turkey hunt.

The fall hunt was approved by an “administrative order” from Ind. DNR Director Kyle Hupfer on July 27.  The order is temporary and only applies to this year.  The season is set for Oct. 1 through Oct. 23 for bow hunters.  The firearms season is Oct. 19 through Oct. 23, but only in designated counties.

The counties with both archery and firearms seasons cover most of southern and south eastern Indiana.  Morgan Co. is the only county adjacent to Monroe that does not have a firearms season.  And, only eastern Greene Co. has both bow and gun seasons.  West of the river, it is archery only in Greene.

Some state properties may not be open for the fall season, so you will have to call the property of interest and inquire.  No list of open properties was available last week.

All the usual turkey hunting rules apply.  You must get a new turkey hunting permit, have a valid Indiana hunting license and a game bird habitat stamp.

Indiana’s wild turkey population boom and the experience of other states with fall turkey hunting encouraged wildlife biologists here to ask

Since wild turkeys do not behave exactly as they do in the spring, you may want to check out one of three seminars the DNR and the National Wild Turkey Federation have scheduled: 

Gander Mountain             Northeast side of Indianapolis            Sept. 17   (1-4 PM)

Sugar Ridge Fish and Wildlife Area     Winslow                       Sept. 18   (1-4 PM)

CANNED HUNTING NEWS

DNR Director Hupfer has moved back a date for the anxiously awaited administrative order covering canned hunting/game farming in the state.  The new date is “weeks” from now.

The new regulations, Hupfer told the Indianapolis Star, would spell an end to canned hunting in the state.  He said the new rules would “sunset” in Feb., 2015 after which there would be a “complete prohibition of hunting of deer behind fences.”

And, the canned hunting/deer and elk farming lobby has opened a new front in Washington, D.C.  Senator Richard Lugar reportedly sees the practice as a “good opportunity for small farmers.”  Note that some game farming operations have already received federal subsidies and more are lining up at this trough.  If this trend develops, we will all be paying the game farmers to grow deer that we do not need that are used in a practice most of us find abhorrent.

It’s time to email Senator Lugar and help educate him about what is really at stake in this argument  -- the state’s image, the risks of spreading Chronic Wasting Disease, and what is right versus what is wrong.   Lugar’s email:  senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov or you can call his Indianapolis office at (317) 226-5555.