Hamilton County committee plans meeting to review hunts at Enterprise South Nature Park

A fawn and doe wander along the southern boundary of Enterprise South Nature Park. Officials are planning to allow a regulated number of hunters access to the park during two weekends in October to hunt deer and turkey to comply with a contract the park signed with TWRA.

Photo by Dan Henry.

A committee of Hamilton County commissioners will meet next week to consider whether to continue allowing controlled hunts for deer and turkey in the Enterprise South Nature Park.

Commissioner Greg Beck, chairman of the commission's building and economic development committee, has called a meeting for Oct. 12 at 2 p.m. in the commission's conference room at the county courthouse. The meeting will be held a day after the first of two October two-day quota archery hunts wraps up in the nature park.

Last week, Commission Chairman Larry Henry asked Beck to review the county's 2005 agreement with the city of Chattanooga and Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, asking for the state to manage wildlife in 2,800 acres of park situated in the now-occupied industrial park.

Volkswagen, Amazon and other industries now surround the nature park, which was opened last year.

Diane Dixon, a lawyer who represents a group of residents, said that the park has changed since the county, city and TWRA entered the management agreement, and it should now be reviewed.

"I think they could stop [the October hunts] if they wanted to," she said.

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