Tennessee is coming up on its third season for hunting the sandhill cranes that are celebrated every winter with a festival at Birchwood and the nearby Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge. In fact, a permit drawing for this year's season will be held next week, Oct. 3, at the Birchwood Community Center (formerly Birchwood School).
Registration for the drawing for 400 permits will begin at 8 a.m. that Saturday, and the drawing will start about two hours later. Any permits left over will be available on a first-come, first-served basis starting at 9 a.m. EDT the following Wednesday at the four Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency region offices; the number available will be announced Oct. 5 on the TWRA website (www.tn.gov/twra).
Each permit will be nontransferable and allow the killing of up to three sandhill cranes during the Nov. 28-29, Dec. 5-Jan. 1 season, but none of the permits will be valid until stamped with a "sandhill test" validation code that proves the bearer knows the difference between sandhills and other species. Each applicant must have a current Tennessee hunting/fishing license and a waterfowl license or equivalent, according to the TWRA.
In another waterfowl-related note, the TWRA will accept applications until midnight CDT Sept. 30 for its 2015 wildlife management area waterfowl hunts. Hunters may apply at any license agent, regional office or www.tnwildlife.org - as individuals or as parties of up to five - for the computerized drawing. The WMAs for the hunts are Bogota, Gooch Unit E, White Oak-Lebanon Pond, Meeman-Shelby Forest, Thorny Cypress, Candies Creek, Johnson Bottoms, Rogers Creek and Yellow Creek.
AEDC deer permits
Permits to hunt deer at the Arnold Engineering Development Center WMA near Tullahoma will go on sale on a first-come, first-served basis at 9 a.m. EDT on Oct. 14.
A permit is $12 plus agent fee - except for Annual Sportsman or Lifetime Sportsman license holders or Annual Senior Citizen Permit holders, who don't have to pay - and can be bought at any TWRA license agent location or online at www.tnwildlife.org. A hunter can get only one permit per chosen hunt, but there are three hunts at the AEDC WMA: Nov. 13-15 at unit 2 and Nov. 27-29 at unit 1 and unit 2.
Unit 1 used to be known as the Tennessee Army National Guard maneuver area; unit 2 is the Camp Forrest area in the 32,000-acre facility.
Peregrine for Boucher
Bradley County resident Doug Boucher was one of the two Tennessee peregrine falcon permit draw winners announced by the TWRA early this month. The other winner of the right to try to trap a peregrine for falconry purposes was Greg Seaton of North Little Rock, Ark.
Only general or master class falconers could participate in the late-August drawing, and the permits apply only to select counties in West Tennessee.
Sport fishing meeting here
State sport fishing regulations will be established at the Tennessee Wildlife & Fish Commission meeting Oct. 15-16 at the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown Chattanooga. Committee meetings will begin at 1 p.m. that Thursday; the full commission will convene at 9 a.m. that Friday.
Commercial fishing regulations were set at the September meeting in Nashville.
The TWRA is taking comments until Oct. 9 on a proposal to make the current smallmouth bass regulations in the Tellico and Fort Loudoun reservoirs extend into their headwater rivers. The lakes have an 18-inch minimum length on smallmouth that can be taken, but the Tellico, French Broad and Holston rivers have a 13-17-inch protected range, with only one fish longer than 17 inches allowed.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.