TWRC to Hold Final Meeting of Year on Dec. 8-9 in Nashville

NASHVILLE --- The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission will meet for the final time in 2011 when it assembles Dec. 8-9 in Nashville at the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency’s Region II Ray Bell Building.

 

Among the items at the final meeting of the calendar year, will be a presentation by the TWRA Fisheries Division concerning a recent law passed by the Tennessee General Assembly (Public Chapter No. 338). The law directs the agency to develop a plan to study sustainability, population conditions, and juvenile survival rates of paddlefish and other roe producing fish on waters not currently open to commercial fishing. The plan will also measure the rate of by-catch of sport fish species. The agency will present that plan for waters identified by the Commercial Fishing Advisory Committee (CFAC). Those waters include Cordell Hull, Norris, Watts Bar, and Melton Hill lakes as well as a currently restricted section of Old Hickory Lake.

 

The CFAC was established recently by the Tennessee General Assembly. The volunteer CFAC is entirely comprised of nine members of the commercial fishing community. (To view the full details of the plan click here).

 

Due to the 2011 spring floods in West Tennessee, Chickasaw and Lower Hatchie National Refuge would like to revert to their previous spring turkey harvest strategy and reinstitute quota hunts. The request is an amendment to the National Wildlife Refuge Proclamation (11-10). The original proclamation, which was passed prior to the spring flooding, liberalized the refuges’ seasons through non-quota spring turkey hunts.

 

Last spring, in an effort to manage a small population of exotic red deer in Claiborne County, a two-week red deer season was established after the white-tailed deer season ended. Since the proclamation was passed, the area where the red deer are located has shifted. An amendment to this original proclamation better defines where the red deer are currently located.

 

A presentation by Tom Bennett, Vice President of the National Archery in the Schools Program (NASP) will be made. He will be presenting TWRA with an achievement award for its work with the program.

 

The Home Builders Association of Middle Tennessee will be presenting a check to the TWRA. Many TWRA employees worked at the 2011 Parade of Homes held in neighboring Brentwood.

 

Some annual awards will be presented during the meeting. Jim Maddox, representative of Shikar-Safari International, will present the organization’s Tennessee Wildlife Officer of the Year. The second annual statewide fisheries technician and wildlife technician awards will also be presented.

 

A specially appointed committee of the commission will meet at 10 a.m. on Thursday (Dec. 8) to discuss changes to the TWRC’s by-laws. Committee meetings will begin at 1 p.m. The formal commission meeting will start at 9 a.m. on Dec. 9. The public is invited to attend.

 

---TWRA---