Some hunters voice concerns about potential early West Zone closure
Stone in your shoe.
Burr under your saddle.
Thorn in your finger.
An itch in the middle of your back.
All irritations, some of which can be easily remedied. Maybe, except that itch which never seems to go away.
Still, all bothersome and sometimes painful. Painful to the point where you don’t know what’s coming next.
Irritations come in many forms. For outdoorsmen and women, boys and girls, exposure to irritants stem from one or another level of our bureaucracy.
Take the move by the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission.
Back in January, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries’ Wildlife Division’s biologists and managers offered a proposal for the 2025-2026 hunting seasons.
The models offered included seasons and bag limits on all of the game offered to Louisiana hunters — including waterfowl.
For all non-waterfowl hunters, know Louisiana is divided into east and west waterfowl zones.
Let’s go back to this same time last year when the Wildlife Division folks offered two splits for the East Zone and three splits for the West for the federally mandated 60-day duck season and a mandatory Jan. 31 close to the duck season for the southern area in the Mississippi Flyway. Louisiana is in that area and that flyway.
Some West Zone hunters launched a campaign to extend their third split all the way to that Jan. 31 deadline — and they got their wish — although there was some consternation from other hunters about this late date.
Proposed hunting dates
So, let’s go back to the commission’s January 2025 meeting when similar duck-hunting dates for the 2024-2025 season were offered in the proposed hunting season package.
Almost immediately, commission member Kevin Sagrera, described on the Wildlife and Fisheries’ website as a commercial fishing and fur industry representative from Abbeville, offered an amendment to the West Zone duck season dates.
It was apparent those who were rankled by the Jan. 31 close struck back — and struck back hard.
Sagrera offered an amendment to the West Zone dates to a two-split season running Nov. 8-30 and Dec. 13-Jan. 18 and keeping the youth-only (Nov. 1-2) and honorably discharged veterans-only (Jan. 24-25) on the schedule.
Aside: the offered East Zone splits are Nov. 15-30 and Dec. 13-Jan. 25 with youth-only weekend Nov. 8-9 and veterans-only weekend Jan. 1-Feb. 1 (the latter dates were amended to this date during the commission’s February 2025 meeting).
The stone in the shoe in this duck-season debate is the commission approved the amendment without a “no” vote, and didn’t wait to discover how this late Jan. 31 season played out.
West Zone hunters — this zone reaches from the northwestern parishes and swings down and across Louisiana’s entire coastal area — have long complained about how their season ends too quickly, that cold weather up north comes too late and ducks don’t feel the urge to push farther south into the Louisiana coastal areas until middle or late January.
Their argument has merit, not just for the recently concluded season — remember the Jan. 20 snow show — but during four of the last five Januarys.
Setting seasons
Opponents to the Jan. 31 close say ducks have been hunted long enough and are more wary, and flocks are broken and scattered and more difficult to hunt.
The question here is why couldn’t the commission have waited to find out about those last days of this first-time ever Jan. 31 close?
Apparently, the decision about a Jan. 18 close was determined in the days leading up to the commission’s January meeting, and gave the proponents only until the close of business on March 6 to offer public comment to the extra early West Zone closure.
Still, for the folks who saw the benefit of that Jan. 31 close, all doesn’t end March 6. All commission moves must pass the vote of the State Legislatures’ Natural Resources committee before becoming the rule.
Maybe, just maybe, all sides can take some measure of responsibility in setting seasons.
It sure would’ve been easier for the commission to wait until its February meeting to find out about the hunting success or failure of a Jan. 31 close.
One thing’s for sure. The upcoming season is the last in Louisiana’s five-year waterfowl hunting plan. Note here, state’s offer a five-year hunting schedule to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for that agency’s approval.
There are several packages Louisiana can propose and the current two-zone and splits for each zone is just one among a handful.
Sometime later this year, the department’s Wildlife Division will offer those options, and it looks like discussions will begin anew, especially the one some hunters will seek, three zones — Coastal, East and West — with two splits in each zone.
Lake Pelto Sulphur Mine
Another stone in the shoe is the latest news from the central coast where there’s a contract being offered to remove the Sulphur Mine from Lake Pelto.
What? Remove a structure that’s survived all of what Mother Nature could throw at it for so many years? This is a vital fish-holding spot and an aviary for birds, especially ospreys.
Guess there’s a liability problem here, but wouldn’t erecting buoys and warning signs be more cost effective than removing this structure? And wouldn’t the benefits of enhancing this structure far outweigh its removal?
