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Off-roading would no longer be allowed on the Honobia Creek Wildlife Management Area in southeastern Oklahoma if a new regulation proposed by the Wildlife Department is presented to and approved by the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Public meetings on proposed changes in the state’s hunting and fishing regulations are scheduled Tuesday (Jan. 10) in Poteau and Oklahoma City.
The Oklahoma City meeting will be at the headquarters of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, 1801 N. Lincoln Boulevard.
The meeting in Poteau will be at the Kiamichi Technology Center. Both begin at 7 p.m.
There also will be a town hall meeting in Antlers on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Wildlife Heritage Center where the hot topic of discussion is expected to be about the Honobia Creek Wildlife Management Area.
Restricting ATVs to established roads only on the Honobia Creek WMA is one of the proposed regulation changes the Wildlife Department is wanting to implement.
Ending off-roading on Honobia Creek has angered many recreational riders and businesses in the area who profit from the tourism.
Alan Peoples, head of the wildlife division for the state Wildlife Department said, the three timber investment groups that own Honobia Creek want to restrict ATVs to established roads only because of the damage they are causing to the land.
Off-roading already has been restricted at the nearby Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area and the new agreement with the landowners for public use of Honobia Creek calls for the same.
“If we don’t adhere to that agreement, we will lose use of the land entirely,” Peoples said.
Sportsmen have through Friday (Jan. 13) to comment on any of the proposed changes online at www.wildlifedepartment.com.
Other proposed rule changes to the state’s hunting and fishing regulations are:
- To make it unlawful to bait wildlife on all of the state’s wildlife management areas
- To change the bear archery season to Oct. 1 through the third Sunday in October and eliminate the 20-bear total quota for bear archery season
- To set the statewide daily limit of striped bass at five, except at Lake Texoma
- To eliminate daily harvest limits on furbearers so that only season limits apply.
- To make it legal to harvest two does during the deer youth gun season. The bag limit is currently one antlered deer and one antlerless deer. The total number of deer taken would remain two per hunter.
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Comments
Outlaw the taking of doe’s. Ambushing a Doe(Female-Mother Deer) and shooting(murdering) her, leaving her Fawn’s(children) to fend for themselves is wrong. If you think the off-springs don’t notice their mother missing, you’re wrong again. Shooting a doe is not sport and teaches nothing but cold blooded taking of animals is O.K.
I lived in Broken Bow and the Bollings are Right. The tourist are not responsible for the litter and the violations. The locals are responsible for trashing out the area.
Judge, you are not fully informed as to herd management and land-animal ratio. If all that are shot are bucks, there are less to breed the does that you want protected. How do you expect Game Wardens to enforce this regulation you want? Killing does is necessary to keep a healthy herd otherwise the land cannot support the number of deer on it and that’s how massive winter kills happen.
My husband and I are 74 and 68 years old. We have been camping and riding 4 wheelers in Honobia and Three Rivers WMA areas for years.
It is the only place we can ride and feel safe from getting run over by other 4 wheelers and motorcycles. We have always paid our permit fees in January and have spent a lot of time north of Cloudy all the way to Honobia. In riding the roads and trails, we notice that all the trash along the roads is deposited by local people that travel to work, home, etc. not by off-road vehicles. Look at some of the yards of people that live in the area, you will see which ones throw out trash on the roads. In every area we ride through that has been logged, especially off the main roads, trash is left by the loggers, not campers and riders. We do not throw out tires off the equipment and buckets, barrels, oil bottles, etc. We clean up our trash and any trash left by others.
The comment made by State Representative R.C. Pruett in the Antlers meeting about “garbage and beer cans scattered along the roadway” doesn’t wash. It is not CAMPERS AND 4 WHEELERS throwing out trash. Again, look at some of the yards of people that live in the area, you will see which ones throw out trash on the roads.