CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Legislation which could clear the way for youth hunters to kill a buck during the annual youth hunting season is nearing the finish line in Charleston.
House Bill 4176 is on second reading in the state Senate. As first introduced it would have created a season in statute to allow for the youth season to be either sex. However, the Division of Natural Resources worried such an allowance would be problematic since the youth season privileges also extend to Class XS hunters.
“The agency has no concern about youth or Class Q hunters taking an antlered buck in youth season, but if XS license holders were allowed to also kill a buck it would add 70,000 adult hunters to the season dates and that could have a serious biological impact,” said DNR Deputy Director Wendy Greene.
The Natural Resources Commission has been repeatedly asked by the public to allow youth hunters to be allowed to take a buck during the youth season, but has so far refrained from the allowance because of the potential negative impact on the deer population. The agency had to also be mindful the allowance for holders of a Senior Lifetime Hunting license were extended as an incentive to get the measure approved when it was created several years ago.
The scenario is a bit confusing, but the bill was amended in the House of Delegates to strike language in state code which allowed the XS (lifetime) license holders to. “…participate with the same privileges and subject to the same restrictions as a youth hunter in any special youth deer season established by the Natural Resources Commission.”
But, DNR officials said they were well aware of the importance of those senior hunting privileges. The Natural Resources Commission has already authorized a special XS and Class Q split deer season. The little known and previously obscure authorization allows the taking of antlerless deer on the third Saturday and following Sunday in October and on the first two days after Christmas on private and public lands in counties open to firearms deer hunting. Those are the exact same dates of the youth seasons each year.
“The special XS and Class Q antlerless season already exists in the legislative exempt rule set by the Commission, so removing this from statute does not remove the season or the privilege. It doesn’t change the special Class Q and XS deer season at all. The senior hunters lose no privileges,” said Greene.
The measure also restores the authority of the Commission to set the season dates and bag limits. If approved it would clear the way for the creation of an either-sex deer season for youth hunters during the youth hunting days.