CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Legislation which would have placed restrictions on a West Virginia deer hunter’s second buck during hunting season has died at the State Capitol. House Bill 4504 was defeated on a voice vote by members of the House Committee on Agriculture, Commerce, and Tourism, but not before some strong feelings from several members were expressed.
Delegate John Hott of Grant County sponsored the bill, hoping to create a system which would insure the average size of West Virginia bucks grew larger. Delegate David Foggin of Wood County supported the idea and believed it was the right move because of what he’s seen on his own land.
“In the late 90’s you were happy if you shot a 13-inch eight-point, that was a huge buck. Now in the past few years we’ve shot 150, 164, and 153 inch deer, which if you don’t know is a pretty big deer for West Virginia, just by having a one buck limit,” he said during the committee meeting.
Raleigh County Delegate Eric Brooks agreed and said he also favored the bill.
“I can appreciate, I’ve been told and we know this to be true in every state that it’s in, if you let some of these smaller bucks walk, you’ll get bigger bucks,” Brooks offered.
Hott’s bill would have allowed hunters to kill whatever size buck they wanted for their first buck. But it would have required a hunter’s second buck to have at least three scoreable points on one side of its rack. Supporters said to allow bucks to make it to an older age would produce more trophy size deer in the Mountain State.
Delegate Wayne Clark from Jefferson County opposed the measure for several reasons, but one of them was the the fear it would price West Virginia hunters out of land access if they don’t own their own hunting property.
“By putting these regulations on, we could start to see scenarios where we get into a pay-to-play process. Taditionally in the state of West Virginia, the right to hunt on land is bid at $3 or $4 dollars an acre. You could see potentially that going up to $20 an acre,” said Clark.
Foggin acknowledged Clark’s point, but didn’t see the problem.
“This isn’t a bill for me, this is a bill for other people. This is a bill of other hunters that don’t have the luxury I have. Maybe people would want to start hunting West Virginia more, lease values might go up, and tourism might go up if we have bigger bucks in the state,” Foggin said.
For Monongalia County Delegate David McCormick the bill’s intent wasn’t as big an issue as the precedent it would set by enabling game management to be handled by the Legislature instead of DNR biologists and independently appointed members of the Natural Resources Commission.
“I understand what the bill is trying to do. I’m a deer hunter. However in general, I just feel like we shouldn’t legislate essentially a rule. I think this should be up to the DNR and the biologists to make policy like this, ” said McCormick.
Foggin brislted at the notion.
“The biggest arguement against this before was that the Commission should be making the rules. I’m going to tell you right now, I was elected to come here and represent the people in my area and that’s what I’m going to do,” Foggin said. “Experience is the best teacher. I don’t care if you’re a farmer or a hunter or a biologist. I’ve watched deer for 40 years very closely. I know how to manage deer just as well as a biologist.”