A white-tailed deer harvested in a northeastern North Carolina county popular for deer hunting has preliminarily tested positive for chronic wasting disease.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission on Tuesday reported the first presumptive detection of the disease in Edgecombe County on a 31/2-year-old male harvested by a hunter a few miles from the Pitt-Martin County line, according to a release.

The National Veterinary Services Laboratory is testing the sample to verify initial results. If that testing affirms those results, this would be the state’s 35th confirmed case of chronic wasting disease, or CWD, since 2022.

“We are certainly not happy to learn that we may have a new CWD infected area in the northeastern part of the state,” Wildlife Commission Game & Furbearer Program Assistant Chief Chris Kreh said in a release. “However, this is what our surveillance plan is designed to do — find areas where CWD is occurring as early as possible, so we can minimize its impact.”

Chronic wasting disease is a transmissible disease that afflicts deer, elk and moose and is always fatal. The disease spreads through infected body fluids, typically saliva, urine and feces, and the movement of infected carcasses and carcass parts.

During the early stages of infection, deer may appear healthy, so Wildlife officials urge hunters to take precautions when transporting or disposing of deer carcasses in an effort to minimize the spread of new infections of the disease.

Hunters in Edgecombe and surrounding counties are advised to keep whole deer carcasses and high-risk carcass parts in the county in which they harvested, or take them to a processor or taxidermist participating in the commission’s Cervid Health Cooperator Program for carcass disposal and test submission.

Hunters who kill game infected with CWD are advised not to eat the meat. To date, there has not been a reported case of CWD infection in humans.

Wildlife officials are asking hunters to submit deer harvested in Edgecombe and surrounding counties for testing. Hunters may use an interactive map for information on testing drop-off locations throughout the state.

Portions of carcasses that are not edible and not taken to a Cervid Health Cooperator should, when possible, be buried in the area the animal was harvested, double-bagged and disposed of in a landfill, or left on the ground where the animal was harvested.

Boned-out meat, caped hides, antlers and cleaned skulls, cleaned jawbones and teeth, and finished taxidermy products are safe to transport outside of Edgecombe County.

“We will continue, and potentially increase, our surveillance in this area and hopefully in a few years we’ll have a good understanding of how many deer are infected and how big the infected area is,” Kreh said.

The commission has collected and tested samples from nearly 3,000 deer for CWD in Edgecombe and surrounding counties during the past four years.

The closest confirmed case of CWD from this new suspected site is a little more than 90 miles away in Cumberland County.

Wildlife Resources Commission Management Division Chief Brad Howard said in a release that he did not expect this season’s hunting regulations or surveillance areas to change, regardless of the second test results. Any potential changes in Edgecombe and surrounding counties would be made during the 2026-27 deer hunting season.

“A mid-season regulation change would be very confusing,” Howard stated. “I’m confident our hunters can absorb this new information and help us take steps to increase our surveillance and awareness to the area.”

Cape Lookout National Seashore officials plan to hold its annual duck blind permit lottery through the National Park Service’s official reservations website later this month.

The permit allows duck hunters to place and leave temporary duck blinds in the park from Sept. 12 to March 31, 2026.  Construction of permanent duck blinds is illegal, and the temporary blinds must be removed by the permittee no later than March 31, 2026.

The lottery will open on recreation.gov at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26, and close at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28. There is a $10 registration fee to enter the lottery.

Lottery slots are a limited in number. Those who want to enter the lottery are encouraged to create an account before the lottery opens.

After the lottery closes, the lottery order will be randomly selected from the pool of applicants and a time assigned for the required in-person, 15-minute appointment sometime between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12. Those selected will be notified by email.

During the appointments in the visitor center at 1800 Island Road, Harkers Island, lottery winners will be able to select where their blinds will be located, complete the permit paperwork and pay their permit fees.

Hunters are limited to two blinds. There is a $50 permit fee for the first blind, and a $25 fee for the second blind, or $75 for two blinds. The fees are used to administer and monitor the program. 

Applicants must bring a valid driver’s license or identification card, a North Carolina hunting license, and a signed federal duck stamp or federal e-stamp.

“If you arrive for an in-person appointment without ALL these documents, you will not be issued a permit and will forfeit your scheduled lottery appointment,” rangers said (their emphasis).

Those not selected during the lottery or who can’t make their scheduled appointment time are welcome to go to the visitor center to be seen on a first-come, first-served basis beginning Sept. 17.

Hunting is authorized within the national seashore, subject to State of North Carolina hunting regulations and federal law. 

Hunters are advised that failure to obtain a permit or failure to remove blinds at the end of the permit period may result in penalties, a bill for the cost of removing the blind, and exclusion from the program in future years. Illegal duck blinds found in the park will be removed without notice and the cost of removing illegal and abandoned blinds significantly adds to the cost of the program and may have to be passed on to the hunters in future years.

Commercial hunting or fishing guides must obtain a permit to conduct commercial activities in a national park.  To obtain a Commercial Use Authorization, or CUA, permit, guides should contact park business manager Katherine Cushinberry at 252-838-8899. 

Guides with a CUA permit may advertise that they are an authorized hunting guide for Cape Lookout National Seashore. Those caught guiding without a CUA permit may be prosecuted and lose lottery and hunting privileges for a minimum of two years.

For more information regarding the 2024-25 Duck Blind Lottery at Cape Lookout National Seashore, contact Ranger Evan Knight at 252-838-8929.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is seeking public input on the proposed establishment of an archery zone within a new addition to the Green Swamp Game Land.

Public comments will be accepted during a meeting scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Southport Community Building, 223 E. Bay St.

In archery zones on game lands, hunters are limited to using archery equipment and falconry.

The archery zone is proposed for a recently acquired 426-acre parcel directly adjacent to the Green Swamp Game Land’s Swain Tract, which is also managed as an archery zone.

Both tracts are directly adjacent to Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point.

Campers, cyclists, hikers, birding enthusiasts and other outdoor recreationalists would be required to buy an annual pass to access game lands in the state under a proposal floated by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

The “conservation access pass” proposal targets those users because they are increasingly visiting game lands and utilizing state Wildlife Resources boating-access areas, commission officials say.

“The more people you put out there, the more activities they’re doing,” said Wildlife Resources Commission Land and Water Access Division Chief Daron Barnes. “You see a general degradation of those habitats’ infrastructure and it can impede management activities. So, there is a need for additional funding to address these types of impacts on land.”

Barnes explained to an online audience during a public meeting Tuesday night that hunters, anglers and trappers would not have to buy a pass because they are already “paying in” to access and use game lands, while outdoor recreationalists are increasingly using game lands free of charge.

“We see that number of people increasing year after year,” he said.

The prospective pass program was met with mixed feedback during the meeting, where participants raised concerns about a pass fee potentially affecting outdoor programs, particularly in low-income communities, and safety issues during hunting seasons.

If implemented, conservation access passes would apply at a minimum to commission-owned game lands, which include roughly a quarter, or more than 542,000 acres, of the 2.1 million acres of game lands the agency manages.

In an email responding to questions following the meeting, Carrie Ruhlman, policy manager with the commission’s Office of Conservation Policy & Analysis, said the passes “may also apply on game lands owned by partner agencies/entities.”

“Once a decision is made on whether to move forward with a Pass, the WRC will reach out to those partners to see if they would like the Pass to apply to their property,” she said.

Roughly half, or 1.26 million acres, of game lands Wildlife Resources manages are owned by the U.S. Forest Service. A mix of other state agencies, local governments, private businesses and residents owns a little more than 299,200 acres.

Wildlife Resources owns 70 game lands, 37 of which span a total of more than 320,000 acres across the state’s coastal region.

Under the proposal, conservation access passes would be required for use at all of the more than 250 boating access areas that are built and maintained by the state for vessels that do not currently have to be registered with the agency. Those include nonmotorized water vessels like kayaks, canoes and stand-up paddleboards.

Passes would also be required to use five Wildlife Resources shooting ranges.

Franklin County resident William Teague said he doesn’t have a problem with nonhunters, anglers and trappers using the agency’s shooting ranges or with paddlers utilizing boat access areas.

But the state’s growing population and the demands of development that come with it are crowding out lands on which hunters and trappers can go, he said Tuesday.

Private land “is becoming harder and harder to be able to hunt,” Teague said. “And so it’s kind of forcing some of us to hunt exclusively on public land. There’s fewer and fewer opportunities to hunt and trap, for that matter. There’s plenty of other places across the state that if you’re not a hunter, trapper or angler that you can go and do recreational-type things.”

He was joined by others who spoke during the meeting in raising concerns about recreationalists using game lands during hunting seasons.

Jerry Price suggested certain areas within game lands be restricted for hunting and trapping use only during hunting seasons. Those areas could be rotated between that group of users and recreational uses, he said.

“To hunters, there’s very few places that have good quantities of game, mainly big game deer hunting,” Price said.

Haw River Keeper Emily Sutton said she understands the agency’s need to draw additional revenue to maintain game lands resources.

“But I think charging a fee for the general public to access these public lands, especially in a watershed like mine where there’s increasingly less big tracts of open space for people to explore, like the Jordan Lake Game Lands, is not the way to go about this,” she said. “It will discourage people from coming into those game lands and exploring these big tracts of forests that we don’t have a lot of access to in this part of the state anymore.”

Sutton said tacking fees to nonmotorized water vessels could be a huge hit for outfitters, schools and universities, and organizations like hers that offer free paddle events and clinics.

Anna Wheeler with the Dan River Basin Association agreed.

“We do free paddles for Saturday outings once a month,” she said. “This could really be a situation that gets a little bit expensive and discourages people from getting outdoors.”

The prospective pass fee would impact outdoor programs offered at colleges and universities through the state, according to Nathan Rector, director of Duke University’s Outdoor Adventures.

“My program certainly uses some of these boat ramps and we take multiple groups there and if we had to transfer that cost to our participants, a lot of our participants would just not be able to afford it, and we would really not exist,” he said. “We don’t make money off these things. We’re just offering a resource and so I’m hoping that either this would be reconsidered or some sort of educational nonprofit alternative would be offered to universities across the state.”

The agency is considering a $30 pass fee, but commission officials say they have not settled on a price to present to the voting members, who will consider whether to implement the conservation access pass program.

Anyone 16 and older would be required to obtain the pass, which would be good for one year from the date of purchase.

Wildlife Resources is accepting online feedback on the pass proposal through March 28.  All comments are to be complied and presented to the commission.

Additional information about the conservation access pass proposal is available at ncwildlife.org/conservation-access-pass.

If the plan is approved, passes would be effective no earlier than 2026.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is seeking public comments on the 2025-26 migratory game bird hunting season.

Comments on hunting season dates for waterfowl, webless migratory species and extended falconry will be accepted through 5 p.m. March 2.

Dates being considered include compensatory days for waterfowl and webless migratory species, according to a commission release.

Comments may be made at the agency’s online comment portal.

All online comments will be considered at the wildlife resource commissioners’ April 17 business meeting in Raleigh. Details about the meeting will be posted on the agency’s website when available.

More information for the 2025-26 season are available online at the following links:

• Extended Falconry Guidelines
• Gun Season Frameworks
• Goose and Ducky Hunting Zones

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is hosting a series of public forums on its proposal to allow people who do not have state-issued hunting, fishing or trapping licenses access to state game lands, shooting ranges and boating access areas.

The proposed Conservation Access Pass would grant non-license holders access to and use of more than 2 million acres of state game lands, five state wildlife-owned and managed shooting ranges, and more than 250 boating access areas to more than 100 bodies of water for non-registered vessel owners.

The pass would allow those who do not have a state Wildlife Resources Commission-issued license to carry out a variety of activities on state-owned and -managed game lands, including hiking, birdwatching, biking, camping, dog walking, geocaching, and foraging, according to the commission’s website.

Pass holders would also be allowed to paddle non-motorized vessels from boat accesses and target shoot at state-managed shooting ranges.

Commission representatives will explain what is under consideration, answer questions, and gather feedback from attendees on the proposed pass program at these regional forums.

The forum in eastern North Carolina is set for 7-9 p.m. Feb. 25 at Pitt Community College, 169 Bulldog Run, Winterville.

A virtual forum will be hosted 6-8 p.m. March 4. Registration is available online.

Virtual forums will be recorded and posted to the commission’s YouTube channel. Comments and questions may be submitted online.

In the fall of 1927, G. Albert Lyon, millionaire businessman, gifted inventor, and renowned sportsman was restless and looking for a challenge.

It could be almost anything: a new gadget to tinker with in his home laboratory, a journey to an exotic country to hunt big game, or maybe a fall fishing adventure in Cape Hatteras, one of his favorite places in the world.

Lyon grew up in Philadelphia and worked as a mechanic. By day, he repaired engines, but at night, he tinkered and explored. Friends described the ebullient entrepreneur as bursting with energy and ideas. A dropout, Lyon was smarter by years than many of his better-educated companions, and more ambitious as well.

At the age of 19, he was awarded his first patent for an automobile bumper, and soon thereafter borrowed $100 to start a manufacturing company. As with many of Lyon’s ideas, the one for a bumper came from everyday life. One morning, Lyon was walking to his job at the garage when he saw a woman lose control of her sedan and crash into a street lamp, crumpling the hood. The accident left Lyon to wonder why the sedan didn’t have some sort of protective girdle or skirt, and he set about designing one. His timing was impeccable. Automobiles were transforming the daily lives of Americans and sales were booming. Within a few years, Lyon had earned his first million; many more would follow.

Patents would also keep coming, year after year: for bumpers, hub caps and stainless-steel wheel covers, fender wells and skirts, steering wheel attachments, luggage carriers, rims, disks, radiator baffles, side mirrors, horns and, later, helmets, sailboats, even aluminum masts for yachts. In all, Lyon would be awarded nearly 1,000 patents, establishing him as one of the most prolific inventors in history.

But Lyon’s unique spirit of inquiry wasn’t limited to tinkering. He also painted portraits, designed his own vacation home, studied the planets and stars, dove on coral reefs in the Bahamas, kept two or three chess games going at once, and amused his friends with his skills at the slingshot.

Lyon later moved to Allenhurst, New Jersey, from Philadelphia, but also spent part of his time in Detroit.

According to century-old newspaper stories, Lyon first visited the Outer Banks in the early 1920s to go fishing with his friends Rex Beach, a popular author of outdoor adventures tales, and Van Campen Heilner, a silver spoon explorer, and the son of a wealthy coal magnate. Heilner and Lyon both lived near Asbury Park, on the northern New Jersey coast, then a kind of arcadia for sportsmen, artists, and writers. They fished and hunted for waterfowl along Barnegat Bay with the noted illustrator, Frank Stick, who also lived nearby.

During one of their adventures, Lyon’s yacht, Alberta, exploded and burned to the waterline near the mouth of the Barnegat Inlet. Lyon and Stick saved themselves by jumping into the swirling waters.

Lyon and his pals made the long journey to the Outer Banks to take advantage of the world-famous fishing there. The warm waters of the Gulf Stream hug the coastline near Cape Hatteras, drawing some of the Atlantic’s largest and most-prized species – yellowfin tuna, blue marlin, and red drum.

Heilner already had a small fishing camp between Hatteras Village and the inlet. He also owned a 1920 Model T outfitted with fishing rods and gear, known locally as “The Pride of Pamlico.” They used the sedan to travel up and down the banks in search of fishing holes, landing 100 channel bass during one adventure, scores of red drum during another.

Lyon decided it was time to own a piece of Hatteras for himself. He purchased a 1,500-acre tract at the southern tip of Hatteras Island, not far from the world-famous inlet, from Andrew S. Austin, a local merchant. The following year, Austin helped Lyon build a hunting lodge, later named the Gooseville Gun Club. The simple structure wasn’t as large or elaborate as some of the other hunting lodges, but it served its purpose and over the years was greatly enjoyed by Lyon and his guests. Aptly, the land surrounding the lodge was shaped like a fishhook and included a creek, nearby sand reef and two miles of unspoiled oceanfront.

Luther Austin, the brother of Andrew and the longtime manager of the hunting lodge, recalled that Lyon would “travel down to Gooseville on his yacht,” which was also named Alberta, for one of his daughters, to hunt and fish with his family and friends. Rex Beach was a frequent companion and kept a houseboat nearby.

“He stopped in here and they hunted. This feller Rex had a houseboat. He had all of his hunting equipment on it. They stopped in here and old man Lyon was with him. That’s why he built the place here,” Luther Austin explained to Elizabeth Farrow and several co-authors in a history of the Gooseville Gun Club.

The hunting parties used a small boat to get out to the sand reef, where they had blinds, batteries and sink boxes, Austin recalled. The boxes were made from concrete and sunk in the sand. When the tide came in, they pulled a canvas cover around themselves and used iron decoys to sink the wooden batteries low in the water. Of course, there were wooden decoys as well. So many, it took several trips to haul them all out, Austin told the authors.

In the 1930s, Lyon hired a well-known local pilot, David Driskill, to ferry wealthy guests from Manteo and other locations to his hunting lodge. The design and operation of airplanes had improved dramatically since the Wright Brothers made their first heavier-than-air flight in 1903. But coastal flight, with its unpredictable winds, layers of marine fog, and beach landings, was still challenging. As if to prove the point, Driskill lost one of his wheels during a takeoff when it became stuck in the beach sand, according to published reports.

During the Great Depression, Driskill delivered mail, food and supplies to the federal work camps scattered up and down the Outer Banks. Thousands of poor, itinerant workers were building an artificial sand dike from the Virginia border to Ocracoke Island. According to a 2018 Driskill profile by the historian Casey Huegel, Driskill also flew more than 500 injured workers from Cape Hatteras to a Marine Corps base hospital in Norfolk. Later, Driskill became one of the first test pilots for prototype helicopters and flew one over the Outer Banks photographing the government’s sand dune. In October, 1949, Driskill was killed while testing an experimental helicopter near Moorestown, New Jersey.

Over the years, Lyon entertained scores of visitors at the Gooseville Gun Club. Many of them were wealthy business acquaintances and artists. At the same time, he tried to maintain good relations with locals from the nearby villages. In 1930, he donated $35,000 for a club building and library for high school girls in Hatteras. The hope, speculated one writer, was that the club would positively direct the girls’ “energies which in some instances, might otherwise go astray.”

Lyon’s attitude toward the locals stiffened after he found hundreds of red drum left to rot on the beach by a careless angler. Afterward, he positioned a guard on his property and angered locals by blocking them from hunting and fishing. For a time, he also battled efforts by the National Park Service to condemn his property for a national seashore on the Outer Banks. In 1954, Lyon finally sold his club and land to the Park Service for $47,000.

Lyon shifted his attention to the tiny tropical island of Bimini, in the Bahamas, where he built a million-dollar mansion on Paradise Point and spent his days snorkeling and fishing the gin-clear waters for bonefish and tuna. In 1957, a writer for Sports Illustrated profiled Lyon, calling him “The Commodore of Bimini.” The writer described a typical Lyon day this way:

“Guests find a typical day can begin in the predawn darkness with the Commodore rousing the house to come look at a favorite star through his telescope on the roof. A swim in the pool or sea may follow, and after breakfast the day really gets under way. The morning may be taken up with deep sea fishing for giant tuna or blue marlin; or a skin-diving expedition, led by the Commodore, to the wrecks around the reefs and an hour of water skiing, and always a continuous chess game aboard either of the two fishing cruisers which act as floating bases for the day’s sports.”

Two eastern North Carolina men have been found guilty of 15 counts of unlawfully taking deer at night using a spotlight.

Dylan Scott of New Hanover County and Nicholas Rackley of Duplin County have been ordered to pay $9,030 in replacement costs for illegally killing 15 deer with the use and aid of an artificial light, referred to as spotlighting, in Duplin County.

Scott was fined $1,500, his hunting license will be revoked for 10 years, and he received five years of supervised probation. Rackley was ordered to pay $750 and his hunting license will be revoked for five years.

Wildlife Resources Commission officials were contacted with an anonymous tip through its Turn-in-Poachers Program, called NC WILDTIP, Nov. 28, 2023. The tip, which included a photo of Rackley posing with 15 antlerless white-tailed deer, stated Rackley killed all 15 deer the previous night and forwarded the photo to multiple individuals.

“It’s a big penalty we hope sends a strong message,” Capt. Chad Arnold, who heads NCWRC’s Investigative Unit and NC WILDTIP program, said in a statement. “We typically don’t see punishments like this, but we also typically don’t find individuals who kill 15 deer in one night’s illegal escapades.”

Wildlife Resources Commission officers obtained a search warrant after the anonymous tip, and during the investigation, Rackley admitted he and Scott shot 15 deer in Duplin County on the night of Nov. 27, 2023. They took the carcasses to a home in Pender County to have the deer processed. At the Pender location, officers found four coolers full of deer meat. The resident admitted to processing the deer for Rackley. Search warrants were issued for Scott, and his truck and phone were taken for evidence, according to the commission.

In the past six months, Wildlife Resources Commission has received 598 tips through NC WILDTIP and rewarded a total of $3,478.

Anyone with information on illegal hunting can anonymously submit information through a secured online reporting tool on the agency’s website. Information may also be submitted by texting keyword WILDTIP and the tip information to 847411 or through a mobile app. To report a poaching violation in progress, call Wildlife Law Enforcement dispatch at 800-662-7137. Tips that lead to arrests and convictions may lead to a reward of $100 to $1,000.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission will be talkin’ turkey during a series of turkey hunting webinars next month.

Each free, hourlong course will cover topics including biology, species habits, habitats, scouting, essential equipment, setup, effective shot placement, decoy placement and hunting strategies. Classes will conclude with an interactive question-and-answer session.

Throughout the series, instructors will provide a thorough overview on how to prepare for a hunt, what to expect, and how to enjoy time in the wild while hunting.

“The webinars are especially intended for those that have never hunted and lack access to a hunting mentor, although they are open to all skill levels,” said WRC Hunting Engagement Coordinator Walter “Deet” James.

The series will be held over the course of three consecutive evenings as follows:

• Feb. 7, Biology for Hunters, Regulations, Where to Hunt and Scouting, 7 – 8 p.m.
• Feb. 8, Firearms, Ammo, Clothing and Miscellaneous Equipment, 7 – 8 p.m.
• Feb. 9, Hunting Techniques and Strategies, 7 – 8 p.m.

Space is limited and online preregistration is required. 

Participants will receive a Zoom link after registering via a confirmation email.

The class will be recorded and a link to the recording will be emailed to registered participants by March 1.

Wild turkey open seasons for male or bearded turkeys are April 1-7 for youth under 18 and April 8-May 6 statewide.

Turkey hunting rules and regulations are available in the 2022 – 2023 North Carolina Regulations Digest. For more information on turkey seminars and other skills based seminars, visit ncwildlife.org/sbs or contact James at walter.james@ncwildlife.org or at 984-202-1387.

RALEIGH – Hunting season for wild turkey opens in North Carolina April 2.

The youth season is April 2-8, and the statewide season is April 9-May 7. Hunters are limited to two turkeys for the season, only one of which may be taken during the youth season.

Chris Kreh, assistant chief of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Wildlife Management Division said in an announcement Monday that the 2021 season was another remarkable one for turkey hunting, with a total reported harvest of 21,974 birds. It was the second-highest reported harvest on record and only slightly below the all-time record set in 2020.  Kreh said that North Carolina’s wild turkey population remains robust despite last year’s increase in hunting pressure and harvest.

“Our agency has safeguards in place to ensure that overharvest does not occur,” Kreh said. “Five weeks of hunting is conservative compared to most states, and hunters must comply with a two-bird limit and may only take male or bearded birds.”

Kreh added that the timing of the state’s harvest season is strategic.

“The season dates offer considerable opportunity for breeding before males are harvested. Hens are able to nest and raise poults as they always do.”

The youth season is open to anyone under the age of 18, and hunters aged 16 and 17 must have hunting licenses. Youth under 16 are exempt from license requirements provided they are accompanied by a licensed adult who is at least 18. Youth who have licenses or a hunter education card may hunt without adult supervision. All hunters must report their turkey harvest on a Big Game Harvest Report Card.

Hunting licenses can be purchased on the agency’s website, and hunter education courses are available across the state and online.

Anyone who witnesses suspicious activity such as poaching or baiting may be eligible to receive a reward of up to $1,000 by reporting information that leads to a conviction to the Turn-In-Poachers program. For information on eligible violations and to learn how to submit a tip, visit ncwildlife.org/WildTip.

For information about turkey hunting, including hunter safety and where to hunt, visit ncwildlife.org.

Lifetime Sportsman and Lifetime Unified Sportsman licenses are now more affordable for North Carolinians aged 50-69.

Recent legislation now allows for older residents to purchase at half price Lifetime Sportsman licenses for $265 and Lifetime Unified Sportsman license, which includes fishing in coastal waters, for $358, according to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

“We are constantly identifying ways for North Carolinians to take advantage of our state’s wonderful fishing and hunting opportunities. After careful review, we determined offering a segment our lifetime licenses at a more affordable rate was an option we could pursue,” N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission Executive Director Cameron Ingram said in a statement. “We are grateful to be able to offer the new rates and hope eligible resident anglers and hunters will support wildlife conservation by taking advantage of the new pricing.”

A Lifetime Sportsman license allows for statewide hunting and inland fishing for residents. This license includes privileges for hunting for big game, hunting on game lands, hunting for waterfowl, fishing in Public Mountain Trout Waters, fishing in trout waters on game lands and fishing in joint waters but does not include the bear management e-stamp, nonresident bear license, federal duck stamp or fishing in coastal waters.

A Lifetime Unified Sportsman license allows for the same privileges as a Lifetime Sportsman license but also includes fishing in coastal waters.  

Eligible individuals may purchase these licenses online, at a local wildlife service agent or by calling 888-248-6834

Residents who receive Medicaid, food stamps, or Work First Family Assistance through the county Department of Social Services and fish for subsistence can receive a North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries Coastal Recreational Fishing License waiver at no charge through their county’s Department of Social Services office.

HARKERS ISLAND — The lottery for temporary duck blind permits for the 2018-2019 season at Cape Lookout National Seashore will begin at 8 a.m. Sept. 10 at the visitor center, the seashore announced Wednesday.

The park will use the lottery system, as it has in the past, to determine the initial order for registration.

All hunters present at the Harkers Island Visitor Center at 8 a.m. Monday, Sept. 10, will draw a numbered ticket to determine the order of registering for the permit, which allows hunters to place and leave temporary duck blinds in the park from Sept. 10 until March 31, 2019.

Hunters must bring their current North Carolina State hunting license with a signed federal duck stamp, a picture identification such as a driver’s license and be prepared to identify preferred blind location on a computerized topographic map.

Hunters who arrive at the visitor center Sept. 10 after the lottery starts will register on a first come, first served basis after the initial lottery participants have registered and selected their blinds.

There is a $50 administrative permit fee, which includes one blind, and an additional $25 fee for the second blind. The fees are used to administer and monitor the duck blind program.

Blinds must be removed by the permittee no later than March 31, 2019.

Hunting is authorized within Cape Lookout National Seashore, subject to State of North Carolina hunting regulations, as well as Federal law.  Construction of permanent duck blinds is illegal. Hunters are advised that failure to obtain a permit or failure to remove blinds at the end of the permit period may result in penalties, a bill for the cost of removing the blind, and/or exclusion from the program in future years, according to the release. Illegal duck blinds found in the park will be removed without notice and the cost of removing illegal and abandoned blinds significantly adds to the cost of the program and may have to be passed on to the hunters in future years.

Commercial hunting or fishing guides must obtain a permit to conduct commercial activities in a national park and should contact park Business Manager Katherine Cushinberry at 252-728-8899 for more information.

Learn More

• Cape Lookout Special Use Permit For Temporary Duck Blinds

HARKERS ISLAND –  Permits for temporary duck blinds will be available at the Cape Lookout National Seashore Visitor Center here at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5, acting Superintendent Jeff West announced Tuesday.

For the 2017-2018 season, the park will continue to utilize a lottery system to determine the initial order for registration.  All hunters who are present at the Harkers Island Visitor Center at 9 a.m. Sept. 5 will receive a numbered application and numbers will be drawn to determine the order for registering a duck blind permit. Permits will continue to be available 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, except holidays, after Sept. 5.

The duck blind permit allows hunters to place and leave temporary duck blinds in the park from Sept. 5, until March 31, 2018. Blinds must be removed by the permittee no later than March 31, 2018.  Construction of permanent duck blinds is illegal.

The application numbers will be non-transferable.  The name and hunting license number on the application must match the blind permit holder. All hunters who arrive after 9 a.m. and are not present at the start of the lottery, will register on a first-come, first-served basis after the initial lottery participants have registered and selected their blinds.

There is a $50 administrative permit fee, which includes one blind, and a $25 fee for the second blind.  The fees are used to administer and monitor the duck blind program.

In order to qualify for a duck blind permit, you must bring your current North Carolina State hunting license with a signed federal duck stamp, a picture identification such as a driver’s license, and be prepared to identify your blind location on a topographic map.

The use of the lottery system for the first day of registration has been working and will be continued this year.  Cape Lookout National Seashore always invite the public to make suggestions to help improve the program.

Hunting is authorized within Cape Lookout National Seashore, subject to State of North Carolina hunting regulations, as well as Federal law.

Hunters are advised that failure to obtain a permit or failure to remove blinds at the end of the permit period may result in a fine, and possibly exclusion from the program in future years.  Illegal duck blinds found in the park will be removed without notice and the cost of removing illegal and abandoned blinds significantly adds to the cost of the program.

Commercial hunting or fishing guides must obtain a permit to conduct commercial activities in a national park.  Guides should contact park Administrative Officer Katherine Cushinberry about permits at 252-728-2250, extension 3019.

Learn More

• National Park Service

Steve Dinkelacker isn’t wild about the idea that the state’s main wildlife commission floated recently about allowing an alligator hunt in North Carolina. A certified wildlife biologist and an expert on alligators in North Carolina, Dinkelacker isn’t anti-hunting, or even against hunting alligators in North Carolina… someday.

“I can envision an alligator hunt in the state,” said Dinkelacker, who is a biology professor at Framingham State University in Massachusetts, but has conducted years of research on the animals here. “And I understand the appeal. It’s an apex predator, one of the ultimate prizes for any hunter. It’s like a bear.

“But I can’t support it in North Carolina yet,” he continued. “A lot more research is needed before anyone can be sure that any alligator hunt in North Carolina won’t harm the species. The data just isn’t there. ”

Dinkelacker recently expressed that same opinion in formal comments to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, which has proposed an alligator hunt in the state in 2016 and will take public comments in a series of hearings, including one in Edenton on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and another the next day at the same time at Craven Community College in New Bern.

According to the commission’s public notice, the proposed season would be from Sept. 1 to Oct. 1, by permit only, with a bag limit of one alligator that can be taken with a catch pole, harpoon, gig, wooden peg, bang stick and bow and arrow. A gun could be used only to “dispatch” alligators that are restrained.

In the official public hearing document, the commission states that a hunt is justified because, “There is increased interest in hunting American alligators in eastern North Carolina, and population evaluations indicate that the population can sustain a limited harvest.”

How Many Out There?

Dinkelacker doesn’t doubt the interest – generated in large part by increased sightings of and confrontations, however benign, with alligators – but he and others have serious doubts about the population estimates and the methodology.

“You can see a lot of alligators in one place, but they will be totally absent in others,” he said. “And what they have primarily based their numbers on is what’s called a ‘spotlight survey.’” That amounts to cruising along waterways and using a powerful spotlight to seek the telltale red shine of gators’ eyes.

Chris Moorman, coordinator of fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology programs at N.C. State University in Raleigh, led the most recent significant study, in 2012-13, and his report did indeed find plenty of alligators, comparatively speaking.

The research team covered a similar compilation of lakes, rivers and swamps in 25 counties as a previous survey published in 1986 did, and coordinated it with commission biologists and officers. They counted 117 gators on 103 routes.

In June 2013, according to the report, the team focused more intensely on the most productive gator locations, and estimated 672 gators on 43 routes, using a statistical model to estimate animals that were likely there, but hidden from the spotlights.

But Moorman’s report concluded that a harvest might send overall numbers falling by removing females from the population, in large part because alligators in North Carolina – the northern limit of their range – don’t grow and reproduce nearly as fast here as they do in warmer states like Louisiana or Florida. Females here don’t reproduce until they are 18-20 years old, or perhaps older, compared to 10 years, for example, in Louisiana. Females ‘gators here also have fewer babies.

In his comments to the commission, Dinkelacker stated that, “To my knowledge, nothing is known about alligator reproduction in N.C… Best guess scenarios would probably use data from South Carolina, which are probably incorrect for North Carolina, given the latitudinal and habitat differences.”

Hunters typically take both males and females, since the sexes look alike, according to Dinkelacker. Alligators longer than 10 feet are usually males, but those less than 10 feet long can be either sex. Moorman said in an interview that his work couldn’t give an accurate estimate of the total gator population in the state, although that could be done through modeling if the commission wanted it done. And, he said, the geographical differences in the population are striking, or at least were he’s done his work.

Some Numbers

For example, the teams found 53 alligators in Lake Ellis Simon near Havelock, in the central coastal region, up from 33 in the last count in the early 1980s, and 79, up from 40, at Orton Pond in Brunswick County, but only a few in the most northern sampling site, Merchants Millpond State Park near Virginia.

As a result of the long time period necessary for reproduction and the geographic distribution, Moorman said, the report concluded that, “even low levels of female harvest would cause populations to transition from stable or slightly increasing to a state of decline.”

The report also said alligators were most abundant in areas where they are most protected, including military bases, national forests and private property with restricted access to water bodies. He pointed out that alligators in North Carolina are susceptible to harsh winters, and can be affected adversely by hurricanes, too. That relative abundance in protected areas, Dinkelacker said, points out the continued fragility of the population and the likely problems if hunting were to be allowed.

Moorman, like Dinkelacker, said he’s not necessarily against an eventual alligator hunt. “We were only concerned … about … what would maintain a stable population,” he said.

Dinkelacker said the surveys in North Carolina have not been adequate to justify a hunt. “It’s like counting deer,” he said. “You can go out in one area one night and count 10, then count two in the same area the next night, then 20 the next night. What’s the real number? You don’t know. All you can really say is, ‘Yes, there are deer.’ It’s much the same with alligators. And I’m just not confident that is adequate to justify a hunt, especially given the long, long time it takes a female to reach reproductive size in North Carolina. It’s not like Florida, where there clearly are a LOT of alligators, up to a million by some estimates. That gives you some margin of error. In North Carolina, there just isn’t enough data.”

Dinkelacker knows that North Carolina is the only state in the American alligator’s range where a hunt is not allowed, and he knows there’s a lot of pressure to allow one. But he also noted that alligators can be taken now, if they are a problem, under a “depredation” permit, by state agents.

If the state wants to allow a hunt, Dinkelacker said, it should invest the necessary resources to get a population estimate that supports the contention that a hunt is sustainable.

The American alligator was listed as “threatened” on the U.S. Endangered Species List in the 1960s. They had become became scarce early in the 20th century, because of loss of habitat, in part, and unregulated hunting.

“We don’t want the alligator to disappear, for a variety of reasons,” Dinkelacker said. “An apex predator affects a lot of things.”

For example, they eat nutria and beavers. Those animals, he said, can play roles, some known, some not known, in flood control.

‘Delicate Balance’

John Hammond, a fish and wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Raleigh, said that while it’s true that the American alligator was “de-listed” in the 1980s, the slow reproduction of alligators in the state make a hunt at least somewhat problematic; it’s difficult to know what level of hunting would render the population unsustainable.

His agency, he said, hasn’t taken a position on the hunting proposal and would work with the commission if the state decides to allow hunting.

“It’s a delicate balance, though,” Hammond cautioned. “If a hunt is allowed, it would certainly be wise to keep a close eye on what happens. We look at the ecosystem as a whole, and the alligator is an important part of it.”

Then, too, Dinkelacker said, there’s the simple fact that the alligator is a native species, and one that many want to see, alive. “It is a magnificent creature,” he said. “People might be afraid of them, but many do want to see them, and not just on a wall somewhere.”

Dinkelacker, like Moorman, noted that no matter the accuracy of the surveys, it is very clear that alligator populations in North Carolina vary widely by region, with far more in the southeast and relatively few in the northeast. While there is some indication the gator is extending its range northward, both said, if that’s occurring, it’s a very slow move.

Still, Allen Boynton, the commission’s diversity coordinator, said the regional distribution could be a reason to establish different hunting rules in different areas, or for allowing a hunt in one area and not in another, should the commission approve a hunt. “We do that all the time,” he said. “A good example is deer. We have a shorter season in the mountains, and we don’t allow dogs in the hunt there.”

Boynton said he believes the numbers do make a case to justify a limited gator hunt, and agreed there’s a lot of interest.

Part of that interest, he said, is obviously that people are seeing more alligators – and they don’t want to see them in their swimming pools or too near them on the golf course – and part of it is the popularity of “gator hunt” shows, such as Louisiana-based “Swamp People,” on television. Hunters also hear friends from other states talk about alligator hunting.

Boynton, though also understands the scientists’ concerns. “They (alligators) do grow much more slowly here,” he said. “But if we do allow a hunt, and really all we’re doing right now is getting public input, we would take that into consideration, and we’d be very careful. We’d certainly increase our monitoring of the population so we’d know what would happen.”

Although there have been a lot of budget cuts in the state in recent years, Boynton believes the commission could find partners in the state universities to handle the additional monitoring and research.

He also noted that while the number of alligators in North Carolina is small in comparison to the numbers in other states, the American alligator population as a whole has been growing throughout the range. The main reason it’s still protected, he said, is because it’s so similar in appearance to the crocodile, which is considered more threatened.

Boynton noted that the commission’s discussion about a potential hunt took into account the need to maintain a stable alligator population because a big decline in numbers would diminish “viewing opportunities” that could affect some businesses.

The commission, he said, does not plan to charge for the permit itself, but could charge potential hunters a $5 fee to enter a lottery to win a permit.

It’s not hard to kill gators, Dinkelacker notes, and he worries about. “You can just throw out a baited hook,” he said. “It’s kind of like setting a crab pot. How hard is that? And you can shoot one in a ditch from the back of a truck. I’m not judging anyone. Again, I’m not against hunting, and I get why people want to hunt alligators. I just think the data we have isn’t good yet. I think it is premature.”

Related Content

• How Many Alligators in N.C.?

To Learn More

• Proposed hunting regulation, see pg. 12
• Profile of the American alligator
• Alligators on the rise in N.C. but vulnerable