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It smells like hunting spirit out there

Commentary

It’s finally the end of August and the hunter can smell the upcoming seasons in the air. Everything in the woods seems especially pungent and how we savor those scents.

Another great smell at this time of year are the new things we order online and how new they smell as we eagerly rip open the box. A new tree stand is an especially great purchase and today’s stands are certainly an improvement over the very first ones ever offered to the public decades ago.

I remember clearly my very first tree stand. You had to put your feet in the bottom part and pull it up the trunk then be sure it gripped the trunk firmly while you pushed the seat part up higher. I so vividly remember my first attempt to practice using this stand on a tree in my backyard when I got stuck somehow about halfway up and couldn’t move. Good thing I was just practicing at home because I let out a banshee yell that I’m sure every creature for a half mile had their fur stand straight up. It brought my husband tearing out of the house and the sight that he saw was one I never wanted to repeat.

I was pretty proud of my ability to do all these outdoor things myself so it was humiliating to have to beg for help from him to get me down. It was no surprise to him, however, that his wife was stuck halfway up a tree and deftly he maneuvered me down. I had bruised arms and a bruised ego.

The Game Commission has issued a warning that we all must take seriously because every year we hear the reports of hunters who fell out of tree stands from 15 feet up and broke bones or fell onto their arrows or who hung from safety ropes for a long time before rescue could come. It’s a frightening prospect.

Despite the ugly story I just shared with you, it is imperative that you practice using your tree stand at home before you take it to the woods. It is also just plain wise to let someone know where you will be hunting just in case something unforeseen happens. If you are hanging upside down from a rope from your treestand and your cell phone has fallen on the ground a few feet away but you can’t reach it, you are in big trouble.

Tree stands and portable hunting blinds left on game lands and other public-access hunting properties under the Game Commission’s management need to be marked to identify the owner, under a new requirement recently enacted.

Under existing regulation, tree stands and portable blinds may be set up and left on state game lands and other Game Commission-managed property, but stands and blinds must be removed no later than two weeks after the close of the final deer-hunting season within that Wildlife Management Unit.

However, many stands statewide are left out beyond that deadline each year and on some public access tracts, they seem to be becoming permanent fixtures, the commissioners said.

The proposal would make the owners of such stands and blinds identifiable.

The tagging requirements would be similar to those that apply to trappers. Stands and blinds placed on game lands and other Game Commission managed hunting property would need to be conspicuously marked with a durable and legible identification tag that includes the owner’s first and last name and legal home address, or in the alternative, bears the CID number appearing on the owner’s hunting license, or a number issued by the Game Commission to the stand or blind owner. Suitcase tags work wells for use as a treestand or blind identifier.

The board has noted that it continues to support the temporary placement of tree stands and hunting blinds on state game lands and other hunter access properties.

In addition to deer seasons, the overnight placement of portable hunting blinds is permitted on game lands during the spring turkey season within each Wildlife Management Unit.

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