TALLULAH — When asked what drew about 25 people to a hearing on a management plan for Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge, Mike Walker summed it up.

To comment

Those who did not attend the public hearings held last week on the 15-year management plan for the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge may submit a written comment to Refuge Planner Tina Chouinard via e-mail at Tina_Chouinard@fws.gov, with “Draft CCP Comments: Tensas River NWR” in the subject line. Comments can also be sent to her at Tensas River NWR, 2312 Quebec Road, Tallulah, LA 71282. Comments must be submitted by Feb. 23 to be considered for inclusion in the 15-year management plan.

“Not enough deer and too many bears,” said Walker, a lifelong resident of nearby Crowville, La., who has a hunting camp in the refuge.

The National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 mandated all refuges to come up with a 15-year management plan by 2012. Public hearings began four years ago to begin drafting a plan for the Tensas River NWR, and the Wednesday meeting was the last chance for public comments in person before the plan is released this summer.

While issues such as poor road conditions in the refuge and land acquisitions arose briefly, most at the hearing wanted to know what was going to be done to enhance the whitetail deer population and de-list the Louisiana black bear as “threatened” from the Endangered Species Act.

Tensas River NWR Manager Kelly Purkey said the preferred management plan presented is only a framework for more detailed policies to be adopted, but assured the attendees it will address deer and bear concerns. Additional goals are to make improvements to the visitors center in Tallulah, as well as enhance wildlife habitat by reducing invasive species and continuing to convert open fields to bottomland hardwood forest. 

“We know there is concern over the health, size and number of deer. What we will do to affect that, we haven’t decided, but it is something we will work on,” said Purkey. “We are also working on getting the Louisiana black bear de-listed.”   

Purkey said population data on deer and black bears within the refuge is incomplete. There has been no study on the deer population, but Purkey said she would be interested having one conducted in the future if the funds were available. Meanwhile, a research team from the University of Tennessee is two years into a three-year study to determine how many bears live in the refuge.

“I have heard estimates everywhere from 200 to 600, and some people think we have thousands because they see them so much,” said Purkey. “We know we have a healthy population, but we won’t know the exact numbers until we receive the final study. I anticipate (black bears) being de-listed in the next three to five years.”

Walker said he sees more bears than he does deer while hunting on the refuge.

“Everyday,” he said when asked how often he sees bears, “but you can go weeks without seeing any deer.” 

The 71,217-acre refuge is about 25 miles southwest of Vicksburg and encompasses portions of Madison, Tensas and Franklin parishes. Open for deer and waterfowl hunting, birdwatching, fishing and trail hiking, the refuge gets 70,000 to 80,000 visits per year, estimated Purkey. 

Like Walker, Jim Griffing is an avid bow hunter from Crowville who has a hunting camp within the refuge. He said he used to harvest trophy bucks out of the refuge on a regular basis, but has not even gotten a shot at one in recent years.

“I haven’t shot a deer in Tensas in two years because I haven’t seen one worth shooting,” said Griffing, who added he does not shoot does.

Purkey estimated the number of deer harvested on the refuge during the most recent seasons was down from a year previous by less than 10 percent, to about 650 total. However, she noted it is hard to compare the most recent hunt to those of five or ten years ago as the number of people hunting on the refuge has “dropped significantly.”

“We have 2,500 permits available each season that we give out through a lottery. We used to have 10,000 apply for those permits. This year we had one season in which all the permits were filled, and one that they weren’t,” she said.

As for the relationship between bears and deer, Purkey said she doesn’t think the increasing bear population is having a negative impact on the deer population, but does not have any scientific data to prove it.

“The hunters have definitely drawn that conclusion. (They) think the bears eat the fawns when they’re dropped,” she said. “My gut feeling is that’s not the leading cause of fawn mortality rates, but we don’t have any hard data at this point. That’s something we’ve discussed, and we’re considering doing a fawn mortality study to look at the percentage of fawns lost and what they’re lost to.” 

At a similar public hearing held Tuesday in Winnsboro, La., Purkey said the 14 people who attended expressed similar concerns about bear and deer populations. At both hearings the public was presented with three management options. One option is to continue managing the refuge as it has been managed since its inception in 1980, while a second option would be to abandon habitat and species management altogether and, as Purkey said, “lock the doors, walk away and leave it to its own devices.”

The preferred management plan would work to address bears, deer and other wildlife populations — including a feral hog problem — as well as create a minimum of 15,000 acres of additional hardwood forest within 15 years. It would also allow for the hiring of a second full-time law enforcement officer, an equipment operator, maintenance mechanic and wildlife technician. The refuge currently has 14 employees, while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principle federal agency responsible for managing it in addition to the approximately 560 other refuges throughout the country.

“A lot of people had given up on the refuge before you came, and I was one of them,” Griffing said at the end of the meeting to Purkey, who took over as refuge manager two years ago. “I hunt in a lot of other areas, but I think some of things you’re doing are going to bring (the deer) back. It’s not going to be fixed overnight, we know that, but at least the ship is starting to turn.”

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vickbsurgpost.com.