Twenty-two officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission conducted a 2 day operation in the Tate's Hall State Forest last month to help lower the tensions between local and non-local hunters

Twenty-two officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission conducted a 2 day operation in the Tate's Hall State Forest last month to help lower the tensions between local and non-local hunters.

They called it Operation “Friends and Neighbors.”

The two-day operation addressed elevated tensions between local and non-local dog hunters within the management area.

During the operation 620 hunters were checked, 19 warnings and 13 citations were issued, two of which pertained to the Illegal harvest of antlerless deer and possession of deer in violation of the forked-horn requirement.

Tensions between local and non-local hunters has been a growing issue for years and one the Franklin County Commission has tried to address with little luck.

The issue stems from changes in hunting seasons around the state that allows the general gun season in the Northwest District of the state to extend about two weeks longer than it does in other parts of Florida.

That brings a lot of hunters from further south to hunt in our area for the last two weeks of the season which leads to conflicts between local hunters and those visiting the area.

For two years in a row the Franklin County Commission has requested that the state end hunting seasons statewide at the same time.

So far there has been no action taken on that request.

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