The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission has asked legislative sponsors to "hold off on HB 1155."

That is House Bill 1155 (text below), a law that would have allowed TWRA to charge Sportsman's License holders additional fees for certain quota hunt permits and/or application fees. A wide-spread protest went up across the state, spearheaded by many hunters who frequent the www.TNDeer.com Internet Forum.

TWRA has always promoted the $136 Annual Resident Sportsman License as the one license that covers everything... buy this and for that year, you don't have to worry about buying another license or permit. TWRA obviously did a good job on their marketing because thousands of hunters buy into it every year. In many cases they might actually spend more money than if they bought separate licenses and permits... but they buy the Sportsmans License for convenience.

Apparently the thought of having to pay additional fees to apply for selected, high-demand hunts or permits didn't sit well with many hunters.

TWRA however is working hard to enhance it's existing elk management program. Their idea was to do as many other states have done and charge hunters simply to apply for one of five elk hunting permits that might be offered in 2008. They said the program has been extremely expensive and to-date has been largely supported by private donations from groups such as the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Shiker-Safari Club and the Tennessee Wildlife Federation. They felt it was time to take the burden off of the private conservation groups and put it on the hunters who might directly benefit from the program.

TWRA argued that a Sportsman License is basically a "one-year contract," and the terms of such one-year contracts are routinely changed. Holders of the expensive Lifetime Licenses would not have been affected by the change.

The suggested application fee was around $40. In some states as many as 10,000 hunters have applied for the highly-sought-after elk permits. If that had been the case here it would have generated $400,000 for continued efforts to improve Tennessee's fledgling elk herd.

Protesters argued that it's not fair to "change the rules." They also argued that such a change would cause a precipitous drop in the sales of the $136 Sportsman Licenses that could ulitmately have cost TWRA much more money than it would have gained if HB 1155 was passed.

Their arguments and protests were heard and now it is back to the drawing board for TWRA.

According to folks who attended the Wednesday TWRC meetings in Nashville, TWRA still expects to hold an elk hunt in 2008, although that decision won't be final until future "season setting" meetings are held.

According to TWRA Spokesman Dan Hicks, the Agency has committed to making a $50,000 donation to Canada's Elk Island Park.

"They incurred about $100,000 expenses in capturing and preparing the 150 elk that were intended to be imported to Tennessee," said Hicks, "That $50,000 will actually be a downpayment if we get the importation program worked out next year so it's actually a win-win situation for us. That money will come out of the existing elk management budget."

TEXT OF HB 1155
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:
SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 70-2-201(e) is amended by adding the following language to the end of the third sentence:
; provided, that any person who purchases a sportsman license for the license year 2008/2009, or for any license year thereafter, may be charged a non-refundable drawing fee to enter a draw for a draw elk-take permit or for any draw hunt permit that the commission designates as a special hunt permit by rule.