TWRA will begin enforcement of the new Deer Bait Privilege License following new state legislation.
TWRA Public Relations Director Emily Buck said the new law establishes a $50 fee for residents and a $100 fee for non-residents who wish to use bait for white-tail deer. Buck said the rules include no exemptions for landowners, leaseholders, youth hunters or those who already possess lifetime or annual sportsman’s licenses.
“This was not our idea,” Buck said. “The agency has been opposed to it and so for those hunters who want it, wanted to be able to hunt over bait, you know, the license was free when it did not exist. The General Assembly did this, they chose to allow hunting over bait and they set the cost.”
Buck said the agency has opposed baiting for 75 years due to concerns regarding wildlife health and population management. Buck said the agency relies on community tips to identify those who are in violation of the law. Buck said these bait piles can have unintended consequences.
“You may think to yourself, ‘I’m going to put out some bait so I can hunt deer better’, but it can have a pretty negative effect on your turkey population if you’re also an avid turkey hunter,” Buck said. “So we need to be able to monitor the deer and turkey populations and how bait will influence that so that we can then make recommendations for regulations moving forward.”
Buck said baiting accelerates the spread of disease by unnaturally congregating wildlife in a single spot where saliva, urine, and feces can mix. Buck said the General Assembly granted the agency authority to prohibit baiting for disease management, meaning it will remain illegal in the Chronic Wasting Disease management zone in West Tennessee and any county with a positive CWD detection.
Buck said baiting often attracts mid-sized predators like raccoons and opossums that prey on turkey nests. Buck said lower-quality corn used for bait can also contain aflatoxins, which are moldy toxins that can be fatal to turkeys and bobwhite quail. Buck said with licenses, the TWRA can at least track which hunters are using bait.
“We’re trying to be prepared by having these records, this data, to know what’s going on with bait on the landscape so that if some of these worst-case scenarios come up with devastating effects to the turkey population, we need to be able to know what’s going on so we can adjust accordingly,” Buck said.
Buck said the agency will enforce the new requirements on private property through traditional law enforcement methods, like search warrants. Buck said if officers establish probable cause that illegal baiting is occurring, they can obtain warrants to enter and inspect private land.
“One thing that we do see, have heard from other states about what they see that happens with baiting is that it sometimes turns into a bit of a bait war, so you’ll have neighbors who choose to bait and some that do not,” Buck said. “Some hunters have ethical oppositions to hunting over bait and so whichever neighbor puts out the most bait tends to attract the most wildlife.”
Buck said the new license will not increase federal funding for the agency because it is not a standalone hunting license and does not change the number of certified hunters reported to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Buck said the agency is almost exclusively funded by fees from hunters and anglers, which are used for conservation, research and public access.
“For those who are feeling like it’s a money grab, we hope they understand that their, their funding goes directly back into towards wildlife conservation and we do our best to be fiscally responsible with it,” Buck said.