Meeting on deer, turkey hunting held in Jackson

JACKSON, Tenn. – The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency held its first public meeting Monday to discuss some changes coming to deer and turkey management.

The meeting comes as the TWRA is in the process of developing new deer and turkey hunting units and season setting processes for the 2024-25 hunting seasons, called Adaptive Harvest Management.

Hunters came together at the West Tennessee Ag Research and Education Center for a chance to see the potential hunting package changes and give their input on the new system.

Though season packages are expected to be fairly similar to previous years, Emily Buck, the Director of Communications and Outreach, says there is a big change on the way for hunting management maps.

“One of the changes that hunters will be seeing is a new map of turkey management units. Deer hunters are already used to having that regional approach, but turkey hunters now will have management on much more of a regional basis that really will be able to allow us to tailor that management to communities,” Buck said.

The wildlife agency says this new process will provide more transparency for hunters, consider additional biological factors, and allow for more stakeholder values to be incorporated into the decision-making process.

If you missed the Jackson meeting, the next meeting will be held Tuesday night in Nashville, followed by a meeting in Crossville on Wednesday.

All deer and turkey hunters are invited to attend and make their voices heard.

Find more local news here.