A $200 increase in the seafood dealers license will go to Sweet Grown Alabama to promote Alabama seafood. Photo by David Rainer

May 15, 2025

By DAVID RAINER, Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources

Severe weather last weekend hindered travel across the state, which limited the number of Alabama Conservation Advisory Board (CAB) members who were able to meet at Troy University for the second CAB meeting of the year.

Being one member short of a quorum to conduct any official business, the CAB members were apprised of what had occurred affecting the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) since the March meeting.

Conservation Commissioner Chris Blankenship updated the Board on the latest session of the Alabama Legislature. He thanked Deputy Commissioner Ed Poolos and Charlanna Skaggs, ADCNR’s General Counsel, and the legal staff for their work during the session.

Commissioner Blankenship highlighted several bills that were considered this year, including HB1 that dealt with a license increase for seafood dealers in the state.

“HB1 was introduced by Rep. (Chip) Brown (Hollinger’s Island),” he said. “It added $200 to the seafood dealer’s license, and that money was initially going to go to the Department of Public Health for seafood testing. Our Department, the Department of Agriculture, the Alabama Grocers’ Association, and others were able to work with Representative Brown and Senator Sessions so that $200 added to the seafood dealers license will now go to the ‘Sweet Grown Alabama’ program under the Department of Agriculture and Industries to promote Alabama seafood.” 

HB437 dealt with developing a shark warning system. Commissioner Blankenship said the original language would have made it difficult to implement. Compromise legislation was passed, and ADCNR will implement a workable shark warning system in the next few months so that if a verified, unprovoked attack occurs, a warning system will be in place to inform the public.

SB64 dealt with aquatic nuisance plants and the removal of those plants from the waterways if they are cut off.

“If people or companies cut a nuisance plant down in the water, they have to remove and not leave them in the water to rot,” Commissioner Blankenship said. 

SB171 prohibits the use of motorized vehicles, including ATVs, off-road vehicles and scooters, on submerged lands, such as creeks and streams, and below navigable waters. Violations are classified as Class C misdemeanors.

HB509 was legislation that dealt with deer breeders across the state. The legislation was strongly opposed by ADCNR and numerous national and state wildlife organizations. 

“It passed last week with an amendment that we negotiated where we will not go in any deer breeder facilities that are in a CWD (chronic wasting disease) zone and kill deer for testing without a link to a positive somewhere else in the facility,” Commissioner Blankenship said. “There was also a section in that legislation that requires us by March 1, 2026, to work with the industry and others, like the Wildlife Society, the Alabama Wildlife Federation, universities, the state veterinarian and our staff to develop a method to be able to allow movement of deer from deer breeders in a CWD zone to facilities outside the zone if they meet certain criteria we will establish by rule.

“I want to recognize the work done on this bill by the members of this CAB, the hunting public, the Alabama Wildlife Federation, The Wildlife Society, the Boone & Crockett Club and the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and many others. There were many groups that were advocates for the Department concerning that legislation that got it to a place we could live with.”

Commissioner Blankenship said good news also came out of the legislative session with the passing of HB186 that set the appropriations for executive, legislative and judicial agencies of the state.

“The budget for the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources will be $458.7 million dollars, the largest budget we’ve ever had,” he said. “That includes $6 million from the General Fund for capital improvements. Before two years ago, we had never received any money from the General Fund. This is the third year, and we have received $18 million total to do infrastructure work on shooting ranges, state lakes, State Parks projects and the (M. Barnett Lawley) Forever Wild Field Trial Area. We appreciate the support from the Legislature.

“We also received $1 million for implementation of the State Wildlife Action Plan. I had the opportunity to go down (Friday) with (CAB) Chairman (Joey) Dobbs, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Governor, Brooks McClendon, and others, and we released a whole bunch of indigo snakes in Conecuh National Forest. More than 325 indigo snakes have been released through that program.  The goal of these stocking releases is to get this species delisted from the Endangered Species Act.”

Alabama has so many trails that the Year of Alabama Trails will run through 2026. Photo by Billy Pope

Commissioner Blankenship also updated the Board on the numerous boating access projects completed or underway.

“We’ve got plenty of work underway,” he said. “The Weeks Bay Ramp parking is under construction. We cut the ribbon at the County Road 6 Ramp in Baldwin County that was funded through GOMESA. It was a $7 million project that was very well done. The Billy Goat Hole Ramp on Dauphin Island is under construction. The Chocolatta Bay Ramp parking will soon be done on the Causeway in Mobile. We have a ribbon cutting planned for McCarty’s Ferry Ramp on June 10. We recently finished the Highway 77 Ramp in Rainbow City.”

Commissioner Blankenship highlighted the fact that Alabama Tourism will be celebrating the Year of Alabama Trails for the next two years.

“ADCNR has more than 500 miles of trails in our State Parks System and close to 400 miles of trails in Forever Wild property for hiking, biking, horseback riding, canoeing, kayaking and other uses,” he said. “This will be the emphasis of our marketing over the next two years, promoting the trails on our ADCNR properties. I appreciate the work our staff and partners do in building and maintaining those trails.”

State Lands Director Patti McCurdy gave an update on hunting leases that State Lands manages for various state agencies for an additional revenue source.

“One of the ways we try to drive revenue off those land assets is through a five-year hunting lease that we offer to the public by auction,” McCurdy said. “We’re offering leases on 140 properties that stretch across 32 counties.”

McCurdy urges anyone interested to go to www.outdooralabama.com/2025HuntingLeaseAuction for details on the auction process.

Commissioner Blankenship also took the opportunity to bid farewell to Chuck Sykes, Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Director, who will become Executive Director of the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports on July 1.

“I appreciate the work that Chuck has done and the friendship we’ve had over the last 12-plus years,” Commissioner Blankenship said. “Just to mention a few of his accomplishments and things that have happened under his tenure, one of those is the implementation of the SOA program. The Special Opportunity Area hunts were something that was brand-new for Alabama, and that has gone over extremely well. He also proposed extending the deer season to February 10 and using science to do that. He and his staff looked at populations across the state, and some deer start rutting activity earlier. And the season was extended to February 10 for most of the state, based on the rut and the science that our staff has done. That was big change. 

“Another thing he’s done is propose the use of Forever Wild for matching funds for the Pittman-Robertson money, adding about 50,000 acres for public hunting. That was a huge change and has been very successful. He was also president of AFWA (Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies) over the last year. He’s been very important in terms of national leadership on issues that are important to us in Alabama and the national level.”

Sykes has expanded shooting sports opportunities with range construction ramping up. He also expanded the waterfowl opportunities.

“We spend more money on duck hunting and duck habitat than ever before,” Commissioner Blankenship said. “Changes were made to turkey season and to the alligator season to give people more opportunities to hunt. 

“Whether you like or dislike the changes in the Department over the past 12 years, I think you’d have to say that Chuck always had the long-term health of the resource as the guiding factor in recommendations to the CAB, to the Commissioner and internal decisions of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. And that is what we want from all our directors, to do what’s best for the resource.”

During public testimony, two people asked the Board to consider moving the start of turkey season earlier in March. Board member Jeff Martin asked Sykes to address that situation.

Sykes explained that if he had a choice, the season wouldn’t start until April 1, and the reason people complain about turkeys not gobbling is because of hunters.

“I respectfully disagree because I hunted in Choctaw County the last day of the season (May 8) and heard five turkeys gobble,” Sykes said. “I called up two at 10 o’clock that were gobbling like 2-year-olds on opening day, whatever opening day is. 

“Hunting pressure curbs gobbling, not the time of the year, at least not in May. Just because it’s May doesn’t mean the turkeys quit gobbling. I had not hunted those two properties all year, and the turkeys were fresh. They worked like they were supposed to. The reason turkeys quit gobbling is, one, they’re in somebody’s freezer, or they’ve been shot at, spooked or whatever, and they just quit. Pressure dictates gobbling, not the time of year in March, April and May.”

Sykes said they need to put their personal preferences aside and do what’s best for the resource.

An additional CAB meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, May 29 at the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, Richard Beard Auditorium, 1445 Federal Dr., in Montgomery, Alabama. The meeting will begin at 10:30 a.m. Because public comment was received at the May 10 meeting, no public comment will be accepted at the May 29 meeting 

On the agenda will be hunting seasons and bag limits as well as recommended changes by the Marine Resources Division regarding saltwater fishing.

###

Chuck Sykes will leave ADCNR on July 1 to become Executive Director of the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports. Photo courtesy of Chuck Sykes

https://www.outdooralabama.com/articles/adcnrs-blankenship-provides-update-conservation-advisory-board

Hunting incident leads to prison sentence for Anaconda man

When Bear Hunting Becomes a Pop Quiz (and You Fail)

Banned in Florida 53 years ago, they may now be okayed for public use despite their record of catching pets, rare panthers, even children.

Craig Pittman

May 15, 2025 5:00 am

Florida wildlife agency considers bringing back barbaric steel traps

 There are three three-legged bears in Seminole County, according to Bear Warriors United President Katrina Shaix. All three lost their legs to traps. (Photo via Shaix)

I’m probably in the minority here, but I love being asked to fill out surveys. When big corporations or ginormous government agencies want my opinion, I’m happy to give it to them. Y’all want to hear from little ol’ me? How flattering!

I got a request just the other day from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to offer my thoughts on revising their rules about using steel traps to catch wild animals.

“The FWC is seeking feedback from the public on proposed changes to wildlife trapping regulations in Florida,” said the agency’s email, dated May 9.

Well, gosh, I was happy to oblige them! I am generally in favor of steel traps when it comes to minds. As for actual steel traps? Put me down as a NO.

For the past 53 years, steel-jaw foothold and leg traps and body-gripping traps to capture wild animals have been banned for use in Florida unless you were one of the few people who qualified for a special use permit.

But now the wildlife commission is considering changes to its trapping rules.

A spokesperson for the agency, Ryan Sheets, said this effort to “modernize” the rules does say that “requirements currently associated with the Special Use Permit process be incorporated into rule.” However, Sheets told me, “nearly everyone would be required to obtain a permit prior to trapping wildlife in Florida.”

The problem is that the permittees would no longer be the small, select professional group that now qualify. Instead, the general public could get one.

“The key component to the rule changes to steel-jaw foothold traps and steel-jaw body-gripping traps is that they will remove the existing ‘Special Use Permit’ requirement to use these traps … which, for all intents and purposes, effectively reverses the state’s ban on steel-jaw traps,” Robert Ruderman of Humane Wildlife Consulting of South Florida said.

The wildlife commission’s talk about “modernizing” the trapping rules is “just a shameless attempt to gaslight the public,” Ruderman told me this week.

I guess you could say that the wildlife commissioners feel trapped — or at least tightly confined — by the existing rules. Now, like any trapped animal, they want to loosen things up.

This loosening of the regulations hasn’t gotten a lot of attention yet, because everyone’s so upset about the FWC’s misguided and unscientific push for another bear hunt. But advocates of humane treatment of animals are paying close attention, indeed.

“We’re glad they’re considering an update to the trapping rules,” said Kate McFall, Florida director of the Humane Society of the United States. But her organization is opposed to any attempt to make it easier for people to use steel foot and leg traps, which she called “barbaric.”

“We do not want to put these antiquated traps in the hands of the general public,” she told me.

Free love and captive wildlife

In case you’re wondering (I sure was!), the use of these traps date to the days when men wore hats made of animal fur instead of ballcaps touting overpriced sports teams or brainless political slogans. Trapping was the preferred way to catch beavers, wolves, and other wildlife used by hatters, mad or otherwise.

A lot of folks these days sneer at fashion news: “Who cares who wore what at the Met Gala!” But the economics of fur fashion drove a lot of the early American (and Canadian) exploration and economy.

Some of the earliest steel traps were made by a guy named Sewell Newhouse, who lived in the upstate New York town of Oneida. Newhouse’s father was a blacksmith, so at age 17 he made his first steel trap using his dad’s scrap metal.

In 1849, Newhouse the trap maker joined a religious commune in Oneida run by an unusual fellow by the name of John Humphrey Noyes. The fur trade was in full swing then, and a history of Newhouse traps says that by 1855, “the demand for Newhouse steel traps had grown to such an extent that the Oneida Community leaders decided to begin manufacturing on a much larger scale, and it became a major part of the business dealings of the community.”

The main thing the Oneida community is remembered for these days is not its trap factory but what happened when they got behind closed doors. Noyes believed he was God’s prophet on Earth, and his version of the gospel called for the commune members to all have sex with multiple partners. In fact, Noyes has been credited with coining the term “free love.”

“They were swingers basically before swinging was ever invented,” explained the author of a recent book on the Oneida community. Isn’t history fun?

It’s impossible to miss the irony of the commune-ist Newhouse’s life. Here was a man who made a living making traps for animals, but he didn’t want to be trapped into a conventional marriage. He was in favor of free love and captured wildlife.

Eventually the commune got out of the steel trap business. Instead, they became known for making a different metal product: forks, knives, and spoons. Their popular Oneida Flatware is still a big deal today. I guess you could say they stuck a fork in their trapping business.

Voice of the trapper

Outside of Davy Crockett cosplay, nobody’s wearing fur hats anymore. Instead, the steel traps are now mostly used to protect commercially valuable animals from predators or to catch unwanted intruders.

There are about 200 licensed professional trappers in Florida, according to the Florida Trappers Association. One of the most active is Mark Neely, a Navy retiree who’s been in the trapping field since 2005. He specializes in catching coyotes on cattle ranches because “there’s nothing like trying to outsmart a coyote.”

Neely sat on the technical advisory group that the wildlife commission formed to consider how to change its rules. He attended every meeting but told me he didn’t understand where the staff was coming from on some of its proposals.

“Sometimes I wondered, ‘Have any of these people set a trap before in their lives?’” he told me. “Sometimes I wondered if this person knew what they were talking about.”

Neely was not a big fan of the animal welfare folks on the committee, either, whom he also did not consider well-informed.

“They talk with their hearts, God bless ’em,” he said.

Neely contended the wildlife commission would never get rid of the need for permits for using steel traps. Nevertheless, he said, he’s inclined to favor the existing rules over any new ones.

“If I could do it over,” he said, “I wouldn’t make any changes.”

Tripods in triplicate

I don’t know why Florida clamped down (so to speak) on the use of steel leg and foot traps in 1972.

This was the era when Congress passed our foundational environmental laws, like the Clean Water Act (1972) and the Endangered Species Act (1973), all of which resulted from the first Earth Day protest in 1970. Perhaps it was driven by that same circumstance.

I bet it had something to do with the traps’ propensity for grabbing the wrong thing — dogs, cats, eagles, panthers, even children. Ten years ago, for instance, a 12-year-old boy in North Carolina got his hand caught in a trap and it took six emergency room doctors to get the thing off of him.

Even when a steel trap grabs hold of the right wild animal’s leg, the animal may be so desperate to escape that it winds up ripping off that limb. Sometimes trappers put out so many traps that they can’t come back to check on what they’ve caught until it’s too late to stop that from happening.

“The length of the suffering is significant,” McFall told me.

The state’s permitting system has limited the number who can use these instruments to about 100 people. But they are still in use and still taking a toll.

Katrina Shadix of Bear Warriors United told me that she’s seen not one, not two but THREE three-legged bears in Seminole County, all of them nicknamed “Tripod.”

How did they get that way? The answer, in the words of Admiral Ackbar from “Return of the Jedi”: “It’s a trap!”

Breaking the law

The 1972 state law that bans steel leg and foot traps doesn’t allow for any exceptions, Shadix told me. But the wildlife commission has allowed their use to continue as long as the trapper applies for a free permit first.

In other words, she said, the wildlife commission has been breaking the law.

That’s why, in 2019, Shadix threatened to sue the FWC over its trapping rules. Shadix is not shy about taking state agencies to court. She recently won a big case in which she’d accused the state of breaking the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect manatees from a major die-off.

Shadix told me that her threatened lawsuit prompted the wildlife commission staff to promise that if she held off suing, they would update the rules to make sure they are more humane. The update has hobbled along about as fast as one of those three-legged bears.

In 2023, Shadix and more than two dozen other people concerned about the humane treatment of wildlife showed up at a commission meeting where the staff presented a report on how they were progressing.

“The objectives for updating the wildlife trapping rules include allowing for all current uses of traps without the need for a permit,” said a memo from one senior wildlife commission staffer.

Shadix and the other the people who showed up for the meeting urged the commissioners to keep the permitting requirement and start charging a fee for it, too. And they suggested anyone using a trap should get mandatory training and licensing as well.

“Let’s definitely do require licensing and training,” said Katherine McGill, who runs 411 Wildlife Solutions in Brooksville, according to FloridaPolitics.com. “I do not understand why there would not be a fee with this permit, just like every hunter and angler and so forth pays.”

After listening to the parade of speakers, FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto said he was on their side.

“I think as we are modernizing our trapping policies and procedures, I think the public’s correct,” Barreto said. “We want to [have] best practices, we want to check all the boxes, we want to be humane.”

If the FWC now makes it easier, not harder, to use these cruel traps, perhaps that should count as another falsehood told by Barreto, who recently denied before a state Senate committee plans to build on submerged land in Palm Beach County even though the Palm Beach Post reported he’d tried to do exactly that.

“Everything they’re proposing is making things worse, not better,” Shadix told me this week.

Traps for a real threat

The good news here is that there’s still time for the wildlife commission to reconsider.

Sheets, the FWC spokesman, told me the staff hopes to bring its recommendations to their bosses in August so they can vote on them. That’s the same meeting where they’re expected to vote on holding another bear hunt, too.

If the commissioners do vote to let anyone who wants to use a steel leg or foot trap, I have a suggestion. Perhaps everyone who finds this to be disturbing should run right out and obtain one of these traps.

Then, they should bring these traps to the very next FWC meeting. They should set them up all around the table where the commissioners are meeting.

These traps would be clearly marked and checked regularly, which is better than what the animals get these days.

Maybe if they experience what being snagged is like, then the commissioners will do a better job of figuring out what’s humane and what’s not. You don’t have to have a mind like a steel trap to see that.

3 Pa. sisters get triple trophies in hunting before being old enough for junior licenses

TPWD warns hunters after revealing accident stats for 2024

Default Mono Sans Mono Serif Sans Serif Comic Fancy Small CapsDefault X-Small Small Medium Large X-Large XX-LargeDefault Outline Dark Outline Light Outline Dark Bold Outline Light Bold Shadow Dark Shadow Light Shadow Dark Bold Shadow Light BoldDefault Black Silver Gray White Maroon Red Purple Fuchsia Green Lime Olive Yellow Navy Blue Teal Aqua OrangeDefault 100% 75% 50% 25% 0%Default Black Silver Gray White Maroon Red Purple Fuchsia Green Lime Olive Yellow Navy Blue Teal Aqua OrangeDefault 100% 75% 50% 25% 0%The suspect faces a string of charges, including cruelty to animals. (WPVI, JOSHUA HUNTER, MARPLE TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPARTMENT, CNN)

By WPVI via CNN Newsource

https://www.fox10tv.com/2025/05/15/man-accused-trying-poison-neighbors-dogs-barking-too-loudly/

Published: May 15, 2025 at 2:42 AM PDT|Updated: 13 hours ago

BROOMALL, Pa. (WPVI) – A Pennsylvania man is facing charges after he allegedly tried to poison his neighbors’ dogs with chocolate and meatballs filled with rat poison because they were barking too loudly.

Joshua Hunter says it all started about two weeks ago when his family found hundreds of pieces of chocolate scattered across the yard of their home in Broomall. They quickly collected it because it would be poisonous to their dogs, Sushi and Hoagie, who love to play in the back.

“Fast-forward from that incident to two days ago, my son woke up again, took the dogs out – we’re on high alert – and there’s meatballs… about 10 or 12 of them, all over the ground with eight to nine rat poison pellets in them,” Hunter said.

Neither Sushi nor Hoagie was injured, but Hunter says one of the dogs actually had a meatball in its mouth. One of his children pulled it out before the dog ingested it.

The family’s surveillance cameras captured the suspect in the act during the overnight hours. Hunter says he couldn’t believe what he saw in the video.

“The guy took his time at four o’clock in the morning, both times with the chocolate and this time to make meatballs and put rat poison in them. He was right outside our bedroom door doing this,” he said.

Just a few hours later, police started canvassing the neighborhood and quickly arrested 63-year-old Mark Nugent, who lives less than a block from the Hunters. He was reportedly still wearing the same outfit seen in the surveillance video.

Nugent allegedly admitted to the crime, saying his motive was the dogs barking too loudly when playing outside. He faces a string of charges, including cruelty to animals, according to Marple Township Police Chief Brandon Graeff.

The suspect was released after posting 10% of $50,000 bail, and Hunter says that has him stressed out.

“I’m sitting here with ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis] in a wheelchair with five kids and my girlfriend. I don’t feel safe at all. We’re losing sleep. In the meantime, this guy is out, and I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Hunter said.

Nugent’s next court hearing is scheduled for later this month.

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