Deadline Approaching for Louisiana’s 2013 Turkey Season Lottery Hunt Applications

   01.15.13

Deadline Approaching for Louisiana’s 2013 Turkey Season Lottery Hunt Applications

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) is reminding hunters that the 2013 turkey season lottery hunt application deadline of Thursday, Feb. 1 is approaching.

Regular turkey lottery hunts will be held on 10 state wildlife management areas (WMAs) this spring.  Youth Lottery hunts will be held on 15 WMAs and five Kisatchie National Forest (KNF) Ranger Districts.

In addition to the 689 regular WMA turkey lottery slots and 248 WMA youth turkey hunt slots, KNF is providing115 lottery slots, which includes 75 slots for the newly established youth lottery turkey hunts on the Caney, Winn, Kisatchie and Catahoula, along with the 40 slots offered last season on the Vernon and Evangeline Units of the Calcasieu Ranger District.

Some of the LDWF-WMA youth turkey hunts are guided, while KNF youth hunts on March 16 are non-guided. Additional public lottery turkey hunt opportunities occur on US Army Corps of Engineers’ lands and US Fish and Wildlife Service’s lands.

The application forms for 2013 Turkey Season WMA and KNF lottery hunts for adult and youth hunters are now available on the LDWF website. Those forms list all lottery hunts dates and locations and are located at http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/hunting/lottery-hunts.

The 2013 wild turkey season will open March 23 in three designated areas with varying end of season dates as follows: Area A, March 23 – April 21; Area B, March 23 – April 14; and Area C, March 23 – April 7. These areas include similar geographic boundaries utilized in 2012 except for minor additional openings in Pointe Coupee, Ascension and Iberville parishes. The statewide youth and physically challenged hunter weekend for private lands will be March 16-17. To access additional information, the 2013 Turkey Regulations pamphlet can be viewed at http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/regulations.

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The Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries – Enforcement Division(LDWF) is the fish & game regulatory agency of Louisiana. It has jurisdictionanywhere in the state, and in state territorial waters. The agency enforces both state and federal laws dealing with hunting, fishing, and boating safety. The agency also enforces criminal laws in rural areas including DWI enforcement both on highways and waterways. Most of the Department’s Wildlife Agents also carry Federal law enforcement commissions issued from the United States Department of the Interior - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and United States Department of Commerce - U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). These federal commissions allow these state officers to enforce federal migratory waterfowl laws and federal marine fisheries laws in state and federal waters off the coast of Louisiana. Besides their traditional role as a “game warden”, Louisiana Wildlife Enforcement Agents also have a number of other responsibilities, including conducting board of health inspections on some portions of the state’s commercial fishing industry. Agents are trained in and conduct numerous search and rescue operations, both in remote land areas and on the state’s waterways. Agents ensure that hunters, anglers, boaters, dealers, breeders, farmers, and transporters are in compliance with regulations governing equipment, quotas, licenses, and registrations. Agents also assist other State departments and law enforcement agencies in the coordination of educational and professional endeavors, as well as national and state emergency alerts by the Federal Office of Emergency Preparedness. In addition, agents perform search and rescue missions alone or in conjunction with other local, state, and federal agencies.

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