Maryland backs of on Sunday hunting

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Hunt_Trap/pdfs/090514_Sundayhuntingmessage.pdf
This should be the link looks like we need to wait till Dec 22.

SlowBow could you please confirm to make sure I'm correct, wanted to get the info out as soon as possible since our season has already started. Thanks!

Have not seen this, I'll have to look into it.

Yep, this appears to be valid.

This whole issue is the result of the Pansies at our DNR fearing the complaints of equestrians in regards to Sunday hunting. It is ridiculous, because the Law passed the legislature, was signed by the Governor, and gives DNR full regulatory authority to open Sunday hunting (something we have always been told they support and would do if we could have Sunday hunting passed into law) on all lands for all game in our three westernmost counties.

Instead, they have done everything they can to NOT open the Sunday hunt, up to and including closing previously open public hunting opportunities for spring turkey, and restricting Sunday opportunities  to only a few select WMA's instead of all hunting lands, and now, the entire expansion of Sunday hunting that was passed into law.

At the same time, they have stuffed the forced APR's requested by special interest groups down the throats of the general hunting public.

They have lost any measure of respect I ever had for them.  No longer shall I buy all the stamps and permits just to help out,  and I will do everything I can to curtail my purchases of licenses and stamps to only what I must have, and will never again spend a penny more to support Maryland's DNR than I absolutely must to be legal.

I do agree with you too and extent, the Maryland DNR did try to sneak that one through, a emergency regulation? I would like to see a little bit more transparency out of our government. It's kind of like all the earmarks and pork barrel spending that our government does. I guess what I'm really saying is we should've seen this one coming, the DNR set them-self up for it, and us up for it. Let's just hope that in the future they get this pasted under normal regulations and we are allowed to hunt on Sundays on ALL public lands in Maryland. I am definitely in favor of Sunday hunting. It gives many of us more opportunities to hunt on the ground that we also pay for.

This has nothing to do with DNR sneaking "emergency regulations" through for Sunday hunting. This measure was passed by our State legislators, and signed into law by our Governor, with due process. Sunday hunting is legal according to the Law, for all game on all lands public and private according to this law. The mistake was writing the law so DNR was in charge of regulating when and where Sunday hunting can take place. There is actually no need for any type of regulation in regards to Sunday hunting since it is now the law.

So if I understand you correctly you're saying. You are allowed to hunt on Sundays on public and private land it is up to the DNR to allow us to do so correct. I was under the assumption that this was a new regulation specifically for the use of public land. It does appear that you have a better understanding of what is taking place. Thanks so much for the time that you spend researching this for our forum.

We have had passed a number os Sunday hunting days for private land. This past session, our western Maryland legislators passed a bill that allowed for hunting of all game on all lands,including public and private lands, all season. The bill also granted DNR the power to regulate Sunday hunting for these three counties. What happened then was that DNR restricted this provision to a handful of "designated" WMA's, instead of all public hunting lands, and limited the number of days you could hunt deer on Sundays to a partial season. Now, the Maryland Horse Coalition has taken issue with this law, hired a lobbyist, and requested DNR hold hearings on if Sunday hunting will be allowed at all, so they have completely closed Sunday hunting, and returned it to the handful of days that were originally passed by law without a stipulation that they can regulate those days, basically the way it was before the new legislation was passed. They can do this by asking DNR hold public hearings on the regulatory issue, because it involves DNR regulation, as opposed to a law that was passed as a stand alone provision of legislation. So no, at this time you can not hunt public land on Sundays as the law was designed to allow you to do. The legislation should have never given the DNR regulatory power, and it should have just been passed into law that it was legal to do this.