New Bird Dog Training Area Opened on Lousiana’s Kisatchie National Forest

The U. S. Forest Service, in cooperation with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF), has opened a bird dog training area (BDTA) on the Vernon Unit of the Kisatchie National Forest (KNF), similar to those on LDWF Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs).

The approximately 80-acre site locally known as the “Dove Field” is east of LA 399 and about 1 mile north of the Fullerton community in Vernon Parish.  Similar to bird dog training areas within Sandy Hollow, Sherburne, Lake Ramsay Savannah, and Bodcau WMAs, the KNF Dove Field BDTA will provide quail hunters a place to train bird dogs during and outside of the regular upland bird hunting seasons.

The KNF BDTA is part of a long range plan to enhance wild bobwhite quail habitat on the Vernon Unit. In addition, the U. S. Forest Service, LDWF, the National Wild Turkey Federation, U. S. Army, and the National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative are working together to improve quail habitat on thousands of acres surrounding the BDTA.  Within the BDTA, the USFS and LDWF are intensively managing the 80 acres with prescribed burning, fallow disking, food plots and timber harvests to encourage wild quail to remain on the site year round.

Dog training can be conducted on the Dove Field BDTA year-round, except during turkey season, without any special permit.  However, dog trainers using birds may release and harvest up to six leg-banded, pen-raised quail per day, but must have a special, no-charge permit. To obtain this permit, contact LDWF’s Small Game and Wild Turkey Program Leader Jimmy Stafford at 225-765-2361 or jstafford@wlf.la.gov.

KNF users are reminded to comply with all hunter orange, vehicle access, and other site requirements while training dogs.  Other hunting and recreational uses within the KNF Dove Field BDTA will continue to be allowed as described in Forest Service regulations.For more information on KNF regulations for site use, go to http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/kisatchie/hunting/index.html.

Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries

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.