Florida’s fall hunting seasons opened recently just in time for the 2024 election cycle.
Florida Amendment 2, which will be on the ballot this November, proposes to amend the state constitution by establishing the right to hunt and fish in Florida.
For bowhunters like Wayne Morrow, hunting season is more than just the time of year when people can legally hunt for deer and turkeys.
“It’s a sport, and it’s not easy,” Morrow said.
Morrow is the secretary and treasurer of Dip-N-Vat Hunting Club Inc. in Dixie County. The club has about 90 members, and Morrow described it as a “family club,” not a place where people go around “terrorizing deer.”
Morrow explained that the goal of hunting is not to make game “suffer.”
“If you don’t have a good shot, don’t take it,” he said.
Morrow said he gains the greatest satisfaction from teaching his children and grandchildren how to hunt. He takes his grandchildren to the hunting club regularly, he said.
“It’s a family tradition, I would say. Something we want to keep rolling, keep going,” he said. “We’ll be out there again this weekend.”
Morrow said he has been taking his 24-year-old granddaughter with him to hunt since she was a child.
“That’s better than money,” he said.
Clubs like Dip-N-Vat Hunting Club are participating in archery and crossbow seasons for deer and turkey, which began on Sept. 14. This marked the beginning of this year’s fall hunting seasons in Zone C.
Zone C includes Alachua, Marion, Levy, Gilchrist, Dixie and many of the surrounding counties, as outlined by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Amendment 2, which is sponsored by the Florida Legislature, states:
“Fishing, hunting, and the taking of fish and wildlife, including by the use of traditional methods, shall be preserved forever as a public right and preferred means of responsibly managing and controlling fish and wildlife. This section does not limit the authority granted to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission under Section 9 of Article IV.”
“The FWC maintains regulatory authority over all fish and wildlife in our state,” said Rodney Barreto, chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in a statement released by the FWC. “Seasons, bag limits, methods and licensing are still in place and will continue to govern time, place and manner should Amendment 2 pass.”
An article in POLITICO outlined how some people think Amendment 2’s language could be abused. Specifically, the wording "traditional methods” of hunting and fishing could allow “spears and leghold traps” and “would allow fishing with gill nets that voters banned in 1994,” the article stated.
Still, Barreto’s statement released by the FWC contradicted this concern.
“Both our conservation and legal teams have stated that the current language proposed in Amendment 2 does not change or alter the existing net ban or the ability for it to be enforced,” Barreto said. “'Traditional methods' does not undo regulation, nor reset FWC's regulatory authority.”
Patrick Neenan, a hunter and the secretary of Crane Bay Hunt Club, supports the premise of Amendment 2.
“I was raised in a hunting family,” Neenan said. “I believe it’s the right of every citizen to enjoy that sport if they want to.”
Neenan said hunting is “traditionally passed down from one generation to the next to keep the sport alive.”
Crane Bay Hunt Club is also located in Dixie County, between Cross City and Old Town, Neenan said. The club has thousands of acres of land and about 130 members from Dixie and surrounding counties, he said.
Morrow shared Neenan’s perspective of Florida Amendment 2.
“Personally, me, I think it needs to be passed,” Morrow said. “I think we should be able to hunt. I think our kids should be able to hunt.”
The muzzleloading gun season begins Oct. 19. The daily bag limits are two deer and two turkeys.
Hunting zones, season dates and bag limits are outlined by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
