JF Griffin - Index

JF Griffin - magazine - Index

Quail and Rabbit Hunting on Tennessee Public Land (continued)
Unit II is open to small game hunting during
the statewide seasons. Percy Priest’s most
notable feature (and also its drawback) is its
easy access to the metropolitan Nashville
area. A hunter can squeeze in a morning or
late afternoon hunt and not be far from home
or work, but the area receives heavy hunting
pressure, and the surviving quail and rabbits
quickly learn how to avoid hunters by utilizing
the abundant cedar, honeysuckle and
briar thickets.
AedC wMA
Coffee and franklin counties
32,000 ACres
About 30 percent of AEDC is quail and
rabbit habitat, but the area receives moderate
to heavy hunting pressure. A diversity of
productive habitat types includes crop fields,
young pine plantations, power line rights-ofways
and mature pine stands that are periodically
burned.
CHeATHAM lAke wMA
Cheatham and dickson counties
5,152 ACres
About half of this WMA provides quail and
rabbit hunting in scattered tracts bordering
the Cheatham Reservoir (Cumberland River).
Hudgen’s Slough is a good area for both species.
Dyson’s Ditch is a better area for quail.
During the regular duck season, small game
hunting is allowed only on duck hunting
days. Cane thickets, young hardwood areas,
and old fields along the river and other areas
flooded for duck hunting often attract woodcock
(another upland species often hunted
incidental to quail and rabbit hunting).
Check the Tennessee Hunting and Trapping
Guide, as hunting is restricted to certain days
during the late duck season.
CHeATHAM wMA
Cheatham County
20,810 ACres
Although this large upland area is mainly
forested, there is some quail and rabbit habitat
to be found by the hunter who has time
to explore. Permanent fields are scattered
around the WMA, and TWRA’s forest management
program on Cheatham periodically
opens new tracts through timber harvest.
These areas most often revert back to hardwoods
or are occasionally planted to pines,
and may attract quail and rabbits for the first
several years after harvest.
old HiCkorY wMA
sumner/wilson/Trousdale counties
27,887 ACres
This area is strung out along Old Hickory
Lake has about 6,000 huntable upland
acres and is managed mainly for waterfowl.
However, similar to Cheatham WMA, there is
some limited quail and rabbit habitat for the
hunter who is willing to spend time searching
for it. Agricultural and old fields lie in scattered
tracts along the river bends, and habitat
can be found in the higher upland zones
around flooded waterfowl impoundments.
Like Cheatham Lake WMA, many pockets
attract woodcock during their fall migration.
YAnAHli wMA (formerly duck river wMA)
Maury County
12,800 ACres
The TWRA acquired management authority
for this area previously known as the
TVA Columbia Dam lands in 1997. TWRA
personnel have been busy reclaiming many
overgrown areas for quail and rabbits by bulldozing,
bushhogging, prescribed burning,
disking, and planting native warm season
grasses. Due to the amount of suitable open
land, this area has the potential to be one of
the state’s best quail and rabbit WMAs. Farm
game habitat and hunting is expected to
steadily improve over the next several years.
HAYnes BoTToM wMA
Montgomery County
971 ACres
About 400 acres of this WMA is uplands
that have been converted to quail and rabbit
habitat.
eAGle Creek wMA
wayne County
22,000 ACres
About 20 percent of this area is in large
clear-cuts (up to 300 acres) planted to pines.
williAMsPorT wMA
Maury County
1,722 ACres
About one-third of this area is open land
managed in native grasses and other productive
quail and rabbit cover.
BArk CAMP BArrens
Coffee County
2,800 ACres
About 300 acres of this area is in old-field
habitat. Good rabbit populations are typically
found on this area and there are also some
quail.
REGION III
Cumberland Plateau
Cordell Hull wMA
Jackson and smith counties
25,000 ACres
About one half of this WMA consists of
good quail and rabbit cover. State personnel
and local Quail Unlimited chapters have
done substantial cooperative projects in the
last few years. Prescribed burning, fescue
eradication and the planting of nesting cover
are improving the condition of this WMA.
Consequently, this area is also receiving more
hunting pressure, especially for quail.
CAToosA wMA
Cumberland and Morgan counties
80,000 ACres
Only about 5% or 4,000 acres of this WMA
are in quail and rabbit habitat, primarily in
crop and fallow fields scattered throughout
the WMA. TWRA and Quail Unlimited have
converted much of the open lands habitat
to native grasses and food plots and have
an extensive cooperative program of opening
forest lands to savanna habitat which is
optimum quail and rabbit habitat. Being in
a forested area, hunting is slowly improving,
but this area receives a lot of hunting pressure
for both species. The small game hunting seasons
are closed during big game hunts, and
the area is open to walk-in small game hunting
only during February.
CHiCkAMAuGA wMA
Bradley/Hamilton/McMinn/Meigs/rhea
counties
4,000 ACres
Stretched out a long distance along
Chickamauga Lake, there is some limited
quail and rabbit habitat for the hunter who
is willing to spend time searching for it.
Agricultural and old fields lie in scattered
tracts along the river bends, and habitat can
be found in the higher upland zones around
flooded waterfowl impoundments. Cane
thickets, young hardwood areas, and old
fields often attract woodcock during their fall
migration.
BridGesTone/firesTone wMA
white County
10,000 ACres
This WMA was donated to TWRA in two
tracts, one in 1998 and the other in 2000.
Although the majority of the area is comprised
of scenic forested hills and gorges,
about 2,000 acres of fields are concentrated in
36 2008 Hunting & Trapping Guide