Four Arrested in Multi-Year Tulare County Deer Poaching Investigation 👮‍♂️

As we continue to slowly but surely inch back towards the weekend, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get into what this beautiful Tuesday has to offer.

Here's what's worth reading about so far this week:

STICK IT TO ‘EM
FOUR ARRESTED IN MULTI-YEAR TULARE COUNTY DEER POACHING INVESTIGATION

California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers have finally put the cuffs on a quartet of poaching suspects after a multi-year investigation revealed nefarious activity connected to alleged illegal deer poaching across parts of Fresno, Tulare, and Kern counties.

The arrests occurred on March 13th after search warrants were served in Visalia and Farmersville. According to the CDFW, investigators believe that the four people unlawfully took approximately 30 deer over the past three years in deer zones D7, D8, and D9.

As is the case with many of these incidents, the majority of the animals were allegedly killed out of season and with illegal methods, including the use of spotlights they used to blast bucks after dark. Authorities also reported instances of blatant tag fraud, including the reuse and fraudulent duplication of deer tags — with one tag allegedly used on four different animals…

🧑‍🎓 Tennessee Students Could Soon Earn School Credit for Hunter Education Classes. The great state of Tennessee is set to let students in grades 5–12 earn school credit by completing an approved hunter education course from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

Senate Bill 2369 (paired with House Bill 2588) passed the legislature and was signed on March 17th and now awaits final approval from Governor Bill Lee. Once enacted, schools across the state will have the option to offer the program, allowing students to satisfy Tennessee’s mandatory hunter safety requirement while simultaneously earning academic credit. To earn a certificate of completion, and the school credit, students must finish at least eight hours of instruction, pass a written exam, and participate in a live-fire session or firearm-handling demonstration.

This move follows a similar push in Georgia earlier this year and aims to promote safe hunting practices, outdoor skills, and conservation education among younger Tennesseans.

🦌 Pennsylvania Hunters Harvest Nearly 30,000 More Deer in 2025-26 Season. The Pennsylvania Game Commission released preliminary estimates showing a statewide harvest of 505,600 deer during the 2025-26 hunting season, marking a 6% increase from the previous season’s 476,880 deer. Both antlered and antlerless harvests rose, with antlered bucks reaching 185,310 (up about 9% from the recent three-year average) and antlerless deer climbing to 320,290 (up roughly 17% from the three-year average).

The increase was partly by design. Game Commission officials issued extra antlerless tags to help manage a growing deer population that has been impacting forest health and raising concerns about the spread of chronic wasting disease.

“Deer are one species that can impact the composition of their own environment, with consequences not just for themselves, but for our forests and fields and all the other wildlife that habitat sustains,” said Steve Smith, executive director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. “Hunters, by managing deer, buoy not only deer, but all our other natural resources.”

📈 South Dakota Proposes Raising Black Hills Elk Objective to 9,000. South Dakota wildlife officials are responding to strong public demand by proposing a significant boost to the Black Hills elk population target, pushing the upper limit all the way to 9,000 animals.

The draft Elk Action Plan now calls for a winter population objective of 6,000 to 9,000 elk in the Black Hills (roughly 2.1–2.8 elk per square mile). That’s an increase from the original January proposal, which topped out around 7,800–8,000. The change came after GF&P received about 200 public comments, with roughly 80% urging a higher goal. Some stakeholders, including the wildlife federation, even pushed for as many as 10,000 elk, while detractors expressed concerns about chronic elk depredation issues on private land in the Black Hills.  The adjustment aims to deliver more hunting opportunities and better viewing experiences while balancing habitat conditions, livestock grazing, and other wildlife needs.

Public comment on the full plan remains open until the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission meeting in May (with written comments accepted through April 20).

🥊 That moment you call in two gobblers mixed up in a fight for their lives. Watch as these Florida turkey hunters finally manage to call in a couple, but they are locked into an epic death match.

Something you just don’t see every day...

Oh, and one more thing…