R3 Campaign Encourages Alabamians to Get Outdoors
With the social distancing requirements from COVID-19, many people have turned to the outdoors to escape the impact of the lockdowns.
The number of people fishing and hunting for a variety of game species has seen a boost, and Justin Grider wants to see that trend continue. Grider was recently named the Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) Division’s R3 Coordinator.
R3 is a national program that addresses ways to boost hunting and fishing participation – Recruit, Retain, Reactivate.
“The overarching view of R3 is that we want to reverse the decline in hunting and fishing license sales that’s been happening for several decades,” Grider said. “The average age of a license buyer in the state of Alabama is the late 50s, and once they turn 65 they don’t have to buy a license.
Alabama biologists involved in University of Maine study of timberdoodles
By David Rainer
February 7, 2021
A small transmitter is attached to a woodcock so the bird can be tracked during its spring migration back to the North. (Billy Pope)
Seth Maddox will head out in February with other Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) Division biologists to do some woodcock hunting. Yes, that is after the woodcock hunting season closed on Jan. 31, but Maddox will not be using a conventional harvest tool. He will be wielding a long-handled dip net.
Maddox, the WFF migratory gamebird coordinator, will be on a mission to continue a woodcock tagging program to determine migration routes as well as conduct genetic studies on the birds, also known as timberdoodles.