Little side note/rant: Last week in advance of going out to hunt a new public land location in Illinois, I called the office of the park and had to leave a message to have them call back. It was on Wednesday morning and I didn't get a call back by Thanksgiving, but I wasn't going out until Saturday and I figured I could try again on Friday. I wanted to ask about specifics in the check in/sign in process and I was hoping to gather a little intelligence about turkey movement if possible. I had spent a lot of time reading the available rules and regulations available on the state's Web site. But I always like to talk to someone on site in advance.
Anyway, I called again on Friday and had to leave a message. I did not receive a call back, and I was nervous about going out without a full understanding of the check in process, but I had also hung my weekend plans on this hunt so I went out anyway. It turned out that there was no need to sign in anywhere and the hunt went fine enough as I shared above. And I was feeling pretty good about trying to go back out there in mid December.
Cut to Tuesday morning. On my drive in to work I get a call from someone in the park office and so I ask him about the turkey hunting and he says, "Oh we don't offer fall turkey hunting in the park." This flabbergasted me. I am a very careful and cautious person and like I said I spent a lot of time reading the available literature posted on the state's public land hunting site. It clearly states that they offer turkey hunting there in the fall. So I told him that. And he said that it must be a mistake. I told him he should probably do what he could to correct that mistake, because they have an open invitation for people like me to go out there and hunt turkey and what happens if a conservation police officer stops someone who believes they have hunted legally... I also asked about another state property in the same area that is administrated by the same office and has fall archery turkey hunting listed. "Nope," he said. "Not allowed there either."
We had a decent talk, both cordial, and he promised to note this discrepancy all the way up the line, but the State of Illinois being what it is and the DNR being so poorly staffed and organized he didn't promise much.
Well, I couldn't let it lie, so I spent a little bit of time on the internet and sure enough the public hunting listing that shows the site specific rules and regs for that property (and the other one near there) had been updated with the current season dates. It wasn't a relic from years ago that was just hanging out there. So I kept digging and I found the Illinois DNR administrative code, where the specific rules and regs for everything that the DNR administrates from boat registration to extractive mining operations is listed in legalese. I found the section specific to turkey hunting and then the subsection specific to turkey hunting on state-owned or controlled land. And there it is in black and white: both of the properties listed as allowing fall archery turkey hunting...
So I have saved a copy of that on my home computer and I am printing it out to keep with my tags and licenses just in case I have anyone contest the fact while I am out hunting. I feel like I am vindicated and I learned a lot about the relation between the pubic-facing documents like the web site and the hunter's digest and the regulations that back them up administratively.
I believe that the person I was talking about was thinking I wanted to shotgun hunt for turkey, even though I stated very clearly on both of my messages as well as in our conversation that I was talking about archery turkey hunt, and also the fact that the fall shotgun turkey season in Illinois was over a month ago. And he is correct that fall shotgun turkey hunting is not available in either of the parks. But I still think that DNR staff should be aware of all regulations and they should be explainers/ambassadors to the public about what is and is not available or allowable.
All in all, very disappointed at the moment, but proud of myself for doing the research and getting the right answer.
OK, rant over.