How a Hurricane affects hunting lands.

(This is in my experience/my opinion.)

Living in Louisiana or the Gulf Coast, we are not strangers to hurricanes. Every year we deal with the same old song and dance. Will this storm hit us, or will we be spared? When the time comes and our number is called, we must check things. You have to pick up the pieces if you are like me and hunt public land/private lands. Fortunately, it is much easier for private lands to get up and running from a storm. Clean up the shooting lanes, cut back fallen limbs/trees, pick up fallen feeders/stands, and then the deer will show back up. However, unlike their private counterparts, public land is a different beast. If a sizeable hurricane rolls through and destroys the land, it will completely change the hunting game for that area. As public landowners, we are not allowed to bring our tractors and move back trees from bedding areas, or we are not allowed to make significant changes to the landscape. For those unfamiliar with hurricane season, it begins June 1st and ends November 30th.

Prime scouting time and early season to midseason time. A large hurricane can be a disaster to your already scouted/planned hunting areas. The storm can destroy bedding areas, feeding areas, or even your prized tree. Recently, south Louisiana and Mississippi got hit by Hurricane Ida, and she did a number on the surrounding areas. Before the storm, I scouted some of our local WMAs, namely Lake Ramsey Savannah, and found some great spots to set up for bowhunting. Unfortunately, the storm laid a path of destruction through the WMA. I showed up for the first day of bow season and could not find my way around. A simple 200-yard walk turned into an hour of circles. The bedding areas were gone, the food sources were missing, and my prized tree was dissipated. I was utterly devastated. As a novice hunter, I was not ready for this torment. I have been back numerous times since the storm, and I have not seen a single trace of a deer yet. Sadly, this is a factor that hunters in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast have to deal with yearly.