Hunting guides may be restricted from public lands

It may become illegal for hunting guides to operate their businesses on state owned or managed lands and wetlands in Kansas.

At Thursday’s Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism commission meeting in Manhattan, commission chairman Gerald Lauber asked the agency to provide more details on the issue and to draft a regulation that could be brought to a vote after discussion at several meetings. Lauber did not guarantee a regulation would be passed.

Stuart Schrag, Wildlife and Parks public lands chief, said he has become concerned such activity is decreasing the quality of the outdoors experience for other hunters.

Tom Loats, of Overland Park, told of several negative experiences he’d had with guides at the Cheyenne Bottoms Wildlife Area near Great Bend.

Lauber and Schrag said they’d seen a increase of such complaints over the past year. Most concerned waterfowl hunting areas, though Lauber said he received complaints about guides taking paying hunters to Walk In Hunting Areas.

El Dorado shooting range update – The new, 56 station shooting range being constructed at El Dorado State Park is progressing, though may be two years from completion.

Ross Robbins, Wildlife and Parks information chief, said the range will have 14 stations on a 100-yard range, 12 at a 25-yard range and 30 stations at 15 yards. Robbins said the high number of short range stations is to accommodate handgun shooters, currently the most popular style of target shooting.

Cost of the shooting range is estimated to be around $3 million, including several buildings. Robbins said 75 percent of that is being paid for by federal excise taxes placed on hunting and shooting equipment. The rest is from the department’s wildlife fee fund. That range will meet all federal requirements, including overhead baffles that keep errant shots from leaving the shooting range.

When completed, Robbins said the El Dorado range will probably be the most popular in Kansas, due to its close proximity to Wichita and the Kansas Turnpike.

Free state park, fishing days – Fishing license requirements will be waived June 4 and 5 in Kansas, hoping to attract more people to the sport.

Cheney State Park will offer free admission on April 23 and El Dorado State Park on May 8. Both parks have special events planned.

This story was originally published January 9, 2016 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Hunting guides may be restricted from public lands."