Didn’t know you can hunt at Savannah Wildlife Refuge? Now you do

Local hunters often travel hundreds of miles and spend thousands of dollars to hunt at private clubs or on leased land.

What many hunters may not realize is that there is a roughly 23,000-acre public hunting area just down the road in Hardeeville.

The Savannah Wildlife Refuge, which straddles the Georgia-South Carolina border, is planning to expand opportunities for outdoor enthusiasts — offering sportsmen more huntable acres and new species to target.

“It’s hard to find places to hunt” in quickly developing parts of South Carolina such as Beaufort County, Palmetto Bluff Shooting Club director and avid hunter Michael Perry said Tuesday. “You often have to drive pretty far to find a public (hunting) area.”

Josh Boyles operates Souther Drawl Outfitters, a Hilton Head Island company that specializes in providing fishing guide services.

He said he has “clients come in all the time asking about close-by hunting areas,” and many are unaware that it’s permitted at the wildlife refuge only 20 miles from Boyles’ shop.

“Finding places to hunt is tough here,” he said. “There just aren’t a lot of places to do it because land is at such a premium.”

Many clients buy a membership at a private hunting plantation, “and those can range anywhere from $2,500 to more than $25,000,” he said.

Expanding public hunting options at the refuge would not only fill a need in the local market, but would help rangers reduce invasive species populations such as deer and feral hogs.

“When you hear the words ‘wildlife refuge,’ you don’t necessarily think there is hunting going on,” refuge Ranger Amy Ochoa said earlier this week. “But we view hunting and fishing as great American traditions and pastimes.”

As areas around the refuge — particularly places such as greater Bluffton — have grown, more and more animals have been pushed out of their habitats and toward the refuge, she said.

Deer and feral hogs “get overpopulated, which leads to ecosystems that aren’t really healthy for other types of wildlife,” Ochoa said. “So, you kind of need hunting to keep the ecosystem (in the refuge) healthy.”

The refuge is home to hundreds of species of plants and animals, including manatees, bald eagles and alligators.

A proposal by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the refuge and 560 similar facilities nationwide, would add about 4,000 huntable acres and introduce “three new species — mourning dove, Wilson’s snipe and coyote — to the hunt program,” according to Fish and Wildlife documents.

Currently, hunters are allowed to target deer, turkey, rabbit, squirrel, hog, and several species of waterfowl.

Perry, who has hunted turkey on the refuge, said the location is “beautiful, but a lot of people don’t know about it.”

“Part of that is because there is such limited access,” he said. “Any expansion on (hunting opportunities) there would be great.”

Ochoa said rangers support hunters taking advantage of the refuge so long as they do so safely and with the proper permits.

An annual permit to hunt at the refuge costs $25.

Eighty percent of those fees are used “to improve the refuge and its facilities,” Ochoa said, “so, hunters give a lot back.”

Interested parties have the opportunity to provide input on the expanded hunting proposal before Fish and Wildlife Service officials implement the plan.

Comments can be sent by email to savannahcoastal@fws.gov, or by mail or hand-delivery to 694 Beech Hill Lane, Hardeeville 29927, by July 5.

This story was originally published June 7, 2016 at 3:23 PM with the headline "Didn’t know you can hunt at Savannah Wildlife Refuge? Now you do."