Rule changes for 2012 deer season

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WANE) - The Indiana Natural Resources Commission on Tuesday approved a package of changes to deer hunting rules that will go into effect in the 2012 season.

None of the changes will be in effect this year.

The rule changes include creating a crossbow license and authorizing its use during the entire archery season, extending the archery season without interruption from October 1st through the first Sunday in January, extending the urban zone season from September 15th through January 31st, requiring hunters in urban zones to harvest an antlerless deer before harvesting an antlered deer, establishing a special antlerless season from December 26th through the first Sunday in January in designated counties, adding the non-resident youth licenses and a new deer license bundle, requiring display of hunter orange on occupied ground blinds, and extending the rifle cartridge length that can be used in the firearm season to 1.8 inches.

These changes must still be approved by the Attorney General’s Office and Governor’s Office and published in the Indiana Register before taking effect.

In other actions, the NRC:

–Approved the dedication of four nature preserves at Fort Harrison State Park totaling approximately 670 acres or more than one-third of the park. The sites are named Bluffs of Fall Creek, Chinquapin Ridge, Lawrence Creek and Warbler Woods.
–Authorized State Park Inns to increase lodging fees from January 28th through February 12th to coincide with the Super Bowl in Indianapolis.
–Approved final adoption of rule amendments governing logjam removal from floodways and navigable waters.
–Turned down a citizen’s petition to allow high-speed boating on Shipshewana Lake in LaGrange County.
–Approved preliminary adoption of rules governing the sale, distribution and transportation of invasive aquatic plants, and a rule to regulate thousand cankers disease in walnut trees.
–Removed the four-toed salamander from and added the plains leopard frog and mole salamander to the state endangered species list.