Mississippians caught hunting out of season or on land that does not belong to them may face steeper penalties moving forward after the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Commission on Tuesday signaled it would be in favor of harsher punishment.

At the commission’s monthly meeting, which was held at Clarkco State Park, Former Lt. Gov. Eddie Briggs, who formerly represented Senate District 32, which includes parts of Lauderdale County, told the commission a change was needed. Trespassers aren’t afraid of the consequences, he said, because the consequences aren’t much.

Currently, those caught hunting on private land without permission can have their hunting license suspended for one year, Briggs said.

“That’s not nearly long enough,” he said.

When a trespasser is caught, Briggs said his understanding is that the landowner has the option of pressing charges or letting the person go. However, he said it is his belief that once law enforcement is involved, they need to be backed up, and he will always choose to press charges.

“I think the time has come again for us to back them up,” he said. “It’s time to increase the penalties.”

Commissioner Bill Mounger said he had seen studies showing illegal taking of game has an impact of more than $100 million in lost value to landowners and the state. The damage caused by poaching is severe, he said, and the penalties need to reflect that.

“The penalty doesn’t meet the crime anymore, and that’s just not right,” he said.

Chairman Bill Cossar said trespassers were an issue on his hunting land as well, and many landowners he knew shared the problem. He said increased penalties for trespassing has his support.

While the commission agreed penalties should be reevaluated, it is ultimately up to the state Legislature to make changes to the law. Briggs asked the commission to put together a recommendation for the Legislature to consider in its upcoming session, which will begin in January 2024.

CWD Zone Change

In other business, the commission also voted to extend the North Mississippi Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zone after a deer testing positive for the disease was found in Tunica County.

Chronic Wasting Disease is a fatal degenerative disorder that affects deer, elk, moose and reindeer. It is part of a family of diseases called prion diseases, which cause protein molecules in the brain to fold abnormally. This leads to brain damage and ultimately death.

While there has never been a case of CWD in humans, the CDC and World Health Organization recommend against consuming CWD-positive meet.

The Tunica County doe was harvested in December about 2.5 miles from the Quitman County line and just under five miles from the Coahoma County line. Under the state’s CWD management plan, which says all counties within 10 miles of a positive sample will be included in the zone, Tunica, Quitman and Coahoma counties would be added to the Management Zone for at least three years.

Residents with land in areas included in a CWD Management Zone are banned from using supplemental feeding for deer.

Commissioner Garry Rhodes said he opposed including all of Tunica, Quitman and Coahoma counties in the Management Zone as that would include areas more than 40 miles away from where the doe was harvested. Instead of the county-wide model, he proposed using geographic lines such as roads, highways and rivers to define an area with a 10-mile radius around the harvest spot.

Rhodes said his plan is very similar to what counties and cities do when redistricting.

“I think it’s a little overreach,” he said of the current management plan.

The commission approved Rhodes’ proposal by a 3-2 vote.

Wildlife Chief of Staff Russ Walsh said CWD has been found in 10 of Mississippi’s 82 counties so far, with a total of 207 detections since February 2018. MDWFP has identified 73 cases during this sampling year, which runs from July 1, 2022 to June 30.

Nationally, CWD has been found in 31 of 50 states, including Idaho, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Florida, all of which confirmed their first cases since 2022.

On the research front, Walsh said Mississippi State University, working with other entities, has been able to detect CWD prions in soil samples from deer scrapes as well as matter collected from licking branches.

Previously, CWD was located solely through testing tissue of harvested or dead animals. Having the ability to find the disease in the environment is critical to detecting it before it spreads beyond the local area.