Duck hunters be advised: There are new permit rules for Stormwater Treatment Areas
South Florida’s Stormwater Treatment Areas not only help protect the Everglades, they also offer some of the best waterfowl hunting in the country.
The shallow marshes built by the South Florida Water Management District to filter phosphorus out of agricultural runoff before it enters the Everglades are prime duck habitat, attracting species such as teal, mottled ducks, pintails, wigeon, shovelers and black-bellied whistling ducks.
As a result, the STAs also attract hordes of duck hunters, which is why new regulations take effect this season to limit the number of people who hang out at the areas in the hopes of claiming an unused morning hunt permit.
Hunters without a hunt permit must now have a standby permit to be eligible to take the place of permitted hunters who don’t show up. That will dramatically reduce the number of people crowded around the entrance every morning at each STA.
“We can’t have up to 100 people standing there in the dark hoping to get drawn in a lottery,” said Newton Cook, the president of United Waterfowlers Florida (https://unitedwaterfowlersfl.org), which has been the driving force behind increasing hunting opportunities at the STAs. “There’s a lot of pressure on the gatekeepers [who check hunters in and out]. It’s just intimidating, to be nice about it.
“The water management district has been pushing me for years to do away with the walk-ins. United Waterfowlers Florida has been trying to keep the walk-in program alive for several years. So we came up with a plan to have a second draw for a walk-in permit.”
STAs 3/4 and 2 along U.S. Highway 27 in Palm Beach County, STA 1 West, which is west of Wellington, and STA 5/6 in Hendry County offer free permits for each morning and afternoon hunt over the course of the duck season. Hunters can apply for the permits online at https://gooutdoorsflorida.com or at a tax collector office or a retail store that sells licenses.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which manages the STA hunts, nearly half of those permitted hunters don’t show up for their hunts. So hunters would wait at an STA for a lottery that awarded those unused permits starting at 5 a.m.
This season, hunters must apply for a standby permit for morning hunts for which they do not have a permit. Only those who receive a standby permit can show up to receive an unused permit.
There is no guarantee that those with standby permits will get to hunt. If an STA awards 40 permits for a morning hunt, 40 standby permits will be available in an ordered list, so hunters know where they rank before they decide whether to show up.
“If you get a low number, 1-20, you’re probably going to get in,” Cook said. “If you’re No. 39, probably not.”
If a standby permit holder does not get in at 5 a.m., the hunter can wait in the hopes of replacing hunters who leave the STA early. Afternoon hunts, which don’t draw the crowds that morning hunts do, will have the traditional lottery draw for unused permits.
The standby permit drawing begins with the early teal season, which is Sept. 19-27. The standby application period is Aug. 28-Sept. 7. There are three STA application phases for the regular duck season, which is Nov. 21-29 and Dec. 12-Jan. 31. Hunters can apply for standby permits after those permits are awarded.
For example, the Phase 1 application period for Period A is Sept. 11-21. Standby permits for each of the Period A hunts are available from Oct. 30-Nov. 9. The STA application dates are at https://myfwc.com/license/limited-entry/apply.
Hunters can select up to 10 hunt choices on a standby application, and it’s possible they can receive 10 standby permits, which is something Cook said he fought for. They cannot have more than one standby permit per day.
“The district and the FWC people have been very cooperative, and they worked very hard to expand the hunting opportunities on the STAs,” said Cook, of Tequesta, who noted that when the first STA opened for hunting, there was a maximum of 500 hunting opportunities — 25 morning hunt permits, two hunters per permit, 10 hunts per season.
Now, depending on the STA, there are morning and afternoon hunts Friday, Saturday and Sunday with three hunters per permit for a total of “something close to 15,000” opportunities.
Another new STA rule is bicycles are prohibited on hunt days. All permit holders choose a parking space for the area they want to hunt. Some hunters would drop off their canoes and hunting gear at a parking spot that was already taken, park their vehicle at their selected space, then ride their bicycle back to the other spot and often set up on top of the hunters already there.