Smart change to a rather puzzling rule

Here’s a test for laws, rules and regulations: If you don’t know why it’s supposed to be done that way, it’s probably a good time to change it.

That was certainly true of the deer hunting seasons in Pittsylvania County, which until this year were determined by the north-south Norfolk Southern railroad tracks. On one side of the tracks, the season was four weeks long; on the other, it was seven.

“It’s been that way for umpteen years,” Del. Don Merricks said. “But no one could ever tell me why.”

Why Pittsylvania County had two different deer hunting seasons no longer matters. Starting this year, the entire county will have a uniform, seven-week general firearms deer hunting season.

The change is a triumph of common sense, and an increased opportunity for local hunters to be able to better manage the local deer population.

Pittsylvania County is already a top-10 deer hunting county. Over the past two seasons, about 5,000 deer have been taken.

How will these new regulations affect those numbers? It’s hard to say right now. The new rules may encourage more hunting. Or, the county may wind up giving a fixed number of current hunters a few more opportunities in the field that won’t translate into many more deer being harvested.

But for now, just getting this uniform season is a positive thing.

“We work in Richmond to do many things which often involved cutting through red tape and trying to work toward laws that are consistent and fair,” Delegate Danny Marshall said in a news release. “The hunters and the public will benefit from regulations that are the same across the county.”

Even people who don’t hunt have to applaud any application of common sense to the laws, rules and regulations that we live by.

Nothing is more frustrating than being told that something is done a certain way because it’s always been done that way.

Making deer hunting seasons uniform in Pittsylvania County wasn’t the burning issue before last winter’s General Assembly, but it was a simple thing that will clear up confusion back here in the Dan River Region.

Every time that happens — and the government’s actions move closer to what the people want — then the people get closer to the kind of government they deserve.