BLUESTONE LAKE WMA
Another area that is quite large and diverse is Bluestone Lake WMA, which takes in 18,019 acres and is located a little over a mile south of Hinton, just off state Route (SR) 20. This is a region that has numerous steep little finger ridges intermingled with narrow strips of flat bottomland. Much of this area is ridge and valley in nature.

The best way to access this WMA is off county Route 14 coming south out of the village of Bellepoint off SR 3, approximately two miles south of Hinton. The lake runs all the way south to the Summers and Monroe county lines just south of Shanklins Ferry. The area is made up of mostly mature oak/hickory forests with occasional small patches of Virginia pine.

District 4 wildlife biologist Larry Berry said they were being pretty active with their habitat improvement program and had some unique work in progress at Bluestone. They have been doing some small prescribed burns in their bottomland sections, and have been actively thinning some areas trying to improve oak mast production. There is even one ongoing 67-acre timber sale, complete with some opening of border areas with a bulldozer (over 100 acres), in addition to planting 60 to 70 acres of bottomland in corn, winter wheat, cowpeas and buckwheat.

Biologist Berry also stressed that they had been trying to increase the number of permanent clover patches the past few years, in addition to planting a number of warm-season fields. He went on to say that Bluestone has a history of high deer densities (45 to 50 deer per square mile of area), but that the DNR was being fairly aggressive in trying to get the populations down to a more manageable density. This goes hand in hand with quality deer management.

He is hopeful that the first stages of this management approach will pay dividends over the next two or three seasons. Berry also mentioned that the DNR has received excellent cooperation from the Corps of Engineers, which actually owns the property. The DNR's Wildlife Resources section is responsible for the wildlife management on this WMA. It is interesting to note that the area is seeing a decent influx of hunters from Raleigh, McDowell, Fayette, Wyoming and Mercer counties.

BURNSVILLE LAKE WMA
If per chance you are looking for a potential trophy in the middle of the state, then the Burnsville WMA should provide a decent opportunity for hunters who live in this area. Burnsville Lake WMA encompasses 12,579 acres with a mixture of old fields and rolling, steep, hardwood ridges. The WMA can be accessed off Interstate 79. There are 264 tent/ trailer sites at nearby Bulltown, along with six primitive sites to choose from.

District 3 biologist Ray Knotts recently mentioned that they were making progress with the antler restrictions, but that it would take another season or two before they could make a critical assessment of how well the trophy management approach was working.

In 2006, the first year they had the trophy restriction in effect, there were two bucks checked in. Knotts mentioned that last season they had 17 bucks checked in with most of them being 8- and 9-point racks in the 14- to 16-inch width range. As with the other areas, bowhunters seem have to have responded really well to the change.