I’d like to start off by saying thank-you to all our current permit holders for an extremely successful year.  Without your efforts as

conscientious hunters and the efforts of a fantastic staff, this season would not have been nearly as successful.  We certainly have

room to improve, and as a staff we’re looking forward to next season to expand on some great opportunities, but we are very

thankful for the community of great hunters that we have here at APAFR.  

And for those folks who aren’t as familiar with the range, I’d like to thank-you for your interest and we hope to see you in the future. 

To that end, I’d like to give you a brief introduction to the range, our program, and how you can become part of a great community

of hunters.

Avon Park Air Force Range (APAFR) is a Department of Defense air-to-ground training facility that covers approximately 106,000

acres in south-central peninsular Florida.  The majority of this area is composed of a diverse mix of habitat including pine plantations,

cutthroat seepage slopes, pine flatwoods and prairies, floodplain marshes, hammocks and scrub.  Roughly 82,000 acres are open to

the public for hunting, fishing, hiking, camping and other related activities.  An additional 2,000 + acres have been set aside for

active-duty and retired military, Department of Defense civilian employees and disabled veterans.  APAFR is the largest Wildlife

Management Area in the southwest region of Florida and tenth largest in the state.

The Fish, Wildlife and Outdoor Recreation Program at APAFR is responsible for managing healthy populations of wildlife species

through scientifically sound habitat and harvest management efforts.  We employ a great diversity of habitat management practices in

cooperation with other programs on the range, to include, proper forest management, rotational cattle grazing and a prescribed burn

program that generally burns on a two to three year cycle (20,000 to 40,000 acres per year).  All this has led to APAFR becoming a

world-class public hunting destination for those seeking a quality public hunting experience.  We maintain hunter densities of around 1

hunter per 100 acres and base our harvest management on scientifically sound data. 

APAFR ranks in the top ten Florida Wildlife Management Areas, according to Florida Game and Fish Magazine, and few places rival

it for hunting Osceola turkey.  Over the first two weeks of spring turkey season 2008, hunters at APAFR harvested 112 turkeys

(104 mature birds and only 8 jakes) with a hunter success rate of 12.6 hunter days per bird harvested.  By comparison, last season,

most WMA’s in the region had hunter success rates of around 23 days per harvested bird.   Additionally, of the 112 birds harvested,

51 had 9 inch or greater beards.

Turkeys certainly aren’t the only game species drawing interest at APAFR.  Hunters harvested 137 white-tailed deer this past season

with 8 of those eligible to qualify for the Florida Buck Registry (Boone and Crockett score of at least 100 inches).  By comparison,

last season only 10 deer qualified for registry in Polk and Highlands Counties combined.

Quail hunting has again become popular at APAFR thanks to the progressive burn program and strong efforts in habitat management. 

Fall covey surveys and spring call count surveys indicate that the population is doing well and the harvest certainly confirms this. 

Hunters took 387 quail this year during the small game season.

And finally, as always, feral hog hunting remains popular on the range.  APAFR is one of the few public areas in the state that allows

dog hunting for deer and hogs.  Each year a separate area is set aside for this style of hunting to help maintain the diversity of hunting

opportunities for the public and help preserve a heritage and tradition that can be passed on to the next generation of conscientious

hunters.

To make all of this possible the program must sell permits.  We are a self-revenue-generating operation that receives no money from

the government for operating costs.  The entire program operates on fees collected from hunters and other recreationists.

Below you’ll find our policies and procedures concerning this year’s application process.  We at the Fish, Wildlife and Outdoor

Recreation Program want to thank-you for your interest in our program and we hope to see you at the range.

Sincerely,

Troy Hershberger

Wildlife Biologist

Avon Park Air Force Range

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As a special reminder, please note that we are not able to accept personal checks as payment for the annual

hunt permits this year.  We certainly apologize for the slight inconvenience to our loyal patrons, but we have

experienced great difficulty in dealing with 'bad checks'.  Over the past few years, these checks have increased

in number and cost the program a great deal of money and time.  As a result, the program has sufferd around 

this time of the year and has not been able to provide the high level of service that we want to provide (and

that you deserve).  Only accepting certfied checks and money orders greatly improves our efficiency in

processing your applications and makes the whole system run a lot smoother.  We thank-you for your support

and understanding during this change and, as always, our office is open to questions and concerns.