Update: Forward motion on 1,000-acre hunting preserve requirement

After a Wednesday meeting of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission, we could soon see changes to the rules governing big game preserves in the Volunteer State.

Thursday, the full Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission approved a plan to require all hunting preserves to be 1,000 or more acres.

Supporters of hunting preserves call them accessible and affordable big game hunting.

Critics call it a "canned hunt."

Daniel Loshbough started Loshbough Hunting Range 20 years ago and says his hunt is anything but "canned."

"I pride in putting somebody on a fair-chase hunt," he said. "I wouldn't want to take somebody on a hunt that I wouldn't go on myself."

Loshbough says he will offer a challenge to any hunter -- spend one day on his preserve, guide-free, kill a boar, and get the hunt for free.

"It's 5 1/2 miles of fenceline around this place," Loshbough said. "It's somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 acres."

The big game hunting issue started grabbing headlines with the planned opening of Clinch Mountain Hunting Adventures in Grainger County.

It's a 64-acre, for-profit preserve allowing hunters to take aim at zebra, buffalo, wild hogs, and various deer.

The Humane Society of the United States has come out against it, as have several neighbors.

After a meeting in Pickwick Landing State Park Wednesday, the commission's wildlife committee is recommending a new rule limiting new hunting preserves to plots of 1,000 acres or more.

That's a 50-fold increase over the current requirement of 20 acres.

Also, new hunting preserves would be limited to only native North American game.

The existing 15 hunting preserves around the state, including Clinch Mountain, would be grandfathered in under the new rules, but there has been no decision on whether those facilities would be able to continue importing foreign game. Finally, the new rule would increase the cost of fees to open a hunting preserve, so that the fees for the permits would help cover the costs of program administration.

The new rule was approved by the full Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission Thursday.

The agency will now draft a rule and the commission would vote on it again in October.

If approved on that vote, the new rule would head to the Secretary of State's office for legislative approval.

Here's a list of the current 15 big game preserves across the state:

- Cherokee Houndsman Association, Old Fort

- Tennessee Extreme Hunting Adventures, Jamestown

- Standing Rock Hunting Lodge, Jamestown

- Caryonah Hunting Lodge, Crossville

- Tellico Junction LLC, Englewood

- Goodman Ranch, Henderson

- Loshbough Hunting Range, Crossville

- Clarkrange Hunting Lodge, Clarkrange

- Crooked Creek Hunting Lodge, Jamestown

- Tennessee Extreme Hunting, Fayetteville

- Wildside Exotic Adventures, McMinnville

- Sugarloaf Mountain Hunting Preserve, Seymour

- Wilderness Hunting Preserve, Monterey

- Clinch Mountain Hunting Adventures, Thorn Hill

- Croy's Cabins, Greeneville