The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) said information forms for the Statewide Special Season Quota Deer and Turkey Hunts have been distributed to license agents and TWRA Regional Offices.

Sportsman License holders received their forms on the wrap of the Calendar issue of the Tennessee Wildlife Magazine. The form can also be printed from the TWRA Web Page www.tnwildlife.org.

To apply, complete the information on the form and take it to any place where hunting and fishing licenses are sold for processing. Do not mail the form.

Be sure to wait until the application is processed, then sign and take a copy of the receipt which shows the hunt choices.

Hunters may also apply over the Internet. Sportsman License holders and seniors with a Type 167 permit are free. All others, in addition to a $2 usage fee, will be charged a $20 permit fee per drawing plus 50 cents for each drawing entered. The $2 usage fee is collected by the company that maintains the Internet site.

Applicants may follow the progress of their application by going to www.tnwildlife.org and click on "Check Your Quota Hunt Application Status & Permit Availability."

Thirty-three counties across the state are listed with hunts for antlerless deer. Region IV counties listed include: Anderson, Blount, Carter, Claiborne, Grainger, Greene, Hamblen, Hancock, Hawkins, Jefferson, Johnson, Loudon, Sevier and Sullivan.

For the first time, there are three Region IV counties with non-quota antlerless deer hunts. Those are: Hawkins, Knox, and Loudon (west of I-75).

In addition to the deer hunts, sixty-nine counties are listed with quota fall wild turkey hunts. Region IV counties with fall turkey seasons are: Anderson, Blount, Carter, Claiborne, Cocke, Grainger, Greene, Hamblen, Hancock, Hawkins, Jefferson, Johnson, Knox, Sevier, Sullivan, Union and Washington. This is the first year for fall turkey hunting in Anderson, Blount, and Knox counties in Region IV.

Application must be made no later than Sept. 3. No exceptions. Don't let this one slip by you. These are great opportunities at additional game this fall.

Got questions about Quality Deer Management?

QDMA said you can get answers straight from the top when you meet and speak with nationally known QDM experts and hunting celebrities at the Quality Deer Management Association's Whitetail Expo, part of the 2008 QDMA National Convention.

The Whitetail Expo is open to the public and takes place this weekend, both today and Sunday, in Chattanooga. That's a short drive for a great show. I know these guys at the QDMA, and they are strictly about quality.

Lee and Tiffany Lakosky of Scent-Lok's "Gettin' Close" will kick off the celebrity appearances at the show with a seminar at 11 a.m. Saturday. Nationally known deer researcher Dr. Grant Woods of Missouri takes the stage at 1 p.m. to tell the story of how one hunting property went from "Zero to 150 in Five Years" through Quality Deer Management. At 2 p.m., Realtree founder Bill Jordan will talk about his personal success with QDM on his hunting property and his experiences with QDM success across North America.

The Whitetail Expo seminars continue on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. with wildlife consultant Neil Dougherty of North Country Whitetails. Neil will teach audience members how to select and lay out great hunting properties in a seminar titled "Great Whitetail Properties Don't Just Happen - They're 'Made That Way."

QDMA said if you miss seeing the Lakoskys on Saturday, Lee and Tiffany return to the stage Sunday at 1 p.m. They're followed at 2 p.m. by Hunter's Specialties Pro Staff members Alex Rutledge and Eddie Salter, who will use highlights from their hunting video footage as they discuss techniques for calling and hunting whitetails.

A "meet-and-greet" opportunity will take place at 3 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday on the Whitetail Expo floor, including celebrity and expert speakers who will be available for photos and autographs. They are joined by dozens of other well-known QDM experts who will be among the crowd throughout the entire QDMA National Convention. Hunters who attended the QDMA National Convention in the past said they were surprised to be able to approach top deer experts for questions and one-on-one conversations outside of the formal educational events.

Attending the 2008 National Convention, in addition to the speakers mentioned above, are more than 30 of the top deer researchers, consultants and QDM experts from around the nation, including David Morris of Tecomate Wildlife Systems, Dr. James Kroll of Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas, Dr. Karl Miller of the University of Georgia, and Dr. Mickey Hellickson of the King Ranch.

Even the kids get to rub shoulders with celebrities in the Kid's Corner, where the guys from Team Primos will be conducting the popular kids' grunt-call contests and providing all the prizes, and where the "First Lady of Hunting," Brenda Valentine, will lead fun, educational seminars for young hunters.

QDMA said seminars are only a small part of the Whitetail Expo, which features exhibits by top manufacturers and service providers in food plots, habitat management, trail cameras, deer hunting gear, and more.

Admission to QDMA's Whitetail Expo is $10 for adults, free for hunters age 15 and under, and a coupon for "buy-one-get-one-free" admission is available at www.QDMA.com.

Expo hours are Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

For more information about the many other events and educational opportunities at the Convention, visit www.QDMA.com.

Founded in 1988, QDMA is a national nonprofit wildlife conservation organization with more than 50,000 members in all 50 states and Canada, and several foreign countries.

Membership in QDMA is open to anyone interested in better deer and better deer hunting, and committed to ethical hunting, sound deer management and the preservation of the deer-hunting heritage.

BoatUS said in a press release that in a remarkable display of bipartisan support for recreational boating, both the House and Senate today passed S. 2766, "The Clean Boating Act of 2008" which will permanently restore a long-standing exemption for recreational boats from permitting requirements under the Clean Water Act. The legislation now goes to the White House for the President's signature.

Congressional action was spawned by a U.S. District Court decision in September 2006 under which an estimated 17 million recreational boats would have fallen under Clean Water Act permit requirements effective Sept. 30, 2008.

The permit would have dictated maintenance and operation procedures and potentially subjected boaters to citizen lawsuits as well as a penalty system designed for industrial polluters.

"This is a fabulous victory for common sense and it just goes to show what can be done when the boating public, the marine industry and its representatives in Congress row together in a bipartisan way," said BoatU.S. President Nancy Michelman.

BoatU.S. Government Affairs Director Margaret Podlich was quick to shower praise on a boatload of legislators who did much of the heavy lifting including Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Representatives Jim Oberstar (D-MN), Steve LaTourette (R-OH), Candice Miller (R-MI) and Gene Taylor (D-MS). A complete listing of all legislators involved will be available at http://www.BoatUS.com/gov soon.

BoatU.S. has worked for more than a year with the National Marine Manufacturers Association and a broad coalition of stakeholders to resolve the problem before the permitting deadline.

"One of the real keys to success here was our collective ability to activate the grassroots," said Podlich, noting that tens of thousands of letters and e-mails were generated by boaters and anglers over the course of the past 12 months.