Yeah......less people, less vehicle traffic, less noise, less disturbance.
A good friend of mine, Doug Johnson, and I were working an area pretty hard for 3 years that was on the Management Area....we saw bears every bow season...and every year we saw more hogs.
Now you gotta remember, we saw more hogs the 3 weeks before bow season opened cause we were on the move scouting than when we were set up on bears. But the sitings and sign doubled from the 1st year, and then doubled again the from the 2nd year.
Now in 2006 'they' decided to grade the road a month before the season and replace some old culverts.......the area was null and void of hogs and sign.
See, them critters are in there ALL year with the gates only opened for 1 week during gun season. So, the roads aren't considered 'cautious' till the gates open up. They might still cross the road....but they are much less likely to mill around near the road, or use the road for travel.
Opening up the gate an allowing people to just drive in and hunt...or just drive in and turn around displaces them for a bit. This usually happens only during gun season....but now they are having these 'special' gun hunts for hogs so they will get displaced again. These animals aren't use to being bothered, vehicle noise on these closed roads, and over trampling...so they just leave the area all together cause they got so much acerage.
For years they had a small game season that opened August 1st...but they didn't allow you to kill hogs(go figure), but they did allow it this year, but we didn't get to scout at all due to being too busy with all the rest of our lives.
All the gates that get opened are on the Management Area....not the Wilderness.
Again, if anyone wants to hunt this beautiful area, there will be an annual TBG hunt bout the 3rd weekend in Sept for bear, deer, and hogs.