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Washington Sledding hunters check this out....great ideas in my opinion
Link to whole story.
mine didn't work Use bottom link
This is only part of the text...Dave encourages comments on site
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Kick these ideas around. But don’t kick them under the rug.
Item #1: Rather than merge agencies, the legislature should transfer all responsibility for non-game species to the Department of Natural Resources, and the staff that goes with it. The Department of Fish and Wildlife should revert to its previous title and concentrate on hunting and fishing, which generates, by Anderson’s own estimates, about $6 billion to the state’s economy.
Get the “Explore Washington” fee hike, and make the “watchable wildlife” program pay for itself, or get rid of it. Hunters and anglers should still get free access to state wildlife lands because they already pay for it with license and tag fees. Anybody else, pay the fee or pay a fine and make it a whopper for trespassing. Money talks.
Item #2: The agency must lobby hard for full restoration of hound hunting for cougars and black bears. This will accomplish reduced predation and reduced human-predator interaction in expanding suburban areas.
Item #3: Abolish “Resource Allocation.” Replace it with the opportunity to hunt more than one season with a different weapon. For example, if someone wants to hunt the regular season with his friends and family, let him do that. If he doesn’t score and wants to try archery or muzzleloading, allow him to purchase a secondary tag for an additional $10 or $15, provided the unused general season tag is surrendered at the transaction, and don’t limit this to so-called “Master Hunters.” This needs to be an opportunity for everybody. The annual bag limit of one deer/one elk remains the same. Result: More opportunity to score, more time enjoyed afield, more reason to buy a license and more income for the agency. Money talks all year long.
Item #4: Shift season dates and lengthen certain seasons. General elk hunting should begin the first full weekend in November and run 15 days to include two full weekends. Eastern Washington mule deer season should run at least 15 days. Northeast Whitetail hunting should run for six weeks with seven full weekends. If the state wants to seriously encourage hunters to purchase licenses and tags, it must provide them serious opportunities to fill those tags. Hunting seasons that merely translate to “camping with guns” drive our hunters – and their money – to other states. Money talks loudest at home.
Item #5: Put an end to blanket antler restrictions. Establish branch antler restrictions in certain units east and west for elk, but allow general season hunters a crack at some of those bigger eastside bulls, or if they run into a spike in Western Washington, take the shot and save a bigger bull for the gene pool. Likewise, end the 3-point mule deer restriction except in certain management units. Want to recruit and retain new hunters? Let them put some meat in the cooler. Even a spike to a 15-year-old kid is a trophy. They’ll buy a license next year. Money keeps talking.
Item #6: Remove the license requirement for shooting coyotes. Hunters should be encouraged to reduce the coyote population “one animal at a time” year around to reduce predation on game species from rabbits and hares on up the chain. It will save some house cats, too.
Item #7: Tighten up the mission of enforcement agents. Game wardens should be game wardens (not "Fish and Wildlife Police"). Going after marijuana grows on agency lands should be left to the local county sheriff, Washington State Patrol and federal drug cops. Of course, in situations where some dipstick fires at you in Grant County on a fishing license check, shoot back.
Item #8: Hand over wolf management to USFWS or DNR. Work with the Attorney General’s office to file a lawsuit against USFWS to halt wolf relocation/introduction plans or proposals. Many hunters are convinced that some in the agency look at them as competition to wolves for the available deer and elk, particularly deer in the Methow Valley.
Item #9: Get the wild turkey program back up to speed and promote the hell out of it. The guy who started that program is now retired. Beg, badger or bribe him to come back and turn him loose. Work with landowners in the Columbia Basin on pheasant rearing and release programs.
Item #10: And perhaps this is most important. Drop this attitude that “These are the good old days.” That’s a defeatist philosophy. Compare Washington with Ohio, where hunters take more than 100,000 deer during their seven-day general season, and in Washington we take between 40,000 and 45,000 in all of their seasons combined. Ohio is about 20,000 square miles smaller than Washington, it has a fraction of our public land, it has one species of deer (we have three huntable species). Ohio has more than 11 million residents, and Washington has about 6.5 million. Let’s swap Ohio two non-game biologists for one of their game biologists.
[UPDATE: This is going to make Washington hunters' blood pressure really go up: The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is reporting today that Buckeye State black powder hunters took 17,108 deer during the recent four-day muzzleloader hunt, bringing the total deer harvest for all seasons (shotgun, muzzleloader and archery) to - are you sitting down? - 227,469 animals. The archery season continues to Feb. 6.]
Of
Continue reading on Examiner.com: Legislature must roll back the clock to save WDFW, resource - Seattle gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-...the-clock-to-save-wdfw-resource#ixzz1B2ajHh20
Link to whole story.
mine didn't work Use bottom link
This is only part of the text...Dave encourages comments on site
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kick these ideas around. But don’t kick them under the rug.
Item #1: Rather than merge agencies, the legislature should transfer all responsibility for non-game species to the Department of Natural Resources, and the staff that goes with it. The Department of Fish and Wildlife should revert to its previous title and concentrate on hunting and fishing, which generates, by Anderson’s own estimates, about $6 billion to the state’s economy.
Get the “Explore Washington” fee hike, and make the “watchable wildlife” program pay for itself, or get rid of it. Hunters and anglers should still get free access to state wildlife lands because they already pay for it with license and tag fees. Anybody else, pay the fee or pay a fine and make it a whopper for trespassing. Money talks.
Item #2: The agency must lobby hard for full restoration of hound hunting for cougars and black bears. This will accomplish reduced predation and reduced human-predator interaction in expanding suburban areas.
Item #3: Abolish “Resource Allocation.” Replace it with the opportunity to hunt more than one season with a different weapon. For example, if someone wants to hunt the regular season with his friends and family, let him do that. If he doesn’t score and wants to try archery or muzzleloading, allow him to purchase a secondary tag for an additional $10 or $15, provided the unused general season tag is surrendered at the transaction, and don’t limit this to so-called “Master Hunters.” This needs to be an opportunity for everybody. The annual bag limit of one deer/one elk remains the same. Result: More opportunity to score, more time enjoyed afield, more reason to buy a license and more income for the agency. Money talks all year long.
Item #4: Shift season dates and lengthen certain seasons. General elk hunting should begin the first full weekend in November and run 15 days to include two full weekends. Eastern Washington mule deer season should run at least 15 days. Northeast Whitetail hunting should run for six weeks with seven full weekends. If the state wants to seriously encourage hunters to purchase licenses and tags, it must provide them serious opportunities to fill those tags. Hunting seasons that merely translate to “camping with guns” drive our hunters – and their money – to other states. Money talks loudest at home.
Item #5: Put an end to blanket antler restrictions. Establish branch antler restrictions in certain units east and west for elk, but allow general season hunters a crack at some of those bigger eastside bulls, or if they run into a spike in Western Washington, take the shot and save a bigger bull for the gene pool. Likewise, end the 3-point mule deer restriction except in certain management units. Want to recruit and retain new hunters? Let them put some meat in the cooler. Even a spike to a 15-year-old kid is a trophy. They’ll buy a license next year. Money keeps talking.
Item #6: Remove the license requirement for shooting coyotes. Hunters should be encouraged to reduce the coyote population “one animal at a time” year around to reduce predation on game species from rabbits and hares on up the chain. It will save some house cats, too.
Item #7: Tighten up the mission of enforcement agents. Game wardens should be game wardens (not "Fish and Wildlife Police"). Going after marijuana grows on agency lands should be left to the local county sheriff, Washington State Patrol and federal drug cops. Of course, in situations where some dipstick fires at you in Grant County on a fishing license check, shoot back.
Item #8: Hand over wolf management to USFWS or DNR. Work with the Attorney General’s office to file a lawsuit against USFWS to halt wolf relocation/introduction plans or proposals. Many hunters are convinced that some in the agency look at them as competition to wolves for the available deer and elk, particularly deer in the Methow Valley.
Item #9: Get the wild turkey program back up to speed and promote the hell out of it. The guy who started that program is now retired. Beg, badger or bribe him to come back and turn him loose. Work with landowners in the Columbia Basin on pheasant rearing and release programs.
Item #10: And perhaps this is most important. Drop this attitude that “These are the good old days.” That’s a defeatist philosophy. Compare Washington with Ohio, where hunters take more than 100,000 deer during their seven-day general season, and in Washington we take between 40,000 and 45,000 in all of their seasons combined. Ohio is about 20,000 square miles smaller than Washington, it has a fraction of our public land, it has one species of deer (we have three huntable species). Ohio has more than 11 million residents, and Washington has about 6.5 million. Let’s swap Ohio two non-game biologists for one of their game biologists.
[UPDATE: This is going to make Washington hunters' blood pressure really go up: The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is reporting today that Buckeye State black powder hunters took 17,108 deer during the recent four-day muzzleloader hunt, bringing the total deer harvest for all seasons (shotgun, muzzleloader and archery) to - are you sitting down? - 227,469 animals. The archery season continues to Feb. 6.]
Of
Continue reading on Examiner.com: Legislature must roll back the clock to save WDFW, resource - Seattle gun rights | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/gun-rights-...the-clock-to-save-wdfw-resource#ixzz1B2ajHh20
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