Conference vmsnet::hunting$note:hunting

698.0. "end of hunting in CAL. - death by politician" by CXCAD::COLECCHI () Fri Jul 20 1990 15:20

I pulled this over from firearms - I guess you california hunters have
    your hands full now. Come to colorado we like hunters.
    
    JC    

          <<< LOSER::DISK$LOSER_PUB:[NOTES$LIBRARY]FIREARMS.NOTE;1 >>>
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Note 3491.0     The end of hunting - California as a weathervane      No replies
COOKIE::BERENSON "Utopia is not an option"          145 lines  20-JUL-1990 12:15
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From:	DECWRL::"[email protected]" "Jeff Chan" 20-JUL-1990 04:51:34.06
To:	[email protected], claris!ames!firearms-politics%[email protected], firearms
CC:	
Subj:	End of hunting in CA? 

 
San Francisco Chronicle
July 9, 1990
Page E1 (sports or outdoors section?)
 
"DFG Budget Woes Threaten Hunt Seasons"
 
by Jim Matthews
 
   Tacked up above my desk is a Gary Larson cartoon of two anglers
sitting in a boat fishing.  In the background there are mountains with
four huge mushroom clouds boiling up behind them.  One angler is saying
to the other one, "I'll tell you what this means, Norm -- no size 
restrictions and screw the limit."
 
   That bomb was dropped in Sacramento in the past week.
 
   Under the legislature's budget for the Department of Fish and Game,
poachers, developers, grazers, and all unregulated rapers and pillagers
of the state's natural resources will have their way for at least next
year.  Game management will become a thing of the past, and hunting may
cease to exist in California.
 
   This is not someone in a sheep pasture crying wolf long after wolves
have become extinct.  These are statements of simple fact that will
come to pass under the cuts embraced by both the legislature and the
Governor's office.
 
   The program most devastated, and the one least likely to get any 
bail-out funding measures, is wildlife management, which faces $5
million in budget cuts.  This will literally gut this branch of the
DFG, eliminating 170 unit biologist positions from around the state.
That's 100 percent of these positions.
 
   This is the DFG's front line that's being mowed down.  These are 
the people who do annual wildlife surveys and research.  They comment
on environmental documents for developments and timber harvests,
stopping the bad ones.  They write management plans for endangered
species and state wildlife areas.
 
   "If someone wanted to be able to let development occur in key
wildlife habitats around the state, the best way to do this would
be to get rid of the field biologists like me.  We're the ones in 
the trenches fighting these battles," said Ron Thomas, a DFG unit 
biologist on Coleville.
 
   The cuts touted by the legislature would eliminate those trench 
battles.  But there's more.
 
Seasons in Jeopardy
 
   Virtually everyone I've talked with in the DFG, from the director
down to the field level people, say the same thing: Hunting in
California is threatened.
 
   Pete Bontadelli, DFG director: "I'll never say we won't be able to
hunt, but it would put our hunting seasons in serious jeopardy.  If we
are unable to restore basic people to the field, and court patterns
continue where we have to provide annual data, we would not be able to
meet the requirements (to have hunting seasons)."
 
   According to Red Hunt, DFG wildlife management supervisor, "this
would virtually gut our operation; we're hard-pressed to cover any
game species."
 
   And Don Koch, DFG biologist in Sacramento, said, "There's no  way
we are going to be able to justify a hunt, much less withstand a legal
challenge.  This year's hunting regulations could become a collector's
item."
 
   Indeed, the anti-hunting groups already are poised to take advantage
of the department's fiscal crisis.  Cleveland Amory, president of the
Maryland-based Fund for Animals, is ready to shift into high gear with
his campaign to eliminate hunting -- with California a priority target.
"I think it is very exciting that the shortfall is there," he said.
Asked if his group intends to challenge the department on some of its
hunting seasons, Amory said, "I'm certain we would."
 
   Other Fish and Game biologists say the handwriting is on the wall.
"I don't know how you can consider eliminating all the field wildlife
biologists.  It's like running a stage line and eliminating the horses,"
said DFG biologist Tom Paulek of Long Beach.  "This is not only going
to hurt hunting, it's going to hurt that concerned environmental 
citizen who is interested in endangered species or loss of habitat."
 
   Adds Ron Thomas: "We're definitely out of the hunting business in
California if the budget goes this way."
 
Wildlife Habitats
 
   If hunting falls by the wayside next year, it will in turn eliminate
a huge chunk of revenue that comes in from hunting license and tag fees
each year, exacerbating the current financial problem and making the
plight of wildlife and its habitat even worse in the coming years.
Hunting is likely to never be reinstated.
 
   The current shortfall in the DFG budget is $12.6 million, and there
is a 1978 law that forbids the Legislature from spending general fund
revenue on sport fish and game.  Dedicated Fish and Game fund accounts
can't be touched.  Cuts from other DFG programs with matching federal
funds mean the DFG would lose $3 to $5 dollars for every dollar cut
from the state budget.  So wildlife management and marine resources
are taking the brunt of the cuts, while there are minor cuts in other
areas.
 
   Legislation that would raise the fees in the commercial fishing
industry are pegged to be passed in August to bail out marine resources.
 
   That leaves wildlife and hunting in the most serious peril in 
California.  In fact, this is very likely the beginning of the end
of regulated hunting in the state.
 
----- ends ----
 
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Date: Fri, 20 Jul 90 01:02:53 PDT
From: [email protected] (Jeff Chan)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
To: [email protected],
        claris!ames!firearms-politics%[email protected],
        [email protected], [email protected]
Subject: End of hunting in CA?

    When hunting is gone. I can hear the ANTI's now. There won't be
    any sporting purposes left to own "high power sniper rifles" After
    all if there is no hunting then all high power rifles are good for
    is sniping. The government does not recofgnize high power competition
    as a reason to own a gun. Those of you still asleep better wake
    up before all guns are gone. 
    
    With the loss of hunting I can just hear the humane society and
    the group for the prevention of cruelty to animals complaining that
    we need to be taxed more so the poor starving deer can be fed.
    
    I bet the animal deaths by car/truck will increase because the animals
    will migrate down out of the wilderness to find more food in the
    lowlands. Anybody out here who has hit a deer with a car can atest
    to the damage they do let alone jeopardising the driver's life.
    
    This ban on hunting *!$$#$ me off. Sorry 
    
    JC                                       

	I really can't make up my mind what is the saddest part
	of this story. Is it the wildlife biologists losing their
	jobs, the inability of hunters to enjoy their sport and
	nature at the same time or the loss of habitat and resulting
	mass die-offs that we will inevitably see as a result of
	lack of game management?

	This is *not* good news.

							- Mike

    Not to mention the loss of wildlife to *poaching*. License fees
    generally fund game warden wages. I doubt the legislature will
    take an equal amount from the general revenue to fund enough
    wardens to stop poaching.

    With hunting gone, Will trap and skeet be a good enough reason to
    still own a shotgun?
    
    JC

    
    Very frightening !  Just go's to show you that if a large state can
    fall, can you imagine small states like your own.
    
    What can we do to help Cal ?
    
    What should we do to insure this does'nt happen anywhere else.
    
    Maybe, like the NRA we need to form a NHA (National Hunting Asso) with
    the Goal of saving the American Historic Spirit of Hunting.
    
    Any Ideas?
    
    Rick

    Join the North American Hunting Club

    Does anyone have a phone number or address  for the North American
    Hunting Club? I have never heard of it and neither has my friends.
    
    JC

    
    RE:6
    
    I was a member of the NAHC for 10+ years. The reason why I've pulled
    out is that I have lost the faith in this club. Though it's a good club
    for up to date info on gear, swap hunts, and pure hunting stories I
    never have heard or seen the club winning a battle or attempting to win
    a battle for hunters. 
    
    The NAHC says it has land for its members to use, but the only members
    I've seen using the land is the staff. Also, Why does the NAHC alway's
    have the convention out west? Also, as a member you get a chance of
    testing equipment, have you seen any equipment to test ? and if so what
    was it water-proof matches!
    
    Sorry to go down a rat-hole but in my opinion the NAHC is not as good
    as most people think. Why don't you ask Mark Labara one of the
    directors of NAHC who by the way has family members on the staff as
    well if he could take time from hunting all over the North America
    to repersent us. I doubt you would get a reply seeing it's so close to
    hunting season thru-out the country. Just keep sending those dues
    though. That way the NAHC Staff members will be able to lease a jet
    for the up-coming seasons.
    
    Rick 

    
    I am currently a member of North American Hunting Club, I have been for
    a few months.  Though I do not know enough about them to state whether
    they have fought/won/lost battles over firearms/hunting, they have 
    published a couple of editorials about the anti -hunting tactics in 
    the last 2 issues.
    
    Other "benefits" of NAHC
    
    - magazine that comes every 2 months
    
    - land to hunt on, though none of it is around NH
    
    - Repository of guides used and recommendations
    
    - list of swap hunts (I will supply Black Bear in Maine for Antelope
      hunt in Colorado for example)
    
    - Gun giveaway several times a year
    
    - Hunt giveaway for members with the most subscriptions referred (so if 
      you are interested in subscribing let me know)
    
    I will see if I can find the information on phone number address and 
    post it tomorrow.
    
    --Bob
    

RE:   <<< Note 698.2 by DECALP::HOHWY "Just another Programmer" >>>

>	I really can't make up my mind what is the saddest part
>	of this story. Is it the wildlife biologists losing their
>	jobs, the inability of hunters to enjoy their sport and
>	nature at the same time or the loss of habitat and resulting
>	mass die-offs that we will inevitably see as a result of
>	lack of game management?

    The saddest part of this story is none of the above; it's the loss of
    our society's ability to think rationally.
    
    Fred, living in a nation of sheep. :-(