Mule Deer Foundation banquets

[jackelope]

Has the MDF been involved with trying to fund gates with WDFW on wintering areas?

Just got word thru our national office that we are going to get a sign template made up for just this purpose.  Yes, we can fund gates, and we would want to put up a sign explaining the importance of protecting winter range, also.  If you know areas that need gates and/or repairs, let me know and we will get some funding on the way where needed. 
Pretty much all of Okanogan County is a great example, but we can work anywhere we need to!

The Entiat and Swakane would be great areas to gate.

[MtnMuley]

Has the MDF been involved with trying to fund gates with WDFW on wintering areas?

Just got word thru our national office that we are going to get a sign template made up for just this purpose.  Yes, we can fund gates, and we would want to put up a sign explaining the importance of protecting winter range, also.  If you know areas that need gates and/or repairs, let me know and we will get some funding on the way where needed. 
Pretty much all of Okanogan County is a great example, but we can work anywhere we need to!

Are you kidding me? Pretty much all of Okanogan I'd a great example?? Great idea, let's close down a bunch of the remaining roads we have left because some genius that doesn't even live here thinks closing down these roads makes a real difference. MuleDeer: you're losing more and more support all the time from locals here that read some of the things you say. 

[MuleDeer]

Has the MDF been involved with trying to fund gates with WDFW on wintering areas?

Just got word thru our national office that we are going to get a sign template made up for just this purpose.  Yes, we can fund gates, and we would want to put up a sign explaining the importance of protecting winter range, also.  If you know areas that need gates and/or repairs, let me know and we will get some funding on the way where needed. 
Pretty much all of Okanogan County is a great example, but we can work anywhere we need to!

Are you kidding me? Pretty much all of Okanogan I'd a great example?? Great idea, let's close down a bunch of the remaining roads we have left because some genius that doesn't even live here thinks closing down these roads makes a real difference. MuleDeer: you're losing more and more support all the time from locals here that read some of the things you say. 

Really?  That's what you read into what I just posted??  Yes, a lot of Okanogan County would be a good place to look at specific areas that should be gated in order to protect winter range that is in bad shape and needs a chance to regenerate.  By the way, MDF does not make the decision to close areas, or have any influence on what areas are closed.  Your local biologists and state or federal agencies make those decisions.  Does that mean we close it all off?  No, never, and I think even you know that's not what I meant.  And again, I am offering my time to come meet with you face to face, or in a group, to answer any questions that you have for me.  You name the time and place, and I'll be there if I'm not on the road somewhere.  Or, you could come to a local chapter meeting, where we talk about the needs up there, and how we may be able to go about accomplishing goals.  I don't know how to explain it any better than our mission statement: To ensure the Conservation of Mule Deer, Blacktail Deer, and their Habitat."  If you want to help us in making those decisions and do what's right for our deer herds, let me know; we'd be glad to have you at a chapter meeting.

[MuleDeer]

Has the MDF been involved with trying to fund gates with WDFW on wintering areas?

Just got word thru our national office that we are going to get a sign template made up for just this purpose.  Yes, we can fund gates, and we would want to put up a sign explaining the importance of protecting winter range, also.  If you know areas that need gates and/or repairs, let me know and we will get some funding on the way where needed. 
Pretty much all of Okanogan County is a great example, but we can work anywhere we need to!

Are you kidding me? Pretty much all of Okanogan I'd a great example?? Great idea, let's close down a bunch of the remaining roads we have left because some genius that doesn't even live here thinks closing down these roads makes a real difference. MuleDeer: you're losing more and more support all the time from locals here that read some of the things you say. 

Just curious, MtnMuley, what do you do up there in NCW to help out our deer herds?  Maybe we could help you with some of your projects that you're doing to help our deer or the habitat that has been lost up there.  We're always looking for good projects to fund and would be glad to consider new opportunities to help.

[actionshooter]

Any info on the Olympia chapter/banquet? I used to attend years ago and it seemed this chapter just went away.

[MuleDeer]

Any info on the Olympia chapter/banquet? I used to attend years ago and it seemed this chapter just went away.

We've had a banquet there the last 3 years, at the Red Lion on the hill there.  Last year was a bummer because we booked on graduation weekend, so it hurt our attendance a lot.  The chapter is still looking at a date to schedule, and we are looking for a new banquet chair as well.  Our chair has gotten very busy, so is looking to turn over the reins and just be a regular committee guy for a couple years.  Let me know if you know someone who would want to help us organize the event, and I'll make sure to post the banquet date here as soon as we get one set.  Thanks!

[MtnMuley]

Mule Deer: I surely don't need to justify what I've done, but here's what I can think of off the top of my head....been a member of the Mule Deer Foundation since it started In Okanogan County and attended the banquets. Even the ones that had under 30 people attending.  Spent  thousands of dollars for the cause you "now" represent. First banquet I didn't attend was this year, strictly because of Mitch Friedman's (Conservation Nowthwest--ANTI-HUNTERS) right hand man allowed to be on the committee.  Spent time with the only project MDF did many years ago here locally in the Sinlahekin wildlife area. I've shot hundreds of coyotes on the winter range during those times along with numerous cougars, boot and hounds to take pressure off the deer. Took the Eyes in the Woods course when that came out  to better inform me about being "eyes in the woods". That's what I come up with at the moment, but I can't really think of anything I haven't done that could have benefited the muleys where I LIVE any more.

Let's here what you have done for the mule deer herd here in Okanogan County?? How long have you been affiliated with MDF as a PAID employee?? What did you do before??.

I realize and have read what you've posted post-fire about helping with the volunteer work that needs to be done, and I appreciate that, as should any sportsman.....hence the reason that thread has stayed away from this discussion. Thank you for the effort to acquire help with what needs to be done this spring.

[MuleDeer]

Well, no one on here should have to justify who they are or what they have done for wildlife, but I've done both, and will do it again.  The easy stuff directly answering your questions about the cause I "now" represent.  I am a life member, and have been a member since 2001.  I also have spent thousands of dollars and thousands of hours, as a volunteer, working for our deer herds and wildlife statewide.  As a matter of fact, the only reason I have a job in conservation is because I volunteered my way into the experience needed to do the job.  I have been a paid employee of the MDF for 2 years now.  In those two years, I have helped our chapter numbers go from 7 in the region to 18, more than tripling the dollars we have raised for habitat and conservation. 
What did I do before that?  Well, after moving back to WA in 1994, my wife and I both started volunteering and teaching for conservation, then I went to work for the NWTF and worked for them for several years, growing the chapter system at the time from 5 chapters to 25 in WA state.  While working for them, we also volunteered and helped start the Spokane MDF chapter, back in 2002.  That chapter has been a leader in putting habitat back on the ground in all of Eastern WA, when there weren't any other MDF chapters doing that work here.
I'm proud to say that, since 2012, I've been lucky enough to be a part of helping to put over $125,000 on the ground for Mule Deer in this state.
Eyes in the Woods is a program, that for the last two years, MDF has been proud to sponsor and help expand.  Our goal is to help them present a class everywhere that MDF has a chapter, and hopefully we can increase the attendance at all of those classes.  We both know how important they are.
As far as the Okanogan Trails Chapter's banquet last year (their first banquet, by the way), I have no problem with Jay Kehne being on the committee.  He is an avid hunter, as is his boss, and he has fought for your hunting rights as long as mine in his time on the Wildlife Commission, as one of only 3 hunters on the commission.  Do they put the word out that they are supportive of hunting and management like I think they should?  Absolutely not, and I try to get them (Conservation NW) to publicize that more.  Why they don't, I don't know.  But I do know they support proper mgmt. of wildlife, including wolves, despite what many of you think on this site.  I do my research and work with these groups; it is my job to know the difference between a conservation group and a preservation, or anti-hunting group.  I would encourage you to sit down sometime and talk with Jay, and I think you would have new light shed on what is a bad perception of him and what he does.  The reason he is involved with MDF is because he loves to hunt, and he wants to give back to that resource.  Do they share the same views as the rest of us across the board?  Nope.  Are they anti-hunters? Nope again.  Does Jay do everything he can for hunters' rights on the Wildlife Commission?  Yes he does, because he is a life long hunter, too.
So, in a nutshell, I've been involved in conservation for about 20 years now.  Before that, I worked for Primos Game Calls in Mississippi, right after I retired out of the Army.  Am I schooled as a biologist?  Nope.  But I've worked hand in hand with them, studied their profession to better understand what it is that our goals are and how to succeed in them, and done my best to become a student of habitat and conservation practices.  Do I know it all about this?  Not by a very long shot.  But my passion, and now my job, is to do the best we can for Mule Deer and our wild lands, with what we have to work with.  My job is to increase what we have to work with, meaning more chapters doing more work for our deer, and hopefully reversing the trend of their populations all across the West.  That's why I ask for opinions and ideas on this site, as well as in every meeting I attend (which is A LOT).  I am proud and humbled to represent the hunters in this state, and I want to make sure I am doing the best I can for them.  Doesn't mean I'll always agree with decisions made, just like you and a lot of others, but it's not my place to question the history and research that supports those decisions.  But when it's time, I and we will question things, just as we should.
I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have, and again, let's make time to meet sometime to talk about what else can be done.  I know it's your passion, as it is mine.  Just because I get paid to do it now (which I feel extremely lucky for), doesn't mean it's any less of a passion; I just got lucky enough to be able to do this now for a living.