Major wdfw overhaul

[Mr Mykiss]

Remember to bill to sell public lands??
Did Montanans go to public meetings and make themselves heard?
See for yourself.

Now imagine if the WDFW Yakima/Vancouver/Spokane public comment meeting on the three year season setting process looked like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bearpaw]

From the MN DNR

Research by the DNR continues to examine the complex potential causes of a moose population decline that started about a decade ago. The research also suggests the recent signs of stability could have resulted from higher calf survival. Much remains unknown. What is known: Factors including infections, parasites and other health issues are killing moose and predisposing them to being preyed on by wolves.

The wolves were there far before the decrease in Moose population.  Many things impact our animals.  Sick Moose make for easy eating but wolves didn't predispose them to dying they just cleaned up the scraps.

At least the study in WA admitted wolves were eating half the moose in the northern study area and disease was getting the other half. Unfortunately some biologists become enamored by wolves (or other wildlife as has been proven by previous biology scandals that were exposed), I'm sorry but you can't tell me that 2000+ wolves are not impacting moose! Funny how the moose started disappearing when wolf numbers increased!

[2MANY]

WDFW is working themselves out of a job.

Just a few more years and things will be so screwed up that it won't matter.

[SkookumHntr]

If there was ever an agency that needed an overhaul its the WDFW! From the Game Warden that didn't know the limit of trout on macintosh lake to the guy in charge of killing those deer in Rochester, Get rid of these *censored*ing clowns!! God are state is soo screwed! 

[pianoman9701]

Wolves don't belong living among people. There're many reasons we ended that decades ago. They shouldn't populate anywhere that's going to create human/wildlife conflict without constantly being shown they should fear humans. They're dangerous, a majority are infected with a disease that can transfer to humans, according to an IDFG study, and they belong only in the most wild of wildernesses. I don't understand why this seems to be an argument along party lines but apparently it is. Most of the people who don't understand this have little or no exposure to anything that doesn't have concrete under it, or they think the HSUS and Defenders are really good people trying to do really good things.

[B4noon]

WDFW will never work its self out of a job or self implode they will still be operating just with different agendas and focal points that don't reflect the views and opinions of recreational user groups.  Unfortunately depleted populations create more oversight and management in government so they will probably grow in size and have to add another wing to the NRB building to house them all.  The reality is weather its hunting or fishing the recreational quota is always the least of concern it's a by product of natural resource management. It's not always a let's manage this for our constituent user group that pays the bill attitude rather a now that we met all our other obligations here's the leftovers.  There are to many factors and user groups involved to give the blame to one issue although some have greater impacts then others. Unfortunately the best most of us can do is to write legislatures, be involved in meetings and hope for the best some wars can be won by the number of votes on a ballot

[Special T]

Honest question. When was the last call you heard from the WDFW or USFW do help on a habitat project?

The only one I can think of was planting bitterbrush after the fire. It was last minute and not well advertised.

My big beef with habitat discussions is that it is always about buying more land, not maximizing productivity of state owned land....

The land is cherry valley and Stillwater are perfect examples  of land that needs caring for that volunteers are having a difficult time PROVIDING the $ and man power to maintain/fix up habitat. Land that should see maximum utility because of its close proximity to the population.

If there are habitat projects that are needed, and not enough funds or man power where is the town cryer shouting out "hunters and conservationists we need your help with XYZ project!"

Ask Happy how easy it was to have tractors with Brush Hogs "certified" so they could burn donated fuel and hours to improve lands we already own...

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[Mr Mykiss]

Here ya go

[Bushcraft]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8

[Mallardmasher]

Problem is thinning not clear cutting, stopping fires, both of which cause forest regeneration and high quality food, an old forest has very little nutritional value, and we do all in our power to stop regeneration. Area’s where fires have occurred the critters may need help they the winter, but for years to come, these areas will have a much higher catering capacity. Currently the DNR and USFS are focused on thining which does nothing or very little to help the forest floor regenerate. Let it burn or clear cut it and watch the food grow for years to come. And control the out of control predator problem, Bears alone are responsible for upwards of 35% of the fawn mortality. Bait and Hounds a must. Deer and elk have continued to drop since both where banned. IMO

[npaull]

Bears alone are responsible for upwards of 35% of the fawn mortality.

Yeah this is an amazingly large and pretty underappreciated source of deer predation. Huge impact that black bears have on fawn recruitment.

[bigmacc]

As I,ve said many times, "its a multi headed snake", and not a problem that can be fixed by chopping off just one head. As some have said, its a predator problem, its a habitat problem, too many hunters putting to much pressure on certain herds, bad winters, fires, poor management of our herds and forest regeneration. All are valid issues and problems. MrMykiss brought up some good points about each of us doing what we can do to help fix the problem and not just gripeing about it amongst ourselves, go to meetings, write letters etc. etc.. I will take his advice and I hope more do. We should all hunt predators and buy tags(I already do that and have for years), If each one of us killed a few coyotes every year that would be a lot of dead yotes, we have killed 9 so far this year in the Methow. We had opportunities to kill 3 different bears and a handful of cougars this year, could not get clean shots at the bears(last thing I want to do is go after a wounded bear) and the cats were gone by the time we shouldered our rifles . That example alone hi-lites the predator problem, at least in the Methow! We seen a ton of coyotes, 3 big bears and a handful of cougars(including a dead collared cat in the back of a truck), more bear/cougar and coyote sign than I have ever seen in the 60 years I,ve been hunting there, not to mention all the cached kills we came across(about 20 or so) and this was in a 10 day time frame!  The problem truly is multi-headed.

[Special T]

You mean like this?

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[bigmacc]

You mean like this?

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 , yep, like that

[Southpole]

Honest question. When was the last call you heard from the WDFW or USFW do help on a habitat project?

The only one I can think of was planting bitterbrush after the fire. It was last minute and not well advertised.

My big beef with habitat discussions is that it is always about buying more land, not maximizing productivity of state owned land....

The land is cherry valley and Stillwater are perfect examples  of land that needs caring for that volunteers are having a difficult time PROVIDING the $ and man power to maintain/fix up habitat. Land that should see maximum utility because of its close proximity to the population.

If there are habitat projects that are needed, and not enough funds or man power where is the town cryer shouting out "hunters and conservationists we need your help with XYZ project!"

Ask Happy how easy it was to have tractors with Brush Hogs "certified" so they could burn donated fuel and hours to improve lands we already own...

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So, elkchaser54 says we're not volunteering enough to enhance/ rebuild habitat. But unless I missed something over the years, I haven't seen the wildlife dept. making any public announcements for helping out with this issue  (emergency bitterbrush planting doesn't count either). I see more effort volunteering for fish and bird habitat than for ungulates. Sounds like there's is a lot of frustrating red tape to deal with which in turn turns off volunteers.