BHA and WA Spring Bear??

[actionshooter]

Agree with hunter399 on this.  What the hell can we do?  I've sent emails, made phone calls, suggestions..... THEY JUST DON'T GIVE A CRAP!!!  No matter what we say or do, they steer the ship where they want to.  They don't even care if we all didn't send them another dime, they'd love to see the whole program go under.  So, lets get another petition and make some more emails......

I think most of us here (this thread) have done something, but for every one of us who commented, there are a 1K who didn't do anything and likely didn't even know it was an issue.  On the other hand, the well organized anti's put the word out and the commission received comments from all over the country....   I doesn't help that the commission isn't pro hunting, but if we would have out numbered the antis, the decision would have been different.

[bearpaw]

So IMO its not the hunting .orgs to blame. 

NOT BHA, not SCI not INWC none of them.


Hunters just don't give a chit until its gone. 

Hunting Washington forum is the most pro-active social media site I've seen in any platform BY FAR for Washington, even so it's less than 10% of all Washington hunters, and low participation in these threads.

On a hunting site like this....loosing spring bear thread ougt to eclipse a Kyle Rittenhouse thread 

Bingo.  This site morphing into a political forum hasn't helped things.

LOL, amazing comment!

First, unless you opt into the political topics board you wouldn't know they are even on this forum. For the most part I think we do a good job of keeping political topics in that board. By having that board it keeps the politics away from all members who don't want to read politics!

Second, I find it hard to believe that a board hidden from public view could have any impact on losing the spring bear season in WA! 

Third, spring bear is a low priority season for the majority of hunters. This forum is a more dedicated and diverse group of hunters than most groups so these types of issues get more traction and discussion here.

Lastly, as far as how to quit losing hunting opportunities, it's truly a partisan political issue, states that are primarily democrat controlled are prone to allowing fewer hunting opportunities. If you really want to make a difference, quit voting for democrat politicians! I'm sorry to say but sadly hunting is definitely a partisan political issue. 

[bearpaw]

I haven't bought a license for over two years in this deteriorating state, I may never buy one again, but I did send my comments supporting spring bear to the commission even though I had a good idea this was going to happen regardless of how many comments supporting spring bear they received!

[jackelope]

“More than 100 people testified on the issue during a Zoom meeting held before the commission Oct. 22. The vast majority — over 90% — asked the commission to ban outright the special-permit spring bear hunt or wait to make a decision until more science and information were provided.”

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/washington-wildlife-commission-suspends-spring-bear-hunt-2021-11-19/

There’s a big part of the reason this hunt was shut down.

[trophyhunt]

Wdfw bio’s provided scientific research though, this was all about feelings! When I talked to Wdfw on Monday I could tell they were very disappointed in this closure.  She couldn’t say it but agreed w me that it was total BS. 

[Special T]

I was told that written testimony is supposed to have equal weight. I also listened after the fact online. The 23rd speaker was a well spoken hunter that gave a great 2 min reponce. Most of the antis were just burning Time.

[hughjorgan]

Anybody know their level of involvement?
I know they took a lot of money from the folks that worked to end predator hunting in BC.
Anybody know?

From Instagram, pretty clear where they stood on the issue.


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[WAcoyotehunter]

So IMO its not the hunting .orgs to blame. 

NOT BHA, not SCI not INWC none of them.


Hunters just don't give a chit until its gone. 

Hunting Washington forum is the most pro-active social media site I've seen in any platform BY FAR for Washington, even so it's less than 10% of all Washington hunters, and low participation in these threads.

On a hunting site like this....loosing spring bear thread ougt to eclipse a Kyle Rittenhouse thread 

Bingo.  This site morphing into a political forum hasn't helped things.

LOL, amazing comment!

First, unless you opt into the political topics board you wouldn't know they are even on this forum. For the most part I think we do a good job of keeping political topics in that board. By having that board it keeps the politics away from all members who don't want to read politics!

Second, I find it hard to believe that a board hidden from public view could have any impact on losing the spring bear season in WA! 

Third, spring bear is a low priority season for the majority of hunters. This forum is a more dedicated and diverse group of hunters than most groups so these types of issues get more traction and discussion here.

Lastly, as far as how to quit losing hunting opportunities, it's truly a partisan political issue, states that are primarily democrat controlled are prone to allowing fewer hunting opportunities. If you really want to make a difference, quit voting for democrat politicians! I'm sorry to say but sadly hunting is definitely a partisan political issue. 

Clearly,  and unfortunately, politics play a role in wildlife management.  The point was to highlight that on a site with 10k members the loss of a hunting season gets less ink that pretty much any political topic.  It's a shame that the Rittenhouse thread has more traction on here than a thread motivating members to get active on bear seasons

[bow4elk]

The hunting org’s are to blame for a lack of any sort of anything to fight this action.  So are we hunters. We’re famous for it. The anti hunting orgs are good at making this stuff happen. We’ll suffer because of it.

100% If hunters (yeah, you!) don't speak up and take action, don't expect others to. Hunters as a whole are good at complaining in forums buy lousy at taking action BEFORE there's something to complain about. Send you comments - respectful comments - to the Commission. Ya'll should know how to do that by now. They run the show, not WDFW. People need to quit getting on that bandwagon. This spring bear issue should make that abundantly clear. And remember, all the anti groups know of these matters and they take lots of action. Hunters need to meet and EXCEED their actions. But we never do, so we get what we got here. The truth hurts.

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[big buck hunter]

I can't help but feel if the 3rd Eastern WA position was filled the vote would have been 5-4 and I could keep my streak of "NOT SELECTED" going All part of Uncle Jay's master plan I'd imagine, the longer that position is not filled the longer he knows he has a majority anti-hunting commission vote. Larry Carpenter can no longer be relied upon as a vote for hunters, there's no doubt in my mind there was a backdoor deal to get him vote that way. Him and the anti-hunt side knew it would come down to his vote. If he doesn't play ball he knows he's gone. Let Inslee replace him with a new anti-hunting vote, that still puts us at 4-4. We need a legitimate candidate from eastern WA, maybe someone from INWC? SCI? Bombard the Governor's office with support of said candidate and we can continue to keep our glimmer of hope our children will continue to grow up with hunting opportunities in this state. We need to find and fill this position with a level headed pro-hunting commissioner before HSUS/CBD finds one if they haven't already.  https://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=77.04.030

[dwils233]

Here's an update on what the Washington people have been up to

https://www.backcountryhunters.org/wa_spring_bear_next_steps

[ctwiggs1]

Those are some pretty well established, bipartisan groups.  He might actually listen

[jackelope]

It’s great to see several powerful organizations working together on this. The way it should be. Always.

[JeepWrangler]

Thank you for posting these links.

[wags]

I thought most principled folks dropped FB a long time ago.