Free: Contests & Raffles.
Thank you for your email to Director Anderson and the link to the blog about the proposal for special hunting permit categories. These discussion forums are a good way to gage what folks are thinking and the participants in this one are debating many of the same things we considered while developing our recommendations. The objectives of the proposal are to try to improve the odds of drawing; allow more choices for hunters in permit applications; and generate funding to expand our hunter access program. It is difficult to make big improvements in the odds of drawing, but we think this proposal will help because there should be less overall competition with separate drawing categories. If this doesn’t result in a significant change in some categories, we can look at other ideas in the future. This recommendation will be significant for the other two objectives and after considering the pros and cons of the changes, we think that most hunters will support the recommended change. On a national basis, the most significant thing that fish and wildlife agencies can do to recruit and retain hunters is improve access opportunities. In Washington, we have been working with hunters and conservation organizations to expand our access program for several years, this proposal will help us achieve that goal. Dividing up the hunt choices among categories is challenging and will likely be highly debated by the public. The greatest challenge was the quality category and we generally considered: low density of other hunters, relatively high harvest success rates, season timing close to the rut or after migration, and how many hunters put in for the hunt in the past. The proposals will be available for comment early next month and we strongly encourage folks to submit their thoughts at that time. Thanks again for sharing the link. Sincerely, Dave Ware, Game Division Manager
It is still a proposal, but as I said, I think it will be pretty popular. We have been discussing this concept with the public since July of 2008 (through web surveys and public meetings). It was one of the proposals for the 2009-11 Hunting Season Package, but with the changes it would require to our computerized drawing system, there wasn’t time to consider it last year. Hunters were pretty excited about it during the public meetings and we have worked the proposal pretty extensively with our Game Management Advisory Council. This is a group of citizens who provide the department council on game management issues. After listening to their issues and ideas, we developed the proposal that will be available for comment in February.
It is still a proposal, but as I said, I think it will be pretty popular. We have been discussing this concept with the public since July of 2008
QuoteIt is still a proposal, but as I said, I think it will be pretty popular. We have been discussing this concept with the public since July of 2008 Why do I get the feeling Bobcat was the only one they discussed it with.
We're just along for the ride, now.
Hunters were pretty excited about it during the public meetings and we have worked the proposal pretty extensively with our Game Management Advisory Council.
