Ebey wildlife area a joke

[villageidiot]

I agree that those numbers were definitely just made up by the person writing the article.   They forgot to mention that nearly every piece of land the WDFW owns was bought with Pitman Robertson money with is strictly a tax from hunters and trappers.  So how many nickles did the bird watchers put in this pot?   ZERO, ZILCH.  Why are they allowed to shut off a single acre of land the hunters have bought?  SICK.  They also forgot to mention that 95% of the wildlife viewing that's done in the rural areas is in private land.  Private land borders most of the paved roads with alfalfa fields and crops where the animals come to eat.  This is where people see the animals.  So now WDFW is trying to buy all this land up and vacate it to farming and ranching and do no maintenance on it letting it go to invasive weeds and all the animals head over to the neighboring private land that is still managed and eat.   So WDFW is doing a fine job of preserving the viewable wilflife, yeah right!  Bird watchers don't have to buy a license and 75% of WDFW revenue comes from selling hunting and fishing licenses, so just how do they figure these wildlife viewers are an economic benefit the WDFW at all.  What a trumped up story and if the director supports these nincompoops he's just like them.  If this continues we will eventually have a WDFW that is totally broke from no hunters or fishermen.  It's already happening.   

[Ray]

Yeah those numbers are clearly a peversion geared towards reducing the perception as well as importance of hunters and fishermen in general. Especially their contributions to conservation efforts in a monetary sense. It seems obvious to me this recent tactic is not being addressed by our hunting organizations. As far as I am concerned any time I read an article that follows the same line as this I plan on confronting anyone who promotes this sort of crap and dismantling their spin on facts.

[ribka]

I agree that those numbers were definitely just made up by the person writing the article.   They forgot to mention that nearly every piece of land the WDFW owns was bought with Pitman Robertson money with is strictly a tax from hunters and trappers.  So how many nickles did the bird watchers put in this pot?   ZERO, ZILCH.  Why are they allowed to shut off a single acre of land the hunters have bought?  SICK.  They also forgot to mention that 95% of the wildlife viewing that's done in the rural areas is in private land.  Private land borders most of the paved roads with alfalfa fields and crops where the animals come to eat.  This is where people see the animals.  So now WDFW is trying to buy all this land up and vacate it to farming and ranching and do no maintenance on it letting it go to invasive weeds and all the animals head over to the neighboring private land that is still managed and eat.   So WDFW is doing a fine job of preserving the viewable wilflife, yeah right!  Bird watchers don't have to buy a license and 75% of WDFW revenue comes from selling hunting and fishing licenses, so just how do they figure these wildlife viewers are an economic benefit the WDFW at all.  What a trumped up story and if the director supports these nincompoops he's just like them.  If this continues we will eventually have a WDFW that is totally broke from no hunters or fishermen.  It's already happening.   

Well said

[Glockster]

Also keep in mind we hunters are being counted as 'wildlife watchers' and thus double counting against us as "consumptive users" when they point to the results of their little surveys and studies to lock us out of yet more killable game animals.  If you wade through the stupid WDFW hunter satisfaction survey, there are plenty of this type of question:

"During your hunting season did you have an opportunity to view non game species and if so, did it increase your enjoyment of your hunting experience?"

[WDFW-SUX]

I was told by a F&W employee that the director feels bird watching is economically more important than fishing and hunting combined. He also has a charter boat that he takes clients in the salt water for bird watching. I am attempting to verify this is his feelings, and action.

GAY
 

[WDFW-SUX]

"During your hunting season did you have an opportunity to view non game species and if so, did it increase your enjoyment of your hunting experience?"

Yes i saw a wolf. No it ruined my hunt.