Free: Contests & Raffles.
I have thought about our biggest problem with WDFW. We are partially funded by the legislature. We are funded by 75% by selling hunting and fishing licenses. I think if WDFW refused to take any more state money then we could also refuse any advice or even a game commission appointed by the governor. No more having to accept initiatives to change wildlife laws. This is like any state or federal money. Schools receive federal and state money and with it comes all these mandates and rules you have to follow to get the candy. If WDFW quit taking state money they could start managing game again and have a commission which is strictly hunters and fishermen, period. We could reinstate hound hunting, reinstate trapping, reinstate bear bateing. All three of these are extremely efficient in taking specific types and sexes of game. Most of WDFW land was purchased with Pittman Robertson money which is 100% tax money from selling hunting and trapping supplies so belongs to these groups and not any birdwatching group. WDFW would be 25% short of funds but that would be a very simple problem to solve. Get rid of nearly every single biologist and there are hundreds of them. Most of them are looking for snails, rare fish, butterflies and every creature known to man that they might get put on the endangered species list to shut down hunting and fishing. Get rid of them and we save way more than the 25% we will lose from the legislature plus the added bonus of not paying a bunch of so called scientists to CUT OUR THROATS. Problem solved, lets get it done.
How about all of us join together at there meetings so we can be heard!I'm pretty sure alot of us would like an excuse like going to a meeting,to B.S afterwards with our friends on this website.Maybe buy a bunch of Hunting Washington Sweatshirts or tshirts to wear there.I'm talking like everyone...we will be heard if we come in numbers.
I ran for State Representative in the 35th district. Does that count? I have also worked with my legislators to close areas to brush picking because of the harm that most of these guys are doing to our hunting areas. Trash, illegal timber product harvest, poaching, and meth production...these are some of my environmental concerns.
We wouldn't have to spend 25% more because many of these Ologists hired by WDFW are a mandate required that is attached to some of the money they receive. We will give you this money but you have to hire X number of ologists to monitor this butterfly or spotted frog or wolf. We don't accept the money and we eliminate these ologists which are a cancer to our own organization because they are trying to gather data that they plan on useing to destroy us. Any scientific data can be manipulated to do what you want and along with the ologists we hire we are given specific data we expect them to acquire which is predesignated by the holders of the money bag. We now have the wolverine on the endangered species list as of recently and just today I read on this board about a guy in Alaska that sold a 52 lb. wolverine hide for 900 bucks to a fur buyer. They are not endangered. WDFW could easily be a self sustaining organization that could manage wildlife very well without politics destroying it, have better hunting, save species, more game for viewers, happy hunters and fishermen.
The hunter safety handbook is where it states that 75% of funding comes from selling hunting and fishing licenses. It is possible they combine Pittman Robertson money in that catagory also which would put it around the 70% range. Pittman Robertson is also hunter generted money so that would only mean WDFW would be forfeiting around 30%. This still could be done by eliminating all the ologist jobs that seem to be a cancer to the dept. because they are trying to generate ESA listings that in the end destroy hunting along with nearly all resource users such as logging, mining, gravel pits, ranching and farming. If we don't eventually start producing some products to sell we will starve. China is selling the whole world products now and the fastest growing economy on the earth. The U.S. is rapidly falling off the cliff due largely to govt. regulations (such as ESA listings) that increase the cost of producing and even make producing anything cost prohibitive. Sad!