Pat wanted me to post this for him..Enjoy!
To Fellow Hunters,
I would like express my gratitude and appreciation for all of the
compliments I received on this website. Developing and implementing a
management plan for the Blue Mountains elk herd has been a challenge
over the last 36 years, and I have the gray hair to prove it. Luckily,
we were able to implement a management plan that re-established a
healthy age structure in the bull elk population and dramatically
improved breeding ecology in our elk herd. This management
accomplishment would not have been possible without the moral and
financial support from Washington hunters. As we all know, hunters are
the backbone of wildlife management because they provide the financial
support for all of our game management programs through license-tag
sales, P-R funds, and hunter organizations like the RMEF, Mule Deer
Foundation, Wild Sheep Foundation, and SCI. All citizens of Washington
benefit recreationally and economically from the funding hunters provide
to maintain our wildlife resource. The WDFW would not have accomplished
this major change in elk management without your support.
I would also like to thank my fellow biologists and enforcement
personnel in the district and region that have strongly supported our
elk management program. They have worked beside me under difficult
conditions for many years to protect the resource. A special thanks to
Nick for donating the antlers for the mount that is now displayed in a
place of honor above my fireplace. It takes a very special person to
donate a world class set of antlers.
God bless, and I thank all of you for an amazing career. It would not
have been possible without the support of hunters and my fellow
biologists and game wardens.
Pat Fowler, District Wildlife Biologist (ret.)
