Fish and Wildlife Commission adopts plan to conserve and manage gray wolves

[CAMPMEAT]

I hate to be the stick in the mud, but saying you will have an effect by not buying a license is probably unrealistic.

I don't think you can get enough people to quit buying hunting and fishing licenses to make a difference. Once there are fewer deer and elk, then you will see license sales drop off like they have in Idaho. I'm not trying to bust the party, I'm just trying to be realistic.

I for one cannot afford to stop hunting because that is what I do for a living. The town where I live depends on income from hunters, few businesses in Colville will advocate stopping hunting. The Chamber actively works to attract hunters to our area.

I hope we can find a solution to make a difference, but I don't think a few who don't buy licenses will make a difference. 

I know. I was just being facetious or flippant. To bad we don't control the gubmint.

[wence5]

I hate to be the stick in the mud, but saying you will have an effect by not buying a license is probably unrealistic.

I don't think you can get enough people to quit buying hunting and fishing licenses to make a difference. Once there are fewer deer and elk, then you will see license sales drop off like they have in Idaho. I'm not trying to bust the party, I'm just trying to be realistic.

I for one cannot afford to stop hunting because that is what I do for a living. The town where I live depends on income from hunters, few businesses in Colville will advocate stopping hunting. The Chamber actively works to attract hunters to our area.

I hope we can find a solution to make a difference, but I don't think a few who don't buy licenses will make a difference.  :two cents:

I agree with you bearpaw, we won't get every hunter, fisherman, and outdoorsman to stop purchasing licenses and tags. Even if we were able to do that, the antis win, they stopped sport hunting, so you don't need a gun anymore, so we can go to work on that front. After all the 2A is about hunting, NOT!

[CedarPants]

I hate to be the stick in the mud, but saying you will have an effect by not buying a license is probably unrealistic.

I don't think you can get enough people to quit buying hunting and fishing licenses to make a difference. Once there are fewer deer and elk, then you will see license sales drop off like they have in Idaho. I'm not trying to bust the party, I'm just trying to be realistic.

I for one cannot afford to stop hunting because that is what I do for a living. The town where I live depends on income from hunters, few businesses in Colville will advocate stopping hunting. The Chamber actively works to attract hunters to our area.

I hope we can find a solution to make a difference, but I don't think a few who don't buy licenses will make a difference. 

I agree with this as well.

My biggest concern is that we no longer have an agency in place that has any interest whatsoever in us as sportsmen.  None.  As a group, our interests no longer mean anything to them.  I have a good friend whose family owns a farm in PA, and I will be hunting there in a couple years.  When you go to PA's game agency website, they have an actual live countdown to deer season and they get all the sportsmen pumped for the upcoming season.  The game agency does that.  I mentioned to my friend that it blows my mind that the game agency over there is so in tune with the sportsmen of the state.  My friend said it blew her mind that ours, isn't.

It will also only cost me about $100 to hunt deer there as a non-resident

[Fishmasterdan]

Boycott buying any type of Washington hunting/fishing licenses, tags etc. Don't buy a Discover Pass or support the state parks, nothing. Save your money and go out of state. Show those people in Olympia that we mean business and are sick and tired of being screwed all the time. They raise our fees and shorten our seasons and change the dates. Would the last sportsman/women leaving Washington turn off the lights please !

This is already my policy. I will pay the ticket before I support the non hunting agenda this state has become. Why should I pay to support the anti hunting?? It is rediculous that anyone will purchase a pass to hunt in areas we already paid for, or that any money we put forth toward the enviroment goes towards idiots that require 5 employed people to review a prospectors effort of cleaning a stream (HPA).

[BOWHUNTER45]

OL MY... Remember I like you all    But I disagree totally ...I know it is extreme and all ...yes it will hurt businesses and it will kill us all to stay home BUT this is the main problem why we can not get nothen done ...You can not get everyone to jump on the wagon ...We all know it will take something this extreme to get the attention of these people who think its all about money ... Well to make money you best be giving something back ...If you want your business to succeed you best treat your clients like gold ... We are the clients to the state of Washington and we pay sheets loads of dollars to get sheet on every year ...Now how can anyone not agree with me ..Most of use have killed lots of sheet and the older we get the less it gets to be about killin something ...its about getting out there with family and friends and enjoying gods creations...By locking up gates and keeping us out is not part of the equation....it is here for ALL OF US TO ENJOY...This is what fires me off more than anything ...You can not even take your family for a ride to share the beauty of nature...this is Bullsheet ..PERIOD !! It is so nice to wake up in the morning and look out my window at mountains I used to run up and down on and now they are locked up tight ...this seriously pi$$e$ me off ..think about it..Beauty all around me and I cannot go there ... :bash:Same for the rivers ...live by a major salmon river and I can not catch sheet out of it but the tribes can net it WTF...Tell me I am crazy ...Whatever ...Its time for some FOOTBALL 

[BOWHUNTER45]

I hate to be the stick in the mud, but saying you will have an effect by not buying a license is probably unrealistic.

I don't think you can get enough people to quit buying hunting and fishing licenses to make a difference. Once there are fewer deer and elk, then you will see license sales drop off like they have in Idaho. I'm not trying to bust the party, I'm just trying to be realistic.

I for one cannot afford to stop hunting because that is what I do for a living. The town where I live depends on income from hunters, few businesses in Colville will advocate stopping hunting. The Chamber actively works to attract hunters to our area.

I hope we can find a solution to make a difference, but I don't think a few who don't buy licenses will make a difference. 

I agree with this as well.

My biggest concern is that we no longer have an agency in place that has any interest whatsoever in us as sportsmen.  None.  As a group, our interests no longer mean anything to them.  I have a good friend whose family owns a farm in PA, and I will be hunting there in a couple years.  When you go to PA's game agency website, they have an actual live countdown to deer season and they get all the sportsmen pumped for the upcoming season.  The game agency does that.  I mentioned to my friend that it blows my mind that the game agency over there is so in tune with the sportsmen of the state.  My friend said it blew her mind that ours, isn't.

It will also only cost me about $100 to hunt deer there as a non-resident

dude I grew up in P.A and when I moved out west I was sick on how the game is managed compared to the east coast ...Geeeez we have mountains and more land than we can explore ..You would think it would be all they make it out to be by coming out west ...or is it just WASHINGTON ?? Yeah thats it Washington!!!!!!!!

[bearpaw]

I just don't think a boycott will happen until the actual numbers of wildlife drop off more than they have already. When game numbers drop off like they have in many areas of Idaho, then you will see sportsmen quit wasting their dollars, just like what has happened in Idaho.

You guys can try a boycott, I have nothing against it, but I don't think it will work yet.

In the meantime there are other things to possibly try:
- Lobby the commission to make the WDFW place more of an emphasis on hunting and management of hunted species.
- The main WDFW webpage is becoming less about hunting every year, this needs to change.
- Get more rural communities actively promoting hunting.
- Get more rural politicians actively promoting hunting.
- We should insist on the same emphasis on hunting as in other states.

Just a few ideas, but to reverse what has been going on the last 10 years is going to take an extensive effort.

[CedarPants]

  especially this part:  "The main WDFW webpage is becoming less about hunting every year, this needs to change"

Just look at their Vision:  "Conservation of Washington’s fish and wildlife resources and ecosystems" .... and just below that:  "WDFW defines “Conservation” as: Protection, preservation, management, or restoration of natural environments and the ecological communities that inhabit them; including management of human use for public benefit and sustainable social and economic needs"

They might as well just put "for our vision, please see www.conservationnorthwest.com"

[lemondog]

77mm is dead on. The wolf thing is the master plane to take your firearms.....You cant control the wolves like they need to be controlled to sustain a huntable population of big game with a plan like that. Idaho and Wyoming have been severely impacted and Washington will be done in by this                  . In the Elk units of the NE corner of Wyoming they had been able to give out 300 bull permits for years....This year they could only give out 30......Not enough game,no need to hunt, no need for guns.......think about it. It sounds like a cuddley well thought out plan on the surface but it is true deception at heart.  :bdid:I personall saw it do in my Elk area in central Idaho. It doesn't take long.....

[STIKNSTRINGBOW]

Wildlife protection: The plan allows WDFW to use lethal and non-lethal measures to manage wolf predation on at-risk deer, elk and caribou populations if wolf numbers reach or exceed the recovery objective within a region where predation occurs.

Due to the Woodland Caribou already being non-existent in the NE corner, and the likelihood of the wolf numbers IN THAT REGION being at or near the "recovery objective".....
 

[Elkaholic daWg]

especially this part:  "The main WDFW webpage is becoming less about hunting every year, this needs to change"

Just look at their Vision:  "Conservation of Washington’s fish and wildlife resources and ecosystems" .... and just below that:  "WDFW defines “Conservation” as: Protection, preservation, management, or restoration of natural environments and the ecological communities that inhabit them; including management of human use for public benefit and sustainable social and economic needs"

They might as well just put "for our vision, please see www.conservationnorthwest.com"

 


 and from Big Game forever this morning.....


NEWS FLASH
Washington State Welcomes Wolves

 Folks,
We told you the feds want wolves in the states that hold 97.5% of all elk in America. They are doing it one state at a time. Breaking news, you can now add Washington State as an official “wolf state.”

The Washington State Fish and Game Commission just approved wolf proliferation in their state. For a detailed account of the commission decision to adopt a “wolf management plan” visit http://nwsportsmanmag.com/2011/12/03/stressing-flexibility-addressing-hunter-livestock-concerns-wa-fwc-approves-wolf-plan/

While some changes were made to the wolf plan to appease concerned sportsmen and livestock owners, one has to wonder if the Washington Commission still missed the big picture. 
 
Assurances have been made before. Commitments to protect wildlife and livestock were made in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. But when those states fulfilled their commitments on wolf recovery, delisting of wolves and wildlife protection was blocked by USFWS and anti-sportsmen/anti-livestock groups. Even when wildlife populations plummeted, USFWS refused to allow for promised 10(J) management actions which would have protected those populations.
 
Folks, wolves, the ESA and the federal government is a destructive combination for wildlife.  George Santayana once said,"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Here is one quote from the article that illustrates the fundamental disconnect inherent in the commission's reasoning: [Commission chairwoman Miranda Wecker] pointed out that currently the state has an "excellent relationship" with USFWS, and called the clusterfunkle of management in the Northern Rockies, which saw wolves exceed recovery goals in 2002 but state management delayed by lawsuits, "absolutely terrible."
 
Another quote: Phil Anderson, director of the Department of Fish & Wildlife, said that in discussions with the USFWS, the Feds sounded "anxious to downlist wolves as soon as possible, anxious to turn over management to the state."
 
Here is the truth, USFWS is a great facilitator of wolf expansion, but a huge impediment when it comes time to fulfill commitments for state management of wolves.  More importantly, legally and politically the system must be changed if there is any hope for a different outcome for Washington State.  USFWS can do nothing to stop the endless cycles of litigation that will prevent wolf management when it is most needed. The open-ended nature of ESA litigation allows almost anyone to stop wolf management, notwithstanding commitments by USFWS and notwithstanding the provisions within Washington State’s management plan. The current system does not work to protect wildlife.
 
Bottom line, the Feds continue to make progress in their plan to push wolves into 97.5% of all elk in America.  If we don’t stop these plans, if the system is not fundamentally changed by returning management authority to the states, the future of wildlife in America looks bleak.

[bearpaw]

Ryan at Big Game Forever is right on.... 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Seriously all I hope for is for the dept. to read some of these comments and see what we are saying .. Maybe then they might realize its getting serious 

[wence5]

Seriously all I hope for is for the dept. to read some of these comments and see what we are saying .. Maybe then they might realize its getting serious 

Why hope that WDFW and the commission reads our comments here? We should all be writing them to make it perfectly clear we are all made as hell and not going to just sit
here and take whatever bull flop they decide to dump on us. This has me VERY pissed! Boycott or not, I am going to re-evaluate whether I want to continue to spend my
time and hard earned money to hunt in this state. When they don't listen, or quite frankly give a S### about what the customer wants, why should they give a S###
about the quality of the hunting conditions, or big game management, why should I continue to do business with them. What they do care about is CASH!

[wraithen]

Go ahead. Write them. Use up all the ink in the world and type til your fingers fall off. They want nothing to do with you. IF nobody bought licenses of any kind starting today, they wouldn't care. They would just close access to "their" land and up the logging schedule of "their" trees. When the nature trails close down the impact will be minuet. The only way to win is to do so politically but that seems tougher than ever. The large percentage of the population in this state lives in the cities. Most of them don't care about fishing, they can go to a restaurant and order salmon. They don't care about hunting, they can get beef and chicken and turkey and pork in the grocery store. They don't care about the wilderness other than seeing it from a distance from a high window in a higher building. The controlling population here makes me sick. Really sick. People don't want to see any further than their own emotions and decide that those emotions are righteous. We need politics in this. Unfortunately I doubt we have the money to get someone worthwhile in office. We definitely don't have the voting public behind us. Until we can fix this population, it seems to me all other attempts are doomed.