WDFW Poll

[bearpaw]

I am pretty critical of many things which are done by WDFW that hurt hunting and opportunity, for the record, I think there are some outstanding people in the WDFW ranks, but we need more of them and fewer huggers. I wonder if anyone has an old 1990's Hunting regulations where they can look up the WDFW Mission Statement. I think they may have changed their Mission Statement.

Here is the current WDFW Mission Statement:

Mission and Goals
http://wdfw.wa.gov/about/mission_goals.html

Our Mission
To preserve, protect and perpetuate fish, wildlife and ecosystems while providing sustainable fish and wildlife recreational and commercial opportunities.

Vision
Conservation of Washington’s fish and wildlife resources and ecosystems.

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.
 (Adapted from The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2005)
 
Department Goals
To achieve its mission, WDFW will continue to focus its activities on the following four goals:

I.Conserve and protect native fish and wildlife
II.Provide sustainable fishing, hunting and other wildlife-related recreational experiences.
III.Use sound business practices, deliver high-quality customer service.
IV.Maintain a highly skilled and motivated workforce.

[Dave Workman]

Ladies and Gents:

I will be doing an Examiner column on this poll and the responses Tuesday morning.

If you would care to add anything to the discussion, do so now.

After it is published...I strongly encourage you to weigh in with your observations about my observations.

[aer212]

Night hunting? They didn't try to take it away. They came up with a proposal to limit calibers and shot sizes in an attempt to make it easier for game wardens in trying to catch people poaching deer and elk at night with spotlights.

You say they didn't try to take it away. What you wrote is the beginning of taking it away. First they start with a little and then pretty soon they have it all. Here is an example I'm sure you are familiar with. In England in 1987 they were proposing to ban all semi auto rifles above .22 rimfire. Most said well I don't shoot a semi auto so who cares? It won't affect me. In 1988 it passed. In 1997 they banned all handguns. Here is a quote from the article,"The complacency of many UK gun owners, who felt their guns weren't targets of the legislation, was to blame. They hid in the darkness, happy to throw the semi auto rifle owners to the wolves, content that they were under no threat. Only 10 years later, pistols went on the chopping block". Do you know what you have to do to hunt there now? 1. Apply with police chief for permission. 2. Satisfy police you have good reason to own a gun. 3. Satisfy police that you have suitable land to shoot on. 4. Guns kept in locked cabinet while not in use, ammo locked in another cabinet separate from firearms. 5. State what caliber you want in advance. 6. State how many rounds you want for that caliber in advance. All that and they could still not let you hunt if they wanted. So don't tell me that they are not trying to take night hunting away, like I said, they start with small things that people may not care about. I don't night hunt so it wouldn't affect me anyway but every time they take something away, its part of a bigger plan, at least thats what it seems. I agree with most everyone else on here, wdfw takes away hunting opportunities, raises prices, on top of that they bring wolves in. Any idiot knows what happened in Idaho and Montana, not to mention Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. So why does WA need wolves? Do they think that they can do something different than those other states mentioned?

[aer212]

Also one thing that I would love to do and never have and probably never will, was run a cat with hounds. We have a terrible problem with cats in Klickitat county and there is no EFFECTIVE control measure in place.

[bobcat]

You say they didn't try to take it away. What you wrote is the beginning of taking it away. First they start with a little and then pretty soon they have it all.

Well, the fact is they DIDN'T take it away, they didn't take away anything. They got enough complaints and they must have reconsidered it and realized the proposed new rules were wrong. And in my opinion those proposed rules had to have been written by someone who WAS "out of touch."

They're wanting to reduce poaching of deer and elk at night, and that's a good goal. But it was obvious to most anybody who knows anything about hunting that making more limitations on night hunting of predators isn't the right way to go about it. It would only affect the law abiding hunting, not the poachers out killing deer and elk at night.

If you remember, I was one of the first, if not THE first person on this site complaining and writing letters to the WDFW about the proposed changes to the night hunting rules. So don't think I was in favor of this. But I do have to give them credit when credit is due. They listened to us and took it off the table even before they went in front of the commission with the 2012-2014 proposals.

[washelkhunter]

Ladies and Gents:

I will be doing an Examiner column on this poll and the responses Tuesday morning.

If you would care to add anything to the discussion, do so now.

After it is published...I strongly encourage you to weigh in with your observations about my observations.

I look forward to reading your article.

[Dave Workman]

washelkhunter-  So how would you propose that the state keep wolves from crossing the Canadian border? Funny how everyone likes to blame the WDFW for something they have no control over.

That's not the point.
Wolves have been roaming back and forth into the state for years, probably decades. It's far different when a program is promoted and adopted that requires X-number of wolves rather than merely recognizes they are here. This shifts from a level of recognizing we have a wolf population and tolerating it to encouraging and working to expand it, with the intended or unintended consequence of impacting the elk and deer populations, and providing one more excuse for continued tight hunting seasons that are timed to minimize harvest by hunters, who are now viewed as competition for the wolves.

[Dave Workman]

Im just an avg working man, middle class, (struggling) make my living helping people out in surgery when most the time they dont want to see me. You still havent answered my question. Who are you?
Butt out KF. Or do you carry Bobcats water?

WHOA! Time out.

Let's ratchet this back a few notches. Bobcat may seem like a WDFW apologist, and he may seem to some that he is still wet behind the ears, and it may strike some folks that at times he is completely  , but he's still got just as much right to be here as do you, and likewise KFhunter. People can still defend one another here, y'know. Even if they appear to be wrong, and even if they occasionally appear to be bat crazy, and that's a description that might apply to several people on occasion.

We're just having a chat here about the WDFW, and this informal poll.

Who cares what anybody here does for a living?

[Huntbear]

washelkhunter-  So how would you propose that the state keep wolves from crossing the Canadian border? Funny how everyone likes to blame the WDFW for something they have no control over.

That's not the point.
Wolves have been roaming back and forth into the state for years, probably decades. It's far different when a program is promoted and adopted that requires X-number of wolves rather than merely recognizes they are here. This shifts from a level of recognizing we have a wolf population and tolerating it to encouraging and working to expand it, with the intended or unintended consequence of impacting the elk and deer populations, and providing one more excuse for continued tight hunting seasons that are timed to minimize harvest by hunters, who are now viewed as competition for the wolves.

 

Dave... you put it much more elequent than I ever could...  mine would be filled with #@#$^%$%##$  and  &(%$&^@%^*^&   

[Dave Workman]

AS PROMISED  GIVE IT A READ, and don't be afraid to leave a comment at the end of the column


Hunters lack confidence in WA wildlife agency
 
   If the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife went looking for support from hunters today, they’d have a hard time finding much brotherhood on the Hunting Washington forum, where an informal poll shows more than 87 percent of the respondents have no confidence in the agency leadership or the Fish & Wildlife Commission.
 
http://www.examiner.com/article/hunters-lack-confidence-wa-wildlife-agency
 

[Huntbear]

 

Well done sir! 

[Dave Workman]

Well done sir!

Thx and feel free to forward the link to everybody you know.

Also: Don't be shy about weighing in with a response in the reader feedback area below.  It's "Facebook" oriented, alas.

[Wacenturion]

Well done sir!

 

[Elkaholic daWg]

Well done sir!

 

again

[Special T]

You say they didn't try to take it away. What you wrote is the beginning of taking it away. First they start with a little and then pretty soon they have it all.

Well, the fact is they DIDN'T take it away, they didn't take away anything. They got enough complaints and they must have reconsidered it and realized the proposed new rules were wrong. And in my opinion those proposed rules had to have been written by someone who WAS "out of touch."

They're wanting to reduce poaching of deer and elk at night, and that's a good goal. But it was obvious to most anybody who knows anything about hunting that making more limitations on night hunting of predators isn't the right way to go about it. It would only affect the law abiding hunting, not the poachers out killing deer and elk at night.

If you remember, I was one of the first, if not THE first person on this site complaining and writing letters to the WDFW about the proposed changes to the night hunting rules. So don't think I was in favor of this. But I do have to give them credit when credit is due. They listened to us and took it off the table even before they went in front of the commission with the 2012-2014 proposals.

Bobcat, I think its the WDFW's ignorance on subjects that they should know about that make me the angryest. Its either Ignorance or Willfull destruction, and neither are acceptable. If they can't find people to put forth educated rules then why do we bother with them?