ALL Washington Hunters

[Dmanmastertracker]

Just wanted to post this here too, for anyone not using the General Hunting section. Some members and myself are proposing an initiative to present to the WDFW to start a "sportsmens hunting reserve" purchasing program to purchase more wildlife areas for hunting lands in Washington. The plan would be to add $1.00 -$2.00 to the cost of all big and small game tags and licenses, give one quarter of the funds to WDFW for new lands management and use the rest for land purchases to be voted on annually by all hunters. This would amount to as much as a million dollars in as little as two years for new land's purchase. This would be a supplement to existing programs and not replace anything already being done.
Signature form will circulate sometime next week to present to Fish and Wildlife Commission.

 

[Bullcanyon]

I'm in as long as our governor keeps her grubby little hands off of our money.

Kris

 

[sven]

This would be a great idea as long as the money doesn't go into the General fund

 

[boneaddict]

"grubby little hands" I heard she just re-instated the car tabs cost back to where they used to be. I'm not sure how thats legal since we voted on it, but she is in office after having the ballots counted three times after a whole bunch of dead people had time to vote, so WHO KNOWS.

I'm ok with the idea.

 

[Dmanmastertracker]

That will definitely be a sticking point. It will state in the wording that the fund is expressly for the purchase of hunting reserve's in Wa. and only to be used through a general vote by all hunters annually. Legally, it would not be able to be used for anything else, by anyone else and would be seperate from the general fund, other than the 1/4 share Fish and Wildlife would get for additional lands' management.

 

[JACKELOPE]

I'M IN!!
as long as the money goes to the right place. it sounds like our butts are covered there.

 

[NoBark]

I assume you all know that the Department does purchase land as it has funds for. So, there is some kind of evaluation and ranking system in place already, Also, they work with other Non-Profit groups like RMEF, DU, and Nature Conservancy who buy parcels and hold them until the department can get the funds to buy them.

I'm all for getting more traditional hunting land in the public domain and off the private real estate market as long as it makes sense. By that, I mean either large enough or surrounded by other public land high animal usage etc.

The voting thing would be really tough to pull off. Also, how much big game land vs. upland land vs. waterfowl property? I would think percentages unless the surcharge is only on big game tags then it's obvious.

It's too bad we don't have a big 'war-chest' of funds to go buy out some of the farmers having all those pesky elk eating there crops...8^)

 

[Dmanmastertracker]

WB, that's exactly the point we need to get to, having a hunter's "war chest". Yes the WDFW does have a system in place now, we really need to supplement it to make real progress. The WDFW is chronically underfunded they really could use more help from us. The voting could be as easy as a yeah, or nay on 2-3 potential properties, conducted during hunter reporting and would be covered in the administration fees.