>These tags should be put back
>into the regular draw. It
>is a bunch of garbage
>that these public tags get
>pimped out so the SFW
>Fatcats can feather their nest.
>
I agree and will not be participating in this expo because I don't believe in the ideals and ethics of SFW.
This was reinforced by this week's attempted midnight hijacking of 332 premium tags in Arizona by SFW:
http://www.monstermuleys.info/dcforum/DCForumID33/1783.html
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And as if that was not enough, yesterday's resignation of Don Peay/SFW cronnie Corrie Rossi as director of Alaska Game & Fish due to wildlife violations:
http://www.adn.com/2012/01/12/2260922/wildlife-chief-charged-with-hunt.html
Alaska wildlife chief charged with illegal hunting, resigns
By KYLE HOPKINS and RICHARD MAUER Anchorage Daily News
Published: January 13th, 2012 07:43 AM
A top official in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game quit his job Thursday after being charged with 12 criminal hunting violations, state officials said.
The charges against Division of Wildlife Conservation Director Corey Rossi, a controversial 2010 appointment, are related to an illegal 2008 bear hunt, according to Alaska State Troopers and charges filed Thursday in state court.
Troopers say the division director lied on big game hunting reports. He was a licensed assistant big game guide at the time, according to troopers.
Rossi, 51, submitted his resignation on Thursday, according an email from Fish and Game Commissioner Cora Campbell.
In a report posted Thursday afternoon, troopers say Rossi aided two non- residents in the killing of three black bears in Game Management Unit 16B, in the Susitna Valley. Rossi also killed a bear himself during the same hunt, troopers say.
But Rossi lied on reports to the state, saying that he killed all four bears and that the out-of-state hunters were unsuccessful, according to troopers.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers investigated the case after learning about the accusations through an unrelated investigation conducted by an out-of-state law enforcement agency, according to the charges.
The Department of Law's Office of Special Prosecutions filed the charges, troopers say.
No one answered Rossi's home phone in Palmer on Thursday night. A message left on the recorder was not returned.
Rossi was hired in January 2009 as assistant commissioner of "abundance management," a newly created position at Fish and Game. Critics complained that he won the job because of ties to the family of then-Gov. Sarah Palin.
CONTROVERSIAL PICK
Rossi employed Palin's parents for 14 years trapping nuisance animals when Rossi worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Sally Heath told The Associated Press in 2010.
Later, under Gov. Sean Parnell, Rossi was a controversial selection as chief of the state wildlife division. The agency is charged with managing wildlife and habitat across the state, including working with the Board of Game to adopt hunting regulations.
Following his selection by then Fish and Game commissioner Denby Lloyd, 39 former Fish and Game supervisors and biologists signed a 2010 letter calling for Rossi to be ousted, according to news reports at the time.
The letter said Rossi, who does not have a college degree, lacked the education and scientific training to head the division.
Lloyd defended Rossi's selection in 2010 letter to John Schoen, senior scientist at Audobon Alaska.
"I am confident that his professional experience, administrative abilities, and familiarity with wildlife issues in Alaska will ably serve the resources and the division as well as the people of Alaska," Lloyd wrote.
Lloyd retired as commissioner in late 2010 following a drunken-driving arrest earlier in the year. He later pleaded guilty to the charge.
OUT-OF-STATE TIP
The troopers' Wildlife Investigations Unit in Anchorage learned of the illegal bear hunt on Nov. 22, 2010, from an out-of-state law enforcement agency, the charges say. The agency, which is not named in the charges, was investigating possible illegal hunting in Alaska.
Robert "Bruce" Hubbard of Utah admitted to killing two black bears in Alaska while hunting with Corey Rossi and Duane Stroupe of Oregon, the charges say.
Under Alaska law, hunters must "seal" the skins and skulls of the black bears they kill. Rossi sealed four black bears at a taxidermy business in Anchorage on June 12, 2008, according to Fish and Game records, the charges say. Rossi reported that he killed all four, using bait, on June 10, 2008.
Troopers and other agencies conducted multiple interviews last month in Alaska, Oregon and Utah. Rossi admitted to sealing the bears under his name, even though he did not kill all four of the animals, the charges say.
Rossi is accused of:
? A permit hunt report violation.
? Three counts of making false statements on a black bear sealing certificate.
? Two counts of unsworn falsification.
? Unlawful possession of an illegally taken bear.
He also is charged with five counts of unlawful acts by an assistant big game guide.
All are misdemeanors.
Campbell has named Dale Rabe, Conservation Division Operations Manager, as his interim replacement, according to a Fish and Game spokeswoman.
The governor's office had no comment Thursday.
Asked a series of questions via email about the Rossi charges, including when state officials learned of the investigation, Sharon Leighow, spokeswoman for Gov. Sean Parnell, responded, "We are going to pass on commenting as the investigation is ongoing."
Copyright 2012 Anchorage Daily News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Read more here:
http://www.adn.com/2012/01/12/2260922/wildlife-chief-charged-with-hunt.html#storylink=cpy
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http://www.themudflats.net/2011/11/16/a-disaster-for-alaskas-department-of-fish-and-game/
A Disaster for Alaska?s Department of Fish and Game
The appointment of Corey Rossi to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is a first in Alaska?s history. Since statehood, no governor thought it necessary, or responsible, to let politics trump science. Yet Gov. Parnell appears to have little need for science even though he promised to end this culture of back room politics in Alaska.
~Corey Rossi
At the time of his appointment, Rossi was a founding member of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, and a statewide spokesman for its sister organization, Sportsmen for Habitat, a group based in Utah and founded by Don Peay.
Don Peay openly bragged in SFW?s fall newsletter that ?our members are politically positioned to help SFW,? and Corey Rossi has wasted no time paying back his political debts. He gave out four of the 11 governor?s permits to Don Peay?s organization this year.
As the director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation, Rossi has sole discretion in doling out these special hunting tags, called ?Governors permits.? It's one of the benefits of his appointed position. These organizations then ?auction? or ?raffle? these tags at their national conventions in places like Reno, Las Vegas, or Salt Lake City.
One of the recent permits Rossi gave to Don Peay?s group is for a bison hunt located in Wrangell St. Elias National Preserve. This coveted bison tag is virtually impossible for the general public to get. In fact, the Fish and Game advise the public that their odds of receiving this particular draw permit is only two percent each year. In 2010, a total of 22,637 people applied for Alaska bison tags which generated over a quarter million dollars for the Fish and Game in application fees.
The state has its own ?auction? outlet in the form of a yearly draws for limited tags. Yet the state must abide by Alaska?s constitution and distribute the tags to the general public fairly and equitably. Why would Gov. Parnell prefer to remove the most coveted tags from the public pool just to allow them to be sold to the highest bidder of a political organization in the Lower 48?
Organizations that ?auction? these tags to their rich donors are allowed to keep an unlimited amount of the money collected as ?administrative? cost. In addition, the organization can then keep an additional 10 percent to directly fund the activities of the organization. And unlike other laws covering ?gaming? activities, such as pull tabs, there is no legislative oversight of the financial records of these organizations. The state just assumes they pay the state what they are owed.
Gov. Parnell is endorsing Corey Rossi to use public assets to enrich political sponsors. This has very little to do with raising funds, which the state could easily do itself. But the most amazing fact is this, the state sends up to four biologists at a time to these conventions to promote the sale of the governor?s permits, consuming the very funds the permits are supposed to be generating for direct wildlife management costs.
Title VIII of Alaska?s constitution guarantees residents equal access to fish and game in Alaska. Giving one person or organization ?privileged? access to wildlife is not only illegal, but a founding reason why Alaska became a state in the first place ? to keep Alaska?s wildlife in the hands of its residents.
But Rossi has even higher ambitions. Under his leadership, at the January meeting of the Board of Game (Proposal 44), he is asking for the authority to authorize governor?s permits during times of the year when Alaskan?s are not allowed to hunt, say two weeks before the sheep season opens or during the rut for moose. He also wants to have the authority to let the rich hunt anywhere in the state with one tag, to harvest game the same day the hunter has flown, or even to use helicopters. Yes, King Rossi wants it all for his political allies, and both he and Gov. Parnell seem to think that's just fine, even though our constitution clearly abhors such privileged access to our fish and game.
As predicted, Corey Rossi has been a disaster for Fish and Game. Gov. Parnell is going to have to answer for that.
This guy didn't even have a college education and he was giving away Alaska's auction tags!!! Unbelievable.
Frankly I cannot believe people are willing to compromise their ethics by participating and supporting this expo, especially given these two latest events. On top of the fact the 200 tags were stolen from others who waited years in line for a permit. Some people only look at what they themselves have to gain. Really sad.