Seems Director Karpowitz has done a good job of showing how things have happened in Utah during his career. A pattern very similar to what has happened in other states during the years he mentions, with all states having one or two species suffering as are the mule deer in Utah.
I struggle to see the difficulty the Director has in addressing calls from the masses for transparency. I struggle to see why he is so defensive when reasonable requests are made to non-profit groups benefiting from public resources - groups and individuals he feels compelled to defend in his letters, and now in his posts.
Continued dismissal of requests for transparency and accountability turns this post into a parade of praise. Nothing wrong with praising those doing good, just seems strange to have a continued pattern of showers for SFW and their paid agents, and no discussion about the topics at hand, or any praise for others who have done way more than SFW.
Rather than shower so much praise on a few individuals or groups, I would like to raise a toast to the larger group who has made a bigger difference than any single Director, any single non-profit leader, any hunting personality, or any auction tag buyer.
That would be the rank and file hunters, whose license fees and excise taxes provide such huge amounts to conservation and state agencies, as to make auction and raffle tag revenues look like chump change. It would be these non-paid volunteers who spend a huge portion of their spare time and limited money to improve the cause for all of us.
These people teach hunter ed courses; they are scout leaders; volunteers to fund raising committees; the labor that helps complete habitat projects; they attend legislative hearings or write letters to government leaders - The thankless stuff so necessary for wildlife conservation.
Collectively, these people, their licenses fees, excise taxes, volunteerism, and activism, have provided the platforms that allow Director Karpowitz and similar wildlife agency employees in all states to do the work that Director Karpowitz describes happening in Utah over the time of his career.
Yet, for some reason, that average person is often left out of the discussion. Their opinions are seldom solicited. They seldom receive much recognition. This recent post by the Director being a similar pattern, where a few people are painted as saviors, when the common guy is forgotten.
Though Director Karpowitz focuses his praise on Mr. Peay and SFW, deserving as any for positive work they might be responsible for, I suspect he would agree the greatest value is provided by the rank and file hunter.
As much as praise should be given to positive efforts mentioned by the Director, so should criticism follow when those same groups do damage to hunting and conservation. With that, I provide some examples that Mr. Karpowitz might be inclined to overlook.
Many have had encounters with Mr. Peay and his organizations, SFW and BGF. Such encounters do not allow for a long list of praise as Director Karpowitz posted.
Rather, the list of others who have encountered SFW is mostly negative, and unfortunately so. I wish my list was littered with items of praise, as more is accomplished when we are all on the same side, rather than opposing sides.
Director Karpowitz talks about the work of SFW in the national wolf delisting issue. His understanding reflects a version as told by SFW, a version not held by the majority involved in the process.
My version, as just one of many people deeply involved both regionally and nationally, for a much longer period than Mr. Peay, would show the efforts of SFW to be detrimental to the cause of state control over wolf management. No sense in re-hashing the gory details herein, other than to say SFW did more to hurt wolf delisting and more to fracture the hunting community than any group involved.
Another encounter would be from those Alaska hunters and those Alaska Game and Fish employees. Mr. Peay wrote in his column of Sportsmen's Voice, where he was proud to get the founder of Alaska SFW, and his close personal friend, Corey Rossi, appointed as the Director of Alaska Game and Fish.
The Director at that time, who held the same position Mr. Karpowitz holds in Utah, with an equally stellar career in wildlife and advocacy on behalf of Alaska hunters, was relegated to some far corner of the state, removed of his position, for no apparent reason. Unless, you consider being outside the SFW circle grounds for demotion and being inside the SFW circle as being grounds of promotion. Mr. Karpowitz's peer was replaced with a person having no single credential in wildlife management, biology, or administration of a state agency, and SFW publicly took credit for that event.
Most of you know, Mr. Rossi, the person Mr. Peay boasted as helping get appointed, resigned earlier this year in the face of double-digit charges of illegal hunting and illegal outfitting. Before doing so, Mr. Rossi dismantled many of the important wildlife programs in Alaska. And, as one final favor, he sent 4 of the 11 Alaska Governor's auction permits to SFW in Utah for their annual expo in February.
Another encounter with the work of Mr. Peay and SFW would be the effort of his Utah-funded franchise, Montana SFW. They have been on the wrong side of all the hunting and fishing legislation since forming two years ago, some of which would have cost tens of millions in hunter/angler dollars to our FWP agency. They lobbied for a bill that would have resulted in Federal control of wolves only weeks after MT and ID were granted control. SFW supports and funds politicians who do the most damage to access, conservation, and resident hunter/angler opportunity.
In Utah, you know well the strange position SFW took to change your stream access rules. Extremely peculiar that an organization receiving so much public inurement would lobby against the cause of the public angler.
We all know of the most recent Arizona franchise attempts, where Arizona SFW tried to take 300 of the best AZ permits and raffle them off in a manner identical to the Utah model, where not a single penny of the proceeds would go to AZ Game and Fish. Though Mr. Peay and his SFW friends claim they had/have nothing to do with AZ SFW, while on a phone call with me and Jason Hawkins, Mr. Peay stated that if the AZ SFW guys had listed to him, the bill would have passed. So, I have a hard time believing Utah-funded SFW had nothing to do with the AZ attempt.
Or the SFW involvement in .......
The points is to show that a completely different story exists of how the Utah state funding mechanism provided to SFW is used in ways different than what the Director sees from his desk. Thus the calls for complete transparency, for reeling in this process, and more accountability for how the fund are used.
Hopefully this curious stream of accolades from the Director is somewhat countered to show a wider scope of how Utah tag revenues are used. To show there are other sides to the story that the Director may not be inclined to see in his position with a close working partner of SFW in Utah. To show a few examples of the SFW activities that are now growing outside of Utah.
To show that as much as the Director and SFW make calls for hunters to unite, SFW spends significant time and energy attacking other organizations, making the Director's unsolicited defenses of SFW seem strange to those on the outside looking in. It is hard to take seriously calls for unity, when the group making the call is behind the scenes hammering others who are doing way more for the sake of hunting and conservation. And, when the Director makes the same call for unity, while overlooking the reasons for such turmoil and almost blindly defending the biggest violator of our united front, his calls for unity ring rather hollow.
I do agree with the Director that SFW and Mr. Peay should be given credit where deserved. As should the millions of others doing all they can for our cause.
We should hold SFW and Mr. Peay accountable when they work against the benefit of hunters and anglers. The same as we would hold any group or person accountable, and how we would expect to be held accountable for our own actions.
None of the good deeds mentioned by the Director relieves any organization from the responsibilities of transparency and accountability with members' money, or the even higher responsibility when benefiting from state assets. None of that exempts any group from staying financially independent of public resources. And none of that makes any person, group, or state policy beyond question by those to whom they are accountable, the hunters and anglers who are their members or the citizens of their state.
Thanks to the Director for his comments and service. He has served during a period where the entire west has experienced great expansion of wildlife, all using different methods and funding sources. I agree with his tribute to great employees of agencies and good relationships with conservation organizations.
I hope none of us forget who is the real hero in all of this. It is you, the average hunter who is funding the model with license fees and excise taxes, and with the sweat on your brow. You who give graciously of your time and labor, as volunteers, not as paid agents.
The Director did a good job of thanking a few among the millions who deserve credit, as does he.
I will end this by thanking the many millions more who make it all possible. Thanks to all of you!
"Hunt when you can - You're gonna' run out of health before you run out of money!"
