Disgusted in DNR/ Fish & Game depts. (Long Rant)

I generally stay pretty quiet about anything but my own personal situation/hunting, but there are far too many things happening with mismanagement and misinformation regarding our natural resources (animals) by state agencies. Colorado, California, Michigan, and New Jersey are the worst ones IMO. Political agendas should not dictate how wildlife is managed. It is amazing how many hunters don't know or fully understand what the underlying issues are behind what we see on social media.

CWD for example. There is mass hysteria anytime the acronym is used. It is blamed on deer farms and feeding deer. The Colorado Fish & Game dept. "created" CWD as we know it when they injected scrapie (from sheep) into Captive Mule Deer for research purposes in 1967, and those deer escaped...why they thought that was a good idea is beyond me. CWD in wild cervids did not exist prior to that. It's not a conspiracy, the research project is available for anyone who looks for it. But nobody talks about that. It suits agendas better to use CWD to manipulate deer seasons. CWD is VASTLY more prevalent in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, & Montana in Mule Deer and elk (where ironically it is illegal to feed deer or even plant food plots) than it is in Eastern/Midwestern Whitetail herds, but nobody out west is freaking out about it. Colorado and Wyoming both maintain winter feed stations for deer and elk which congregates the herds, but yet they won't allow feeding of deer and elk by hunters because it will spread CWD (do as I say and not as I do). Wisconsin by comparison has had by far the most documented cases of CWD in the Midwest/East, yet somehow still sits atop the record books...weird.

Michigan has become the newest state to jump on the CWD bandwagon. Michigan hunters are all in a tizzy about it like the sky is falling and the herd is decimated, because the MI DNR has perpetuated the hysteria. Not true at all. More deer are killed my feral dogs every year in Michigan than all the deer EVER by CWD. Dr James Kroll testified in front of the MI DNR earlier this year about this. Several studies were presented that show CWD cannot be transferred between species, meaning a person cannot get it from eating meat of a CWD positive animal. Wisconsin spent $70 million trying to eradicate certain herds (which is impossible) in order to curb CWD, which did not work because the prions live in the ground and can stay there for years. There is no evidence that CWD has ever compromised a cervid herd to the point where it could not recover. Even in the epicenter of the CWD areas in CO and WY, where it is far more prevalent, there have not been any reduced or closed deer seasons, and no reduced tag numbers. The effects of CWD long term on a herd are inconsequential (not my opinion...research proves this). Then there is the claim that CWD is always fatal...Interestingly there is an ongoing 18 year study in WI of collared CWD positive deer. Some of those deer are still alive and having fawns after testing positive...so it is not always fatal. In Michigan, the best data I could find has somewhere around 78 deer CONFIRMED positive for CWD (In a herd of 800,000+ animals)...of those, ONE deer, in Jackson county, was already dead. The others were killed after testing positive. Yet the DNR has authorized killing tens of thousands in order to "eradicate" CWD. The Michigan DNR also issued an official statement that there were 5,000-7,000 Russian Boar in Michigan, which is a term deliberately used to create hysteria so they can be wiped out. There is no such thing as a Russian Boar in Michigan, but "wild pig" doesn't sound bad enough, so the DNR has to use terms that create panic. The Michigan DNR also advocates wanton waste. By law a farmer can kill sandhill cranes for crop depredation but are specifically prohibited from eating them; they must be disposed of...WHY? If there are enough sandhill cranes to be shooting them as a nuisance, why not have a season, sell licenses, generate more tax revenue, and encourage proper management and respect for the animal? Then there are doves...All across Michigan in Wal Marts, Cabela's, and sporting goods stores there are boxes of Remington shotgun shells sold which a picture of a dove on them. Those boxes say "Game loads." But the MI DNR says Doves are songbirds, not game birds, so you cannot hunt or eat them...again WHY? Political influence...that's why. It's honestly indecent, because the Biologists are not ignorant of the facts...they just cave to outside influences to the detriment of sportsmen and natural resources.

California Fish and Wildlife (Interestingly changed their name from Fish and Game) has completely abandoned their creed to make wise use of and protect the wildlife in their state. The lawmakers pulling the strings have deemed black bears and Lions as liabilities to the human population, but refuse to allow hunters to manage that population, because using hounds or bait to hunt them is "unfair." So in a state who's economy is floundering, instead of generating tax revenue from Licenses, tags, hotels, gas, food, Ice, Outfitters, Taxidermists, etc. the state uses Taxpayer dollars to fund government hired shooters to take out as many as 200 black bears and 100 Lions EVERY YEAR. And they are all either buried or frozen and taken out into the pacific ocean and dumped. Literally millions and millions of dollars of revenue for the state is turned away in lieu of appeasing animal rights activists in California. The worst part is the Wildlife biologists employed by CA know better, but they are afraid of losing their job or penchant because they work for a liberal state government, so they do nothing. They have gone the political correct route and said mountain lions are not game animals. That is an outright Lie. Instead of having a season where populations can be managed at sustainable levels, they will issue damage control permits to landowners AFTER a bear or lion kills a pet/livestock/ or human...BUT that person who is allowed to kill said predator cannot keep or utilize any part of the animal. It must be disposed of or turned over to Fish and Wildlife. The whole concept of this is hilarious and infuriating. The only reason there are so may damage control permits issued is because there are too many lions. All the traditional lion habitat is at carrying capacity so the population is expanding into FiFis back yard. There are too many lions because the population is not being regulated (hunted). The hilarious part is the animal rights people are opposed to the hunts because they love animals. Clearly they do not love Fido, or Peanut, or any of the cows, horses, alpacas, etc. that are killed by the lion every year. This doesn't even factor in the affect on other native wildlife. The deer population in Northern California is suffering big time. Because the deer are hunted by humans, and also hunted year round by a surplus population of lions and bears. So now the mismanagement of predators has been destructive to deer and small game populations...guess the animal rights people don't care about those animals either.

New Jersey just popped up on my radar recently. Black bear Hunting was just declared illegal on public land in new Jersey. The decision is obviously a blatant cave in to anti-hunters. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy outlawed all bear hunting on public land. This severely undermines the wildlife managers' ability to do their job, not to mention took away hunting opportunity from thousands of hunters. Meanwhile, The State biologists have estimated that 3,500 black bears live in just the Northern part of NJ, and that the area has one of the densest black bear populations in North America...In a state with one of the highest human densities in the country...yea...THAT makes sense. Just wait...damage control permits are coming next. NJ will be California 2.0. It is a criminal mismanagement of the resource the DNR is supposed to protect, and it will ultimately be bad for the entire ecosystem.

Sorry for the long rant, but I do not like what is happening to my/your god given right to hunt. It is things like this...small inroads made by bureaucrats and anti hunters...that will eventually lead to the end of hunting as we know it if it does not stop.

 

Been b*tching about all of that and more for years brother, I agree 150%.

 

http://www.themeateater.com/podcasts/ep-070-chronic-wasting-disease/

http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/doug-duren-bryan-richards

 

MO DNR released river otters here in MO back in the mid 80's into the state river systems. Now the damn things run rampant and they have cleaned up probably $15K worth of fish in all of my ponds. I used to be able to go catch 2-10 pound bass, huge bluegill, crappie and channel cats all day long as long as I wanted now all you can find are the little ones that are too small and fast for the bastards to catch.
I was going down the road a couple days ago to check beans in a north field and met a river otter strolling up the road from the creek towards my 3 acre pond. I can't even put to words how furious I am with DNR for doing that. We spent thousands building and stocking all these ponds since 1988....it's gross.

 

Classic example...just like wolves in the UP an Northern WI....released them, but can't hunt them...never mind how many depressed deer hunters aren't buying licenses because the deer population is decimated.

 

do they allow trapping of them?-the otters that is; as far as the wolves, contact your state legislators, the state wildlife agencies all agree that there should be a management plan for the wolves but are blocked by politics...

 

I may be wrong on this, because I haven’t researched it but.... British Columbia, Grizzleys, can’t hunt them bc it’s now considered socially unacceptable by the people of Vancouver....that live in the city, not being over run with bears....yet.....all bears in BC are Whinny the Pooh.

These people voting on this stuff have a huge disconnect with the ecosystem and the environment. They think they’re saving it, which what’s happening is the opposite. Humans have over ran the earth and there’s not enough habitat and food for everything else to over run it as well. When that starts happening, heard health declines, what ever groups of bears are called.....gaggles of bears will start running out of food and habitat. But why am I telling people on this forum this? We all know it and know why we hunt. The majority of us know and understand conservation.

 

I wonder if it is socially acceptable for Grizzlies to eat people when they encroach into suburbs?

 

Well, then they’ll use tax payer money to hire sharp shooters instead of making revenue off of selling licenses. And it will still be the hunters’ fault lol

 

I believe we are allowed to trap them legally with a proper license. Who is going to take time and trouble to buy traps and run them? The damage has already been done and we have so many rivers and streams and ponds and now a high population of otters that one may as well piss in the wind. There's not much of a market for the hides anymore and trapping itself is pretty much a lost art now. We used to be capable of trapping out animals like that back when there were a few thousand trappers that were efficient and a living could be made from it but those days are long gone. Trapping now is more of a nostalgic hobby for a niche market. I also have dogs that swim in the ponds. Sure I could keep the dogs out of the ponds and I could trap the otters but the point is I shouldn't have had the issue in the first place because some mental degenerate twat had some romantic "notion" of what wildlife should be reintroduced from a bygone era.

 

CWD is a fickle little s.o.b. I'm not aware of the 18 year study here in WI and cant find anything about it on google. Do you have a link to the study?

These studies showed cwd cannot be transferred, or hasn't been transferred yet? There's a big difference.

Gonna have to disagree with this. I've never seen a study that says anything other than that it's fatal 100% of the time. Every wildlife biologist i've ever read or heard speak about cwd has said this. I'm willing to bet Dr. Kroll even says it.
Everything else besides your cwd thoughts I agree with you though.

 

California, Colorado, Michigan, and New Jersey all political left-leaning, homes of megalopolises. Not exactly bastions for common sense and logical thought. It is lunacy for such large numbers of people to live collectively in such small areas. British Columbia is being overrun by lunatics. I grew up there, but I could never live there now as an adult, and there is no way I would raise kids there. Great place to visit if you stay out of Vancouver.

 

the disease takes 2-3 years to kill a deer so maybe thats where he thinks its not fatal?

 

I guess it's not fatal if the deer dies from something else before the cwd kills it.

 

invite some local trappers to have free reign on them on your land; my fellow trapping buddy says they are fetching $20-30.

 

Wolves for sure have something to do with the low deer numbers in northern WI. Personally I think black bear kill more than wolves. You gotta remember the Wisconsin herd was terribly mismanaged for decades and still is for the most part although its better than it was. Unlimited doe tags, wolves, large black bear populations, and tough winters were just too hard on northern deer herds.

 

Let’s just hope that Liberals taste better to Grizzly bears than conservatives do....

 

https://texasdeerassociation.com/wp...05/CURRENT-SCIENTIFIC-KNOWLEDGE-ABOUT-CWD.pdf

Here are some exerpts you may find interesting







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I tried that back in the early 2000's when they became a problem in the ponds. I could only find three trappers that were over 18 years old, none would work together, one trapper wasn't efficient enough to fix the issue and all three asked to hunt deer, turkey and quail and wanted to fish in the ponds. Of those three the one I gave permission to trap only and only if he called when he was going to be on the property...I caught running coon hounds down on the creek one night without permission and without notice of being there. I didn't even know who it was, I just called the warden and let him deal with it and then the guy was pissed that I called the warden on him for trespassing and he got a ticket for a violation.

Like I said, the damage is done now anyway. The otter population is so high now that even if I got them wiped out from the ponds now, new one's would just migrate in off the creeks. A person would literally have to run the trap lines all the time from now on. So now my ponds are only ever going to be good for livestock and wildlife water. Sucks...