Post by regnar on Apr 9, 2010 3:50:32 GMT
I thought it was going to be a muck larger bitch session than it was. In fact I would say that there was very little bitching except for a few guys and that is always to be expected.
I thought that Steve Weber and Kent Guftason were either ill prepared or they intentionally avoided answering the questions. The coyote season is but one example. Someone asked Steve point blank if that proposal came from F&G and he said NO. Then when he got cornered he said yes and then no again. That put a really bad taste in my mouth. Long story short is that there will be no coyote season. Kent gave all kind of reasons for doing something but anytime he was asked a direct question he concerning numbers he would gloss over it. And if the buck to doe ration is 3:1 in NH I will eat my shorts.
Then someone asked what was the management reason for stopping the doe season for the first 15 days. After Kent hemmed and hawed and gave several different reasons Steve finally did say it was a concession to the gun hunters so that the bow hunters felt the pinch on reduction of doe days. Other words it was a purely political decision with zero biological or management reasons behind it. The number of does taken in that time are a very small % of the total number ( I have the numbers but not in front of me).
They also gave the reason it would be to hard, which means more work, for several questions including breaking up zone m and g into smaller WMU's allowing doe hunting in zone m the first two weeks of the season and something else that escapes me.
I really liked it when the commissioner spoke up. He spoke to us like we were people and although we might not like what he had to say he knew that he understood what we were saying to him and we understood what he was saying as well. Steve Weber spoke to us like we were idiots. He is definetely more of a politician than anything else.
Although it was the first time I have heard him I lost any respect I may have had for him because of two things. One was the way he yelled and tried to argue with a few people and when someone spoke up and said that this was a public hearing and just because he did not like what was being said gave him no right to yell at the person. He then told Weber that he was out of line for doing that he weber started to argue with that man until the commissioner gave him the signal to back off. The second thing he said was that the only reason that people showed up to public hearings was because they had something to lose. Well dam it, we do have something to loose, our right to hunt.
I had several points I was going to raise but they were mostly answered. I am going to write a letter to the comment email as well as to the commissioner, Weber and F&G commission giving them my feelings and letting them know that the reason I did not speak up and raise any of these points is because I did not want to create a bitch session. I would also encourage all of you to write and give your opinions on these changes and anything else you have to say.
comments@wildlife.nh.gov. (use subject line “Comments on Wildlife Rules”
As someone at the meeting said, we need to do more than go to the meetings. We need to write our legislatures and VOTE. I hope everyone does that.