COEngineer
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2016
- Messages
- 1,513
I stopped at the APR visitor center in Lewistown on my way home from a vacation (trip highlight was seeing a family of otters swimming, hunting, feeding right down the beach from our river-front camp site).
When I first walked into the APR visitor center, the young lady at the desk noticed my BHA hat and asked if I knew so-an-so, which I do not. As I walked around, I kept a careful eye on all the APR media (interactive, signs, audio, etc) for any hint about whether APR is pro or anti-hunting. What struck me was that it was almost never mentioned at all. There was one reference to lead bullets causing scavenger bird deaths and one about historic over-harvest.
After I had seen/read/heard everything there was (not including the other half of the building which is some kind of art gallery) I asked the young lady at the desk if APR avoided talking about hunting because their big donors don't like it or what. She pointed to the wall that has a list of all the big donors and said, "No, in fact many of the biggest donors are locals who love hunting." She was honest and admitted that some of their non-resident donors probably have a different perspective. She proceeded to tell me about the bison hunts and elk tags they have and that if I'm interested, I should apply for those tags. She then explained that APR's vision is to make the land completely open to everyone, just like public land. As proof of that she said we could camp anywhere we wanted on APR land (dispersed camping), just like USFS or BLM land (APR also has campsites you can reserve ahead of time). Part of me still wanted to see something in writing about preserving hunting as a wildlife management tool on APR land in perpetuity, but I also see the value in not turning off the donations from non- (or anti-) hunters.
The previous APR threads were getting close to double-digit number of pages, so I thought starting a new one was worthwhile.
When I first walked into the APR visitor center, the young lady at the desk noticed my BHA hat and asked if I knew so-an-so, which I do not. As I walked around, I kept a careful eye on all the APR media (interactive, signs, audio, etc) for any hint about whether APR is pro or anti-hunting. What struck me was that it was almost never mentioned at all. There was one reference to lead bullets causing scavenger bird deaths and one about historic over-harvest.
After I had seen/read/heard everything there was (not including the other half of the building which is some kind of art gallery) I asked the young lady at the desk if APR avoided talking about hunting because their big donors don't like it or what. She pointed to the wall that has a list of all the big donors and said, "No, in fact many of the biggest donors are locals who love hunting." She was honest and admitted that some of their non-resident donors probably have a different perspective. She proceeded to tell me about the bison hunts and elk tags they have and that if I'm interested, I should apply for those tags. She then explained that APR's vision is to make the land completely open to everyone, just like public land. As proof of that she said we could camp anywhere we wanted on APR land (dispersed camping), just like USFS or BLM land (APR also has campsites you can reserve ahead of time). Part of me still wanted to see something in writing about preserving hunting as a wildlife management tool on APR land in perpetuity, but I also see the value in not turning off the donations from non- (or anti-) hunters.
The previous APR threads were getting close to double-digit number of pages, so I thought starting a new one was worthwhile.
