Big Game Forever

[HowaHunter]

Just saw a commercial for Big Game Forever. Biggameforever.com. Hopefully this is not old news and I am way late to the ball game.
All I can say (and I am sure I will offend some people but oh well we are all hiding behind computer screens) is these guys are making uneducated predictions on big game populations and management. Somehow wolves are overpopulated in Arizona and New Mexico? Last I knew there was a recovery program in place that was failing. Someone fill me in if I am wrong.
All I know is what I have learned in college and by way of hard-knocks and these are the type of "sportsmen" that truly irritate me and carry the potential of giving true sportsmen and women a black eye.
They quote Aldo Leopold and he would probably roll over in his grave if he knew what this group was promoting. Aldo eventually realized that wolves had their place in nature and admired them.
Sorry rant is over.
My apologies in advance to anyone who supports/donates to this group.

 

[spook12]

No apologies needed.

 

[Big Fin]

Keep ranting, and rant to anyone who might be inclined to support that band of misguided fools. Your impression are correct.

 

[drahthaar]

Fin, was there any talk out there to do some kind of "rebuttle" or just some kind of letter to the editor and put in all 7 major papers that they ran their add in? Informing people of what this group really is?

 

[shoots-straight]

Fin, was there any talk out there to do some kind of "rebuttle" or just some kind of letter to the editor and put in all 7 major papers that they ran their add in? Informing people of what this group really is?

There was was in the Republic paper. I don't even know the guy, but he gets it.

It's titled: Drive to privatize.

http://ravallirepublic.com/news/opinion/mailbag/article_7816a300-c309-11e1-83bd-001a4bcf887a.html

 

[dustinf]

From what I can put together with my simple mind, Keith Mark and Ted Nugent are big supporters/fund raisers for the group.

In my opinion, their "ideas" about conservation are quite wrong on most levels.

 

[spook12]

I think i will raise a toast to Mr. Bill LaCroix, today!

 

[warmer]

Here we go again! Man, I love this place!

 

[DougFir]

Here is a link to efforts to defund these guys. They run everything out of Utah, and have a sweat heart deal with the Utah wildlife division to sell public permits, to fund their operations, and expansions. They are trying hard to expand into Arizona right now too. They are going by the name Biggame forever more and more these days, because their other name, Sportsmen for fish and wildlife, is becoming very tarnished. Please sign the petition also. They are trying to get 1000 signatures by the end of today. http://uwcnewsletter.wordpress.com/uwc-convention-tag-proposal/

 

[Big Fin]

From what I can put together with my simple mind, Keith Mark and Ted Nugent are big supporters/fund raisers for the group..

Both are vocal supporters for BGF. To each their own.

I hope you will sign the petition linked in DougFir's post. This needs to happen, if change is to come about.

Draht - Some investigated countering those ads, but that series of ads, in all those papers, costs big bucks. Since we do not get an annual grant of $100,000 from the Utah legislature for such things, it is hard to put together that kind of a media message. So, we do it the old fashion guerrilla method - On websites, letters to the editors, and when talking to our hunting pals.

 

[dustinf]

I hope you will sign the petition linked in DougFir's post. This needs to happen, if change is to come about.

Done.

 

[DougFir]

As Randy mentioned, this needs a serious guerrilla effort. Some grass roots contacting of friends, facespace posts, other message boards, LTEs, etc. If you belong to a conservation organization, ask them to support this initiative. If they wont, demand some answers. Contact the Wildlife Board members, RAC members, and DWR also. Their contact info is in the link I posted. And thanks to everyone who works to support the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation, and all that it provides us.

 

[DougFir]

Here are links to the Division, Wildlife Board, and RAC members.

[email protected]
WB--http://wildlife.utah.gov/dwr/board-members.html
RAC--http://wildlife.utah.gov/dwr/rac-members.html

 

[HowaHunter]

Interesting. I kind of knew SFW was tied in with this group but did't know it is SFW sitting behind another name-this now makes sense.
Will go look at signing right after I hit submit.

 

[DougFir]

Yeah, thats the problem, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife was founded by, and is run by the same people that founded and run Big Game Forever. If you go here: http://biggameforever.org/endorsements-and-sponsors.php the only name that really matters at BGF or SFW is Don P(e)ay.

Here is an example of the kind of "wildlife management" SFW supports in Utah. Awhile back SFW helped push through a new mule deer plan. This plan breaks the state into 30 smaller units, and manages these units based on buck to doe ratios. The imediate effects of this were the loss of state wide archery deer hunting, and 13,000 general season deer tags. While it can be argued that a number of these things could be beneficial for deer, managing for high buck to doe ratios, is scientifically unsound. You grow deer herds bigger to get more bucks, it does not work the other way around. This plan does not grow more deer, and will exponentially crash herds when they do collapse. You see, the bucks cant give birth. The proponents of this, SFW and their toadies at the DWR, told Utahns that the loss of funds from the lost 13,000 tags would not drive up tag prices. Most of us knew this was not the case, but we did not know how they planned to cover the short fall. Go here to see how they robbed sportsmen and tax payers again, to pay for their ill concieved plans. http://biggameforever.org/blog/

 

[Topgun 30-06]

Yep, $5 a tag surcharge and 1/2 million bucks out of the general fund to pay for this new wolf control program that Peay say will double the deer population in the next few years!

 

[muleguy]

Drive to Privatize posted in Ravalli Republic-Hamilton,MT noted by SS

To avoid confusion as to who paid for the 2-page Big Game Forever (BGF) ad in last Sunday’s Ravalli Republic, let’s start with the fact that hunters in Montana have been able to hunt primarily because of our state’s adherence to what’s been known since Teddy Roosevelt’s time as the North American Model of Wildlife Management.

All of us, in other words, rich or poor, have the same opportunities to hunt big game. That’s because under our democratic management model, wildlife is a public resource, not private property that can be owned by rich individuals or sold to the highest bidder.

Privatized wildlife was part of the elitist system used by European monarchs. The King’s deer? The American Revolution? Remember?

Don Peay is founder of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife (SFW), which is BGF’s umbrella group. Mr. Peay made news in Alaska when he proclaimed the North American Model of Wildlife Management “socialism” and advocated for the privatizing of public herds by giving large landowners special permits to sell to the highest bidder.

Six weeks after this bizarre proclamation, state Wildlife Director Corey Rossi came under criminal investigation for violating his department’s own hunting rules. It then came out that not only was Rossi SFW’s state president, he was also trying to implement privatizing public herds using SFW’s royal recipe. And who appointed the unqualified Rossi? Then-governor Sarah Palin.

Keith Kubista is SFW’s Montana president and our current extremist commissioners are, in turn, Mr. Kubista’s willing partners in efforts to privatize our public herds to the greatest extent they can. Elitist obfuscation coming from the high-priced likes of BGF/SFW as well as from American Stewards of Liberty, who are currently being paid by our commissioners to aid them in their county supremacy scheme they dub “coordination,” are their self-selected overlords.

It’s quite plain that BGF/SFW is willing to spend big bucks in stoking anti-wolf hysteria in Montana and Ravalli County. For people who are concerned about slick, high-priced ads bought with out-of-state and even out-of-country money, BGF’s two page full-color ad should make it abundantly clear that our commissioners’ wolf-policy and natural resources agendas are being driven by their desire to privatize our public lands and wildlife for the sake of their aristocratic handlers. For people who are inclined to swallow these royal schemes whole hog, I admit I’d like to cash in on it, too. Therefore I propose that you contact me about a socialist-built bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you.

Bill LaCroix

Victor

 

[theat]

Not a bad letter. When I get back home from fire camp I will write one up for the Missoulian

 

[DougFir]

Great post muleguy. On SFW and the wolf propaganda, lets not forget that Don Peay and SFW tried to kill the Simpson-Tester wolf delisting bill. The obvious reason being that without the wolf issue to stir up support for their agenda, they wont be as effective playing on peoples emotions. Their boogie men are wolves in ID, AZ,and MT, and coyotes in UT. It used to be lions in UT, but their numbers are way down, UT does not have any significant number of wolves, so they had to go with coyotes, which are not exactly booming. They started out using wolves as their proxy in AK, but it was not panning out, so they moved to brown bears. All you have to do is look at their propaganda, and then ask why would they be against a bill to delist wolves? hhhhmmmm......

 

[dustinf]

Very interesting episode of Boone and Crockett Counrty is on Sportsman channel this week. It's about the history of the Public Trust Doctrine, and how the Supreme Court has upheld it.