Only 1 FWP Comm Passed Sen. F & G Committee

[katqanna]

Only 1 of Montana governor's nominees for Fish and Wildlife Commission approved

I like the bit:

Billings attorney Matt Tourtlotte, the other incumbent who was also appointed in 2013, was rejected in a unanimous 0-11 vote. Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, who chairs the Fish and Game Committee, said she did not receive any letters of support for Tourtlotte and noted that he had missed some commission meetings.

I made some calls, I know others that sent in letters supporting Tourtlotte. I forwarded this to French, Tourtlotte and another. Perhaps she meant that she did not receive any letters of support from her special interest groups; the ones who hate the Public Trust Doctrine (her and Hinkle's current focus of angst in these hearings), and not the "Green Decoys" that she and Hinkle have been after.

 

[BuzzH]

What a joke Montana has become.

 

[katqanna]

It turns out there is a lot more to this. I don't know if the Senate Floor session is going to be dealing with this confirmation when they return at 1:00 today, but I just sent them an email dealing with Fielder's lies.

Dear Senators,

I respectfully request that y'all question and consider the actions from the Senate Fish & Game Commission, as I have proof of misinformation that was presented at the meeting on Tuesday, 4/18/17, at 3:00pm.

At the 11:49 mark Sen. Jennifer Fielder states, "Over the weekend I emailed some questions to all four of the individuals, and I was, ...). She proceeds to discuss here approval of Brower.

Later, when the Committee is segregating each nominee, concerning Matthew Tourtlotte, one of the Senators asks Sen. Fielder, at the 20:47 mark, "Did you get some stuff back from him?" She replies, "Members, I did email all 4 of the nominees and I did not receive any response from Mr. Tourtlotte that I have found in my inbox, as of about an hour ago. I have received some comments from other people who are concerned about his lack of attendance at the FWP Commission meetings. I think he has attended quite a few by phone, but not in person, and he's just missed some completely, so we didn't see a great deal of interest for Mr. Tourtlotte, no letters of interest. Did any other committee members receive any other communications from him about the position? So it doesn't appear to be a lot of interest there. So I will not support the motion."

First, Mr. Tourtlotte was in California when he received the short notice of confirmation hearing. He notified the Governor's office he was out of state.

Second, If you will notice this forwarded message below, Mr. Tourtlotte did not receive Sen. Fielder's questions over the weekend as she stated she sent them, but on Monday at 2:26 pm.

Third, the Senate F & G Committee meeting occurred on Tuesday at 3:00 pm for executive action. Below is a screen shot of his reply on Tuesday at 2:27, before the meeting.



Fourth, I and others have emailed the Committee and Senators our support of Mr. Tourtlotte for reappointment. Below is a screen shot of my email on the 12th. (I already posted it above for HuntTalkers)

Fifth, having attended many a FWP Commission meeting over the years, I know there are other Commissioners who have missed or had to use the video conferencing from their regional FWP office to participate in Commission meetings.

Following, I will forward Mr. Tourtlotte's replies to Sen. Fielders questions.

In conclusion, I take umbrage at Sen. Fielder's recent campaign to disparage those of us that are part of Montana's grassroots hunting/angling organizations, represented in her question no. 5, a number of which are many decades old, established before Senator Fielder ever moved to Montana. "hard left partisan interest groups including Montana Wildlife Federation (and their subsidiaries), Back Country Hunters and Anglers, Montana Sportsmen’s Alliance, Trout Unlimited, Back Country Horsemen, and Montana Bow Hunters Association."

I hope that y'all will support the confirmation of Mr. Tourtlotte's reappointment to the FWP Commission.

Thank you,
Kathryn QannaYahu
406-579-7748
513 1/2 W. Curtiss St.
Bozeman, MT 59715



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Fielder, Jennifer <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, Apr 17, 2017 at 6:45 PM
Subject: FW: Senate Confirmation Hearing - Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>




From: Fielder, Jennifer
Sent: Monday, April 17, 2017 2:26 PM
To: '[email protected]'
Subject: Senate Confirmation Hearing - Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission
Importance: High


Dear Mr. Tourtlotte,


Considering you were not able to appear in person at the Senate Fish and Game Committee Confirmation Hearings last Thursday, I have a few questions I would like to ask in order to help me to better understand your approach to the duties of this position should you be confirmed. If you could return your answers to me by 1pm Tuesday 4/18, I will review them and take them into consideration prior to the Senate Fish and Game Committee’s action concerning the confirmations.

1) The Montana Trappers Association is concerned that the Commission may impose regulations requiring them to check traps at specific intervals of time. This idea comes from anti-trapping activists who seek to make trapping more and more restrictive, and hence less and less feasible. Given that trapping is conducted during winter months and conditions can be extremely harsh, it would be problematic and even unsafe, to require trappers to go out on the trap line at predetermined time intervals. Regulations currently recommend trap checks every 48 hours, regardless of conditions or set type. This is an arbitrary number. In some cases traps need to be checked more frequently and in other cases less frequently. For example, in warm weather frequent checks are necessary to prevent rot. In cold weather there is no chance of rot, and it could be impractical and even dangerous to require trappers to go out in periods of abnormally harsh conditions. The Montana Trappers association offers an excellent Trapper Education Course in which the importance of reasonable trap checks, based on conditions and set types, are emphasized.

QUESTION: If confirmed, will you support a) Mandatory Trap Check Intervals, or b) Recommended Trap Check Intervals?


2) I have received a number of complaints from Hunter Education Instructors who are concerned about a few key matters. One, they are not allowed to teach effective hand gun handling and safety as a part of their course offerings. Apparently they can show a video but cannot offer hands on training of any kind. The instructors believe it is imperative to cover hand gun safety more appropriately because hand guns are used for some types of hunting and their short barrel length requires extra precautions. Also side arms are often carried for self-defense by hunters, and a Hunter Education certificate can be used as evidence of appropriate training needed to obtain a concealed carry permit.

QUESTION: If confirmed, will you support a) continued prohibition of teaching Hand Gun Handling & Safety properly, or b) Allow hands on instruction of Hand Gun Handling & Safety?


3) For decades, the Montana Trappers Association has offered high quality Trapper Education courses with a detailed curriculum and Instructor Certification Program. The department is considering recommendations that may substantially alter this program, as well as revise trapping regulations in a number of other ways.

QUESTION: If confirmed, will you support a requirement that, as regulators, Fish & Game Commissioners attend an educational workshop conducted by MTA prior to the Commission ruling on any changes to existing programs and protocols?


4) Quiet Waters: The public meetings have been completed. There is plenty of information on this subject.

QUESTION: If confirmed, will you support implementation of the Quiet Waters initiative or reject it?


5) For years FWP has shown bias in favor of hard left partisan interest groups including Montana Wildlife Federation (and their subsidiaries), Back Country Hunters and Anglers, Montana Sportsmen’s Alliance, Trout Unlimited, Back Country Horsemen, and Montana Bow Hunters Association. While engaged in varying degrees of political activism, some of these organizations do not have broad membership nor do they represent balanced objectivity concerning the broad range of sportsmen who participate in the activities these groups associate themselves with.

QUESTION: Will you insist on equally engaging non partisan and also conservative-leaning sportsmens’ organizations in order to avoid bias and bring balance into the FWP decision making processes? If so, how would you do this?


Thank you very much for your willingness to serve, and for taking time to offer a response.

Sincerely,


Sen. Jennifer Fielder

Montana State Senate - District 7, R-Thompson Falls



Chair – Senate Fish & Game Committee

Vice Chair – Senate Judiciary Committee

Member – Senate Natural Resources Committee

Member – Legislative Administration Committee

Member – Committee on Committees



Email: [email protected]

Mobile Phone: 406 210 5944

 

[Ben Lamb]

What a joke Montana has become.

Three thoughts:

1.) Don't judge all of MT based on one committee. More explicitly, the make up of part of the committee. We have awesome public servants on Senate Fish & Game who have fought valiantly this session.

2.) It's much less controversial this session than in sessions past. Let that one sink in. We've gone from over 200 bills related to wildlife in 2011 to 80 this session, with a number of those being good bills. We've had no transfer of public land bills due to sportsmen activism. We've increased funding for access & are working to add new programs for wildlife habitat management and we've been able to beat back most of the bad bills. We've even had good coalitions with the pubic land crowd to restore the authority of FWP to use Habitat Montana as it was intended.

3.) Still, lots of malarkey of a different stripe this session and it's been weirder than normal in several aspects. Lots more hijacking of bills, more partisan rancor on some of our issues and a bad misconception about the Parks division and how they fit within the agency. The fights this session have been much more personal in nature and the victories more incremental. We've also seen a larger influence of the Utah crowd in the halls this session than previous ones. Montana is once again being viewed by Benson & Peay as the promised land. That's the untold story of 2017.

 

[katqanna]

The Senate Floor Session just resumed, I don't know if any of the Senators had received my email about what was going on with Tourtlotte, but Sen. Facey made an amendment to add Brower from Scobey back in, as he wanted to do during the meeting yesterday. Brower is from Idaho and has noxious weed experience, married into an ag and ranching family up north, per some senator's comments.

The senate passed Facey's amendment 50-0, then SR 64, which only had Stuker, the required livestock rep and Brower, passed 50-0.

Oh, and Fielder closed with a statement that it would be nice to get commissioners on there that were not special interests, in yet another jab against grassroots hunting/angling groups being "special interests". WTF?

 

[Schaaf]

Wow. Thank you for digging this up, Kay.