Trump admin expanding access on national refuges

[beginnerhunter]

It does sound like if you're a waterfowl/bird hunter you'll have more opportunity. I miss hunting waterfowl right up until I remember having to find something to do with them.

You could pound them pretty thin and wrap around cream cheese and jalapeno. Pretty standard method. Remember it's supposed to be pretty rare.

I'm surprised when wild game consumers don't like duck. To me, doesn't seem much more gamey than other meat. Although I will agree spoonies are pretty fishy. Some people won't even shoot them. I grind them and put them in chilli as filler meat.

Very glad to hear there will be more public waterfowl hunting available. We always need more of that.

 

[JM77]

It does sound like if you're a waterfowl/bird hunter you'll have more opportunity. I miss hunting waterfowl right up until I remember having to find something to do with them.

More opportunity here in Wyoming for big game, but you must have missed that. Truth is any more access for hunters is a great thing, but interesting to see the usual suspects, on social media and hunting boards, making light of the fact that most of the new opportunity is for bird hunting.

 

[BuzzH]

More opportunity here in Wyoming for big game, but you must have missed that. Truth is any more access for hunters is a great thing, but interesting to see the usual suspects, on social media and hunting boards, making light of the fact that most of the new opportunity is for bird hunting.

I don't think opening up more places for waterfowl hunting should be taken lightly at all. In many places, Wyoming included, leasing of private lands for waterfowl hunting really limits the hunter of average means. Opening more refuge acres to public waterfowl hunting will provide a lot more opportunity for those that cant afford leases. I would argue that leasing is way more rampant in the waterfowl world than even for big-game. Lots of folks have a lot of money wrapped up in decoys, dogs, trailers, calls, shotguns all that stuff, and paying leases for exclusive use of sloughs, rivers, ponds, etc. is just part of the cost of doing business.

Leasing, combined with losing access via being able to hunt unposted lands in Montana is largely why I stopped hunting waterfowl. Leasing in Eastern Wyoming is why I haven't bothered to hunt waterfowl here. No way would I ever pay for a lease to shoot waterfowl.

As far as the addition of big-game in Wyoming on Seedskadee, I think the only species it may open up is elk, hunting big-game is already allowed for moose, mule deer, and pronghorn as well as bird hunting.

 

[JM77]

...and whitetail deer on Seedskadee.

 

[Ben Lamb]

We open the places we set aside for wildlife to exist unhampered, while rushing to implement the destruction of uncategorized public land for a quick buck.

Let's have a party.

 

[BuzzH]

I think there will be a lot more excitement around this news in some of the other places/States where access and public lands are more limited and waterfowl hunting is more prevalent.

 

[375H&H]

We open the places we set aside for wildlife to exist unhampered, while rushing to implement the destruction of uncategorized public land for a quick buck.

Let's have a party.

So this is a bad thing? Sounds like a good thing to me.

 

[JLS]

We open the places we set aside for wildlife to exist unhampered, while rushing to implement the destruction of uncategorized public land for a quick buck.

Let's have a party.

Paradoxical, isn't it?

 

[BuzzH]

We open the places we set aside for wildlife to exist unhampered, while rushing to implement the destruction of uncategorized public land for a quick buck.

Let's have a party.

Come on Ben, there's been hunting going on in refuges for as long as I've been old enough to hunt. Deer, waterfowl, etc. at Lee Metcalf, CMR for everything, Ninepipes for waterfowl, Freezeout, Bowdoin, etc. etc. etc. all allow hunting.

There will still be areas with closures, within the refuge's where wildlife can exist unhampered.

 

[JLS]

I don't think opening up more places for waterfowl hunting should be taken lightly at all. In many places, Wyoming included, leasing of private lands for waterfowl hunting really limits the hunter of average means. Opening more refuge acres to public waterfowl hunting will provide a lot more opportunity for those that cant afford leases. I would argue that leasing is way more rampant in the waterfowl world than even for big-game. Lots of folks have a lot of money wrapped up in decoys, dogs, trailers, calls, shotguns all that stuff, and paying leases for exclusive use of sloughs, rivers, ponds, etc. is just part of the cost of doing business.

Leasing, combined with losing access via being able to hunt unposted lands in Montana is largely why I stopped hunting waterfowl. Leasing in Eastern Wyoming is why I haven't bothered to hunt waterfowl here. No way would I ever pay for a lease to shoot waterfowl.

As far as the addition of big-game in Wyoming on Seedskadee, I think the only species it may open up is elk, hunting big-game is already allowed for moose, mule deer, and pronghorn as well as bird hunting.

There's a lot of truth to this. Waterfowl hunting ranks right up there with backcountry bow hunting for Instagram worthy coolness. From a public land hunting logistical standpoint, it's far easier to go chukar hunting than it is to go waterfowl hunting.

 

[Ben Lamb]

So this is a bad thing? Sounds like a good thing to me.

It's not bad in and of itself. This program was started under George W Bush, carried through during the Obama administration and now through Trump. It can be a good thing for opportunity, and for folks like Buzz talks about, but there's a downside to this as well, especially with the current rush to lease and develop what's left of our public lands. It's brought a number of new people into the fold, and it's helped ensure better access for folks who need it.

These things don't happen in vacuums. This, combined with the administrations roll-back of protected landscapes, have the potential to mean significantly less wildlife in the future.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Come on Ben, there's been hunting going on in refuges for as long as I've been old enough to hunt. Deer, waterfowl, etc. at Lee Metcalf, CMR for everything, Ninepipes for waterfowl, Freezeout, Bowdoin, etc. etc. etc. all allow hunting.

There will still be areas with closures, within the refuge's where wildlife can exist unhampered.

I get that, and maybe I'm being a debbie downer, but it seems like given the rollbacks elsewhere, this is a panacea to actual good management of public lands.

 

[BuzzH]

There's a lot of truth to this. Waterfowl hunting ranks right up there with backcountry bow hunting for Instagram worthy coolness. From a public land hunting logistical standpoint, it's far easier to go chukar hunting than it is to go waterfowl hunting.

I agree 100% and the other thing to consider, is that many of the areas where waterfowl were hunted all the time, are now leased and hunted a lot less. Meaning, that birds are seeking refuge, on a lot of places that aren't designated national wildlife refuges. I remember when killing a Canada Goose in the Missoula area was a big deal, and the refuges were important to help hold geese. They're a nuisance now and they spend more time on golf courses, lawns, and football fields than on designated refuges.

 

[JM77]

We open the places we set aside for wildlife to exist unhampered, while rushing to implement the destruction of uncategorized public land for a quick buck.

Let's have a party.

Open your mind Ben. Don't fear the good side of things, no matter where they originate.

 

[huntin24/7]

Ive hunted several refuges for waterfowl, upland, deer, elk. They all have limitations put in place so that game isn't just pushed out and its not a free for all. I dont see how it would suddenly become a problem now that a different leader is approving it.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Open your mind Ben, don't fear the good side of things, no matter where they originate.

"I've got vision and the rest of the world wears bi-focals."

Butch Cassidy.

 

[mtmiller]

Waterfowl hunting ranks right up there with backcountry bow hunting for Instagram worthy coolness.

Both great opportunities for face-paint selfies.

 

[Irrelevant]

I've always viewed refuges as area saved from development more than saved from hunting. This move jives with that idea.

Debbie Downer, have another brewsky and lighten up.

 

[Big Fin]

I'lll take any and all progress we can get. I don't care if it happens due to DJT, Chuck, Nancy, Vlad, El Chapo, Elvis, Bigfoot, or the many good staffers that work for agencies. No matter who does it, the task of conserving the best of what we have stays omnipresent and it will continue that way no matter who is in the Oval Office, who controls Congress, who controls our state legislatures, etc.

A read of history shows it has been this way in our country since its inception and odds are it will stay that way long after all of us have passed. It should matter not who takes credit for progress, as if it truly is progress we all benefit. And it should matter not who advances the "blades of progress" against conservation; we should hold them accountable and push back against those forces.

Thirty years of being in this gig has removed any false illusions that any side is always my ally or any side is always my enemy. Some of the greatest progress I have seen has come from places where least expected and some of the disappointments have come from places that were the biggest surprise. All of which confirm why I have no use for choosing sides of having party allegiances when advocating for a non-partisan cause that is conservation.

With the overwhelming pressures against the places we hold dear and activities that give our daily life more pleasure, I'll take any progress that comes our way. Thanks to Secretary Bernhardt for making this proclamation.

 

[LWC55]

Smoke ‘em. Delicious!

I never know which end to light and I can never get them to stay lit long enough to smoke em. I may be doing it wrong.