Category: Hunting

USSAF Files Comments on Proposal to Delist Gray Wolves

On Tuesday, December 17th, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation (USSAF) filed comments with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) over a proposal to remove Gray Wolves from protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Wolves continue to remain at the forefront of the issues facing the sportsmen’s community today.   While the Western Great Lakes and Rocky Mountain populations of wolves have already been removed from ESA protection (“delisted”), this latest proposed rule would delist the remaining wolf populations across the country (with narrow exceptions for Mexican wolves in the Southwest and Red wolves in the Southeast).   In addition, USSAF and our partners are currently engaged in lawsuits in Wisconsin over their wolf hunting season and in a lawsuit in federal district court in which the Humane Society of the United States is asking a judge to again overturn the delisting of wolves in the Western Great Lakes.

Of particular concern with the latest proposal is the potential for the Service to recognize two separate wolf species.  Read more

Animal Rights, Hunting, Wildlife

Michigan has successful elk season, in more ways than one

Jason Webb elkMichigan’s 2013 elk hunting season that just wrapped up was a successful season all-around. While hunters walked away with an experience they’ll never forget, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) staff members are happy management goals were met, both safely and legally.

 

“We manage elk in Michigan by hunting,” said area wildlife biologist Jennifer Kleitch. “Our seasons are very specific. We have certain hunting areas, dates and quotas, and we are very deliberate in order to maintain a healthy elk herd in balance with the available habitat.” Read more

Hunting, Wildlife

HSUS Needs More Cash, Millions Not Enough

This from www.HumaneWatch.org…

HSUS runs a 20-year-old affiliate called the Wildlife Land Trust (WLT), whose reason for existence is to inherit land from people and subsequently prohibit development and hunting—forever. Essentially, WLT seems like a disjointed effort at creating wildlife preserves across the U.S., and it claims to hold rights to property in 32 states.

One such range of land is 3,000 acres in Oregon called the Greenwood Preserve. HSUS wants to build a water guzzler there to help the wildlife out with another source of water (despite, by WLT’s admission, that the preserve “contains three year-round sources of water – a rarity in the West”). HSUS has launched a “crowd-funding” campaign to raise $12,200 to build the guzzler, essentially a contraption that collects rainwater. Crowd-funding works by collecting small ($5 or $10) donations for a specific effort.

Here’s our question: Why?

HSUS’s budget is $120 million. The Wildlife Land Trust has a $6.9 million budget. Can’t they find $12,200 in there to build a watering hole? That’s about 0.0096% of their combined budgets, or nine one-thousandths. Not exactly breaking the bank.

The trouble with the crowd-funding exercise is that it frees up more money for HSUS to waste on other things. This wouldn’t be bad if HSUS was already a fiscally responsible organization, but it isn’t one.  CharityWatch finds that HSUS spends up to 45 percent of its budget on overhead. The watchdog Animal People puts the figure higher—at 55 percent. There’s a lot of money to go around, but HSUS wants to spend it on direct mail.

So while HSUS is “crowd-funding” a project that could be easily financed using existing dollars, it can put that $12,200 it’s not spending on the water guzzler towards mailing costs and to conduct more fundraising. This might be a small drop in the pond, but it speaks volumes about the priorities at HSUS.

Animal Rights, Hunting

Marketing the Truth About Hunting

By Glen Wunderlich

It’s almost time to toot our horn.  No it’s not New Year’s Eve, but when Governor Snyder signs HB 4993 into law, as is expected, Michigan sportsmen and women will have reason to celebrate.

The bill sponsored by Representative Jon Bumstead, would create a statewide council, called the Michigan Wildlife Council, which would be charged with hiring a marketing firm and directing funds for the creation and implementation of a targeted multi-media marketing campaign.

Here is how the plan would work:  Revenue for the information campaign will be derived from the hunting and fishing license package already signed into law.  Beginning in March 2014, a $1 surcharge on every hunting and fishing license purchased will be used to educate the general non-hunting and non-fishing public relative to the significance of wildlife conservation through hunting and fishing. Read more

Animal Rights, Hunting, Wildlife
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