Not to fan the flames, at the last Deer Study Commission the Chairman, Mr. Herring, wanted to give the FOI representative a chance to speak. Remember, FOI did not have a seat on the committee so their representative sat in the gallery, like me, and pretty much, like me, kept his mouth shut. Mr. Herring felt it was appropriate for FOI to be heard because they represented a group that he felt should be “at the table” along with guides, outfitters and other parties who would gain monetarily from an increase in NR tags.
Mr Herrring asked the committee if they would allow the FOI rep to speak, they agreed to hear him. Before he could speak and me not being a shrinking violet, I asked the chairman if I could address the committee. Mr. Herring started to say “No” but I asked him to poll the committee and see what they though, the committee agreed to let me speak.
I was about as nervous as I’ve ever been. So many things ran though my mind while the FOI rep spoke. When he was done I went into some sort of “automatic mode”. To this day I have no memory of what I exactly said but I remember refuting the numbers of NRs landowners who want to hunt because only 42 NR landowner Antlerless tags were sold. I reminded the committee that a NR land owner can buy an antlers tag and party hunt so they can kill a buck every year. I talked about displaced hunters and Mr. Herring said I can’t prove it, but I said this is “empirical” knowledge so we went back and forth on that. Then he asked me if resident hunters would support an increase in the cost of tags. I spoke about the increase being a “push” when it came to the amount of money the DNR sends back to NR applicants who don’t draw, so if the system and quota stays the same we would gladly pay the increase, but if you raise the NR draw limit then we would not support it. I went on to say the HUSH program was important and a few other things.
Of course when I sat down I started to remember what else I wanted to say. I didn’t hit transferable tags, deer sanctuaries and a few others.
Anyway, I’m late for a pain party also known as Physical Therapy so I’ll expand more on this later today.
The ‘Bonker