Mahlon Brown is chairman of Nevada's Board of Wildlife Commissioners. He was appointed by Governor Miller and is supposed to represent the sportsmen of Nevada, He is an attorney who has hunted very little. If he were out in the field he would know how the mountain lion has decimated our once famous Nevada deer herds. He would also know that in the last fifteen years the mountain lion has increased in numbers from 600 to over 1600. He should also know that there were only 204 mountain lion killed last year by all methods (depredation, autos, and hunters) in our state. He should know that 150 of these mountain lion were taken by hunters with the use of dogs. It is quite apparent that he knows very little because the following letter was sent by Mr. Brown to the Chirk County Wildlife Advisory Board.

"I have taken the liberty of sharing with you and your Board the comments of Boyd Gibbons, Director of the California Department of Fish and Game. This is kind of the story I have been trying to relate for some time now. Mr. Gibbons obviously is more capable of articulating this issue than I. It is simply a well thought out, well reasoned statement of how we, as sportsmen and hunters and fishermen and trappers, must deal with the 20th century reality and face it. I realize there are those who will conclude that if you concede this, you will continue to concede more and more as time goes on. Of course, there is some truth to that but, as Mr. Gibbons concluded, in California they are going to lose this one and any fight to save it may, in the long run, do more damage that they anticipate.

I am reminded of the NRA's position on Uzis and other assault rifles. In the world where the vast majority of people are offended by such weapons,

it is not very constructive, in your defense of the right to bear arms (which I, of course, do), to defend Uzis. The argument that Mr. Gibbons makes about dogs and bears in California could easily be made about mountain lions and dogs in Nevada, a sport I enjoy participating in. I am sure, at this juncture in history, Nevada is not ready to outlaw such a sport. But I certainty don't know if that will be true one year from today. Times are changing and sometimes at a rate beyond comprehension. The Proposition 200 situation in Arizona is the best example and we all know that if we hadn't gotten off our duffs nationally, that puppy would have passed and God knows where it would have left us.

Again, we must not lose sight of the fact that Nevada is the most urbanized state in the United States and those who make up that urbanization, for the most part, have no idea what people take you and I and the rest of our sporting fraternity think or feel and many of them care less. I thought you would enjoy Mr. Gibbons' letter and hopefully, it can be the topic of some future Game Board discussion, not that it already hasn't been, because all of us have got to start paying attention to who is adverse to our interests and how we can successfully deal with them.

To shout at it and call it names and circle our wagons, in my opinion, just ain't gonna work anymore. I look forward to your comments."

EDJNote: What next, Mahlon? Outlaw dogs for bird hunting? Or just sell out to the anti-hunters without a fight? Hunters, is this the type of representative you want as chairman of the Board of Wildlife Commissioners? If not, you will want to remove him from that position. We have to start with changing the governor first!