Hunting and fishing is big business in the country. The most recent five-year survey by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service found that the nation's 13 million hunters age 16 or older spent 17.5 days on average in the field last year. For the 34 million U.S. anglers, that number was 16 days. On average, hunters spent $1,585 apiece on gear and trips, while anglers lightened their wallets to the tune of $1,046 each. Total spending by sportsmen in 2001: $55 Billion!

Without hunting and fishing there would be no federal 3 to 1 matching monies (Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson) to develop and restore wildlife projects. Our game would suffer greatly. There would be no sage hen projects, no helicopter game surveys, no duck projects, no water development projects-the list goes on. Where do you think all those dollars come from to enable us to do this?

Answer: Sportsmen's dollars.

Hunting and fishing must be preserved in this state by you sportsmen! Support our bill in the 2003 legislative session. Call your commissioners. Call your legislators. Hunters Alert and Nevada Hunters Association have again requested and sponsored a bill draft for the 2003 Nevada Legislative Session returning our Division of Wildlife back to a Department of Wildlife.

Currently, Wildlife is only a division or part of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Conservation and Natural Resources has eight other divisions under it: state parks, forestry, wild horse program, state lands, environmental protection, water resources, natural heritage program, and conservation districts.

With this bill we want to change Wildlife back where it belongs-into its own Department of Wildlife all by itself. Typically, the director of Conservation and Natural Resources is chosen from one of the nine division administrators under him. Very likely one of these administrators chosen to head this agency could be a non-hunter or even an anti-hunter (greenie) in charge of our Wildlife Division. This would be a disaster for sportsmen, as we would see our programs abolished. We want control of our own agency and retain hunting and fishing as a separate entity. We do not want to lose our identity or programs.

History has clearly shown us that hunting and non-hunting groups do not mix, and it is not in the best interests of the sportsmen. In states that mix these groups, hunting and fishing has suffered-let's not allow that to happen in our state.

Parks and Forestry in many states are composed of non or anti-hunters (greenies) and these just do not mix with our hunting and fishing rights. Therefore it is best to separate them from Wildlife.

In fact, diversion of federal Wildlife dollars for non-hunting projects is against the law. Sportsmen have always stepped up to the plate and taxed themselves to support and preserve their sport including the duck stamp bill, trout stamp, privatization of the big game tag draw, etc. (But these dollars must not be co-mingled).

But-But-this process cannot occur without oversight and accountability by the Wildlife Commission. The Commission must APPROVE, not review their budget! It is a well-documented fact in the Legislature of Wildlife's mismanagement of their dollars and huge budget cost overruns. Without oversight we will not have even a Department of Wildlife left. We must control the administrative costs much, much better or we won't have money left for badly needed wildlife projects.

Hunters Alert and Nevada Hunters Association requested and sponsored SB 30 and AB 494 in the Nevada Legislature during the last session. These bills gave Wildlife its own true identity by taking the Wildlife Division out from under the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, where it does not belong, and establishing its own Department of Wildlife with the Wildlife Commissioners approving the Wildlife budget.

Assemblyman David Humke, a champion of sportsmen, along with 25 other assemblymen and women sponsored AB 494. In addition, 3 senators jointly sponsored this bill. Assemblywoman Marcia de Braga who is from Fallen, and is chairwoman of the Committee on Natural Resources, Agriculture and Mining, refused to have a fair hearing on this bill and refused to even consider it. Marcia said she was going to ignore the many sportsmen constituents she represents, who wanted this bill, and would not even have a hearing on it. Even the majority of her committee members were in favor of this bill and wanted a hearing on it. Marcia, as chair of this committee, by refusing to have a fair public hearing on the bill, must accept full responsibility for the failure of the bill.

Listen carefully, she is not a friend of sportsmen!!!

Hunter's Alert and Nevada Hunting Association have pioneered and pushed this concept for its inception years ago. We have been telling the Wildlife Commission and sportsmen state-wide that WE NEED THIS BILL AND OUR OWN DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE.

The Commission has chosen not to support this needed legislation in the past. We call upon all sportsmen to support it by voting and calling your legislators.

Gerald Lent, President Nevada Hunters Association PO Box 50757 Reno, NV 89513

By Gerald Lent, President, Nevada Hunters Association