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The future of Nevada deer hunting is bleak. It has taken years of mismanagement by Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) to destroy our once famous deer herds. And it will take years for these herds to recover. The fault lies with the Wildlife Commission, former administrator Willie Molini and current director Terry Crawforth. Terry Crawforth has held this position for five years. Let’s review his list of non-accomplishments during his tenure.
Immediately after Terry Crawforth’s appointment he met with HUNTER’S ALERT president Cecil Fredi and Wildlife commissioners Bill Bradley and Jack Coons on September 17, 1998. HUNTER’S ALERT presented the administrator with a list of ten questions. Simple questions like what was he going to do to separate himself from the Willie Molini style of management (which he has continued) and if he was pleased with the status of our game situation. Then Administrator Crawforth refused to answer any of the questions. This was our first clue that our new administrator Crawforth was going to be a do nothing administrator. (We were right.) If Crawforth were doing his job, sportsmen would not have to go to the Legislature to get laws passed. A good example of this is predator control which he refused to implement. After Terry Crawforth’s appointment, the next hint of a do-nothing administrator came when Wildlife Commissioner Jack Coons asked what Crawforth’s goals were. Administrator Crawforth ran and hid behind his boss, Pete Morros’s skirt. Crawforth did not have to answer to the Wildlife Commission, especially when a tough question like "What are your goals" is asked. Apparently, when you have no goals as Crawforth has proven, it is a tough question to answer. On December 2, 1998 Administrator Crawforth and commissioner Bill Bradley met with members of Nevada Hunters Association. They wanted to know what goals the new administrator had in mind. This was followed up by a letter on December 17. Once again Terry Crawforth failed to respond to the request made by Nevada Hunters Association. There were other individuals and sportsmen’s organization to whom Crawforth failed to reply. Do you see a pattern here? The obvious question is how and when do we get rid of an incompetent administrator like Terry Crawforth? This is where the Wildlife commissioners let the sportsmen down. Relieving Terry Crawforth of his duties should have happened at the August, 2003 Commission meeting. With the passage of HUNTERS’ ALERT bill AB 41, Terry Crawforth became an acting director. The procedure is to have the Wildlife Commission submit three names to the governor and one name would be chosen. Pure and simple, the Wildlife commissioners did not know anyone else to appoint. These are the people who set policy for NDOW and Terry Crawforth is the only person they can come up with? In choosing Terry Crawforth, the Wildlife commissioners are saying that they like the loss of our deer, that they like having some of the highest license and tag fees in the west, they like an agency with no new programs. They like an agency that puts law enforcement at the top of its priorities. Following are some comments of the Wildlife Commissioners at the August, 2003 meeting follow, along with HUNTER’S ALERT response. Chairman Moran stated that Terry Crawforth has done everything we asked of him. Well, Mr. Moran, maybe you should ask him to do some predator control because in his five years as head of the agency he has not done anything. Maybe you should ask him what he is going to do about our dwindling deer herd because he hasn’t done anything about that. Maybe you should ask him to address sportsmen’s concerns because he hasn’t done anything about that. And by the way, Mr. Moran, why should you have to ask the head of a state agency to do his job. If he doesn’t know how to do his job, then he should have been replaced. Commissioner Bentley said he had sixteen responses from sportsmen and that none of them had anyone they could recommend. How dumb can you be, Mr. Bentley? Since when is it the public’s responsibility to replace a state agency director? Appointees to the Wildlife Commission are supposed to have some knowledge of wildlife affairs and it’s clear that you did not investigate the possibility of a better nominee. Commissioner MacKenzie said that he had fifteen phone calls opposed to Terry Crawforth. He fails to mention how many he had in favor. But he felt because there were only fifteen opposed that the rest of the sportsmen were in favor of Terry Crawforth. Now how’s that for a spin? None of the commissioners would say how many they had favoring Terry Crawforth or how many opposing. That’s because most were opposed and the Wildlife Commissioners did not listen. Commissioner Bradley said that four of the five calls he received were from people who had never participated at a Commission or a CAMBW meeting and they admitted that they just got the letter from HUNTER’S ALERT and took it as gospel. Mr. Bradley has a lot of nerve. Prior to his appointment to the Wildlife Commission he never attended nor participated at a Commission meeting! Because of his lack of knowledge, he has been a dismal failure as a sportsmen’s representative. The truth of the matter is that this Wildlife Commission doesn’t know anybody, did not want to do a search for anyone and wants to stay the course with more rules, more regulations, higher fees, no new game programs, an emphasis on law enforcement rather than increasing game numbers. Terry Crawforth has five years of this style of management and will obviously continue as long as the Wildlife Commissioners let the sportsmen down. When it comes to replacing Terry Crawforth, with the nine men currently on the Wildlife Commission, it would be difficult to find three testicles among them. Two of Administrator Crawforth’s non-accomplishments are that we have the lowest estimated deer numbers since 1976. Oh, yes, but Administrator Crawforth did do something in these last four years. He received his thirty year pin. It appears with this administration, we are going to have Terry Crawforth for many years to come and the ship will continue to sink. Now do you see why the outlook for deer hunting is bleak?
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