The good news for Nevada sportsmen is that as of July, Tommy Ford is no longer a Wildlife commissioner. The bad news is he left his baggage (Clint Bentley) behind. You see it was because of Tommy Ford that Clint Bentley was appointed to the Wildlife Commission.

Tommy Ford was a Wildlife commissioner for six years and did not want to be reappointed. That’s good because he didn’t do anything other than rubberstamp everything director Terry Crawforth wanted. Of course, bringing back our deer was not one of them.

At the June Wildlife Commission meeting, Tommy Ford praised his protégé, Clint Bentley. But let’s get real here. After five years on the Wildlife Commission, he has done nothing about our declining deer herds. It is quite apparent that Clint Bentley does not know what to do.

But here is what Clint Bentley did do. A petition was filed to get the harvest number on mountain lions closer to the set quota. Clint Bentley cast the deciding vote to kill this measure! HUNTER’S ALERT has stated many times that Clint Bentley should never have been appointed to the Wildlife Commission. He has not represented sportsmen. Now let’s prove it.

Mountain lion quota numbers for 2005-2006 were 345 lions. What was the total harvest for lions during this period including sport hunters, guided sport hunters, trapped, illegal harvest, human conflict, depredation and other such as natural mortality, road kills, etc? Are you ready for this? A whopping total of 145 lions! Had Clint Bentley not killed this petition, more lions would have been harvested and there would be more deer today. Bottom line, Clint Bentley has been a disgrace to the sportsmen he was supposed to represent.

Tommy Ford was replaced by Dan Swanson who without a doubt, will be more of a standup guy than Tommy Ford. He has already asked some very tough questions at his first Wildlife Commission meeting, something Tommy Ford failed to do in his six years as a Wildlife commissioner. It was time for Tommy Ford to hang his head and ride off into the sunset for what he has done to sportsmen in Nevada.