HA Newsletter 02

In keeping with his usual style of more government restrictions, Jim Bilbray co-sponsored HR1354 which will make it a felony to trap animals in the United States. This should not come as a surprise to anyone because Mr. Bilbray has stated he is a strong supporter of animal rights issues. Perhaps if Mr. Bilbray would talk to the ranchers in his own state, he would learn something about the outdoors. He would learn there are more predators than ever and they must kill to survive. Mr. Bilbray needs to see with his own eyes a fawn deer or antelope being killed by a pack of coyotes. Where are the rights of that baby animal being eaten alive by a bunch of varmints, Mr. Bilbray? A trapper's bullet is certainly more humane than being eaten alive, wouldn't you say, Mr. Bilbray?

The NDOW revised Mormon Mountain Bighorn Sheep die-off report is now official: lightning is the most probable cause of death.

I guess NDOW wants the Sportsmen to believe that the 13 sheep were struck by lightning, jumped in a pile, and died! The report now shows the first NDOW game wardens on the scene report­ed: "... it appeared that the sheep had died elsewhere, picked up by a helicopter and dumped on the ridge—no motorized vehicles could get into that area. Exact cause of death was undetermined, but the way the sheep are located makes me believe that they did not die from natural causes."

WRITTEN FOR HUNTER'S ALERT BY ASSEMBLYMAN DAVID HUMKE
Nevada is faced with some critical decisions in the next legislative ses­sion. Some of these decisions will be of particular interest to me as a per­son who enjoys the outdoors. While I believe it is necessary to protect our natural areas, that effort must be adjusted to include the rights of mining and agriculture as well as campers and hikers. Our lands must remain accessable to everyone who wants to use them. When lands are unreasonably restricted, as is the case with some wilderness areas, those who are physically unable to hike or backpack are denied access. I know personally of the problem in that I enjoy camping with my family, including my mother-in-law who is ambulatory but is not physically able to hike into a wilderness area.

The Department of Wildlife has methodically avoided the legislative mandate to privatize the tag drawing in a bill passed by the legislative and signed by Governor Miller into law on July 1, 1991, which specified the Department must contract out the tag drawing process by 1993.

In the May 1992 issue of the Nevada Marksman, an article appeared about the illegally killed elk in White Pine County. While not condoning this type of illegal activi­ty we should put this incident into perspective. What we have is one big game animal being killed and we want the person responsible brought to justice and the most severe punishment possible dealt to him.

Just when you thought it was over, removing 733,400 acres for multiple use, here they come again. There are four federal agencies that can restrict your land use. They are the Forest Service (FS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), National Park Service (NFS), and United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS).

There have been many horror stories told by the users of wilder­ness and we would like to share some of them with our readers.

A Las .Vegan, Jari Scriven, trail-ered his mules to Washington State for a fishing and camping trip with his high school buddies. They pro­ceeded to set up camp in the Michael Lake area. Two rangers watched them set up their entire camp. Following the completion of their camp setup, the rangers made them split up their camp. The rea­son was that only twelve heart beats are allowed per camp.  A mule, a dog, or a human counts as one heartbeat. Jari said the relocated camp was a minimal distance, approximately 50 yards away from the first camp site.

Congressmen Bilbray and Vucanovich and Senator Reid were each sent the following letter by HUNTER'S ALERT. The question asked was: The Bureau of Land Management has a proposal for wilderness in Nevada. Are you going to favor their proposal or ask for an increase or decrease in their propos­al? Listed below are their responses.

In 1989, Senator Harry Reid and Congressman Jim Bilbray were instrumental in assuring that the people of Nevada had 733,400 acres of wilderness crammed down their throats. Since then, hunters, fisher­men, senior citizens, and the dis­abled have been denied motorized access to this land. The restrictions do not stop with motorized travel.

Now that I have your attention, this could very well become reality. This November, the animal rights organizations have obtained enough signatures to have this measure placed on the ballot. It is called PROPOSITION 200.