HA Newsletter 12

Five senators,
ten assemblymen,
and the next governor attend.

HUNTER'S ALERT banquets keep getting bigger and better. This shows that HUNTER'S ALERT is accurate in saying that sportsmen are not pleased with the people who manage our fish and game. Never was that more evident than at the fourth annual banquet at Arizona Charlie's.

Call it youth, call it inexperience, or call it something less kind but Wildlife Commissioner Jelindo Tiberti showed why he should not have been re-appointed to the Wildlife Commission. At the January Wildlife Commission meeting Tiberti challenged HUNTER'S ALERT to prove that Nevada Division of Wildlife had purchased $25,000 worth of books from Defenders of Wildlife, a proven antihunting organization. The majority of sportsmen in attendance wanted something done about the mountain lion in our state. But Commissioner Tiberti chose not to represent them and instead to try to find fault with the HUNTER'S ALERT newsletter.

You would have thought Commissioner Tiberti would have learned his lesson since HUNTER'S ALERT subsequently J issued a challenge to him. If HUNTER'S ALERT could not prove the expenditure was made, then Mr. Tiberti could buy a table at our banquet. Mr. Tiberti failed to respond knowing fully well he shot himself in the boot and could not back it up.

My name is Cecil Fredi. I am representing HUNTER'S ALERT. At the January Wildlife Commission meeting in Henderson, Chairman Brown stated that he wanted more input on the lion issue. He also made the same statement at the February meeting in Reno. HUNTER'S ALERT in conjunction with Safari Club International Desert Chapter decided to give the chairman the input that he was seeking^ I will address this input later on but I would like to make a few points first.

Many important things have happened since the last newsletter. HUNTER'S ALERT wants to give credit to those who deserve it and expose those who have hurt sportsmen in our state. So let's put them in their appropriate houses.

Well, guess what, good old Nevada Division of Wildlife and the Wildlife Commission are trying to do it to the sportsmen again. They are going to have a bill in the next legislative session to let the Wildlife Commission set tag and license fees. Currently, it takes the majority of the assembly, the majority of the senate and the governor to increase fees. This represents 34 elected officials. If Nevada Division of Wildlife and the Wildlife Commission had their way, it would only require the majority of the Wildlife Commission or five appointed people. We have no recourse with appointees. In the last legislative session, Nevada Division of Wildlife drafted a bill, A.B.212, which increased our hunting and fishing licenses. This bill was almost defeated in the assembly. The governor sent out a press release on June 28, 1995 stating, "The state simply won't be able to afford to fully stock Lake Mead, Lake Mohave, Walker Lake, and a number of other popular Nevada fishing sites. Without game surveys, the Division of Wildlife will not have the necessary information to determine the appropriate number of tags to be issued to hunters."

Apparently using the mathematical system invented by Louis Farrakhan(you know, 1 +1 =19, or 400,000 = 200,000), the Nevada Division of Wildlife announced a sharp increase in deer tags this year, an additional 7,000 tags, up 34 percent from last year.

By now you must realize that the people in charge of your hunting are not doing a good job. This will not change until we have a new governor who will appoint knowledgeable people to the Wildlife Commission. We still have two more years before this happens so the only way sportsmen can make changes is to elect people who are willing to pass laws for the betterment of hunters. For this reason it is extremely important that first, you register to vote. Second, Vote for pro-hunting candidates. Following is a list of candidates who will help accomplish our goals.

At last, someone in the Nevada Division of Wildlife has the nerve to stand up and make a statement about the mountain lion. At the May 4 Wildlife Commission meeting, biologist Stan Stiver made the following statement: "In rough calculations, the folks that say that mountain lions take a lot more deer than hunters do are absolutely correct. I mean mountain lions probably take ten times the number than hunters do." Now HUNTER'S ALERT asks the following: Why didn't the Wildlife Commissioners do something to correct this? We keep saying sportsmen have no representation and this proves it.

Reprinted from the Elko Daily Free Press, Elko, Nevada, Friday, April 19, 1996, Barbwire column:

Jerry Smith of the Nevada Department of Wildlife this week asked hunters to consider participating in his agency's new extortion scheme (aka Partnership in Wildlife, second chance drawing, pig in a poke, etc.) to provide a "long-term source of revenue for future management of Nevada's game animals and fish." We strongly disagree with Smith and recommend hunters boycott the phony deal and demand that their legislators outlaw the scam. Not only should hunters reject the plan on a matter of principle—extortionists are never satisfied, they keep demanding more and more from their victims — but also because NDOW already has a long-term source of funding - license fees from sportsmen. And the current funding source has the added benefit of a built-in incentive for good game management — the best game management policies will produce the most game animals, which in turn will provide the most license fees.

A separate funding source will allow NDOW to hide its failures while it continues to build an unresponsive bureaucracy.

HUNTER'S ALERT asked some of the members of the Clark County game advisory board this question: Prior to Mahlon Brown and Jelindo Tiberti being appointed to the Wildlife Commission, how many county game advisory board meetings did they attend? The answer: To the best of our knowledge, none.