HA Newsletter 18

In 1989, the legislature removed the big game tag draw from the control of Nevada Division of Wildlife. This was done because of many improprieties while under NDOW's jurisdiction. The sportsmen of our state wanted this and our legislators passed it.

Not one sportsmen's organization in the state endorsed Terry Crawforth to replace Willie Molini as administrator of the Nevada Division of Wildlife (NDOW). Even the Wildlife commissioners rated him third in a three horse race. How did he get chosen? It was good old politics at its worst.

What did you do for hunting last year? Did you take a child hunting? That's a good deed because the children of today will carry on hunting in the future. Maybe you supported one of the many organizations which promote a species of game bird or animal. For the most part they are organizations who want to do good things for a particular game bird or animal However good these activities are, they are not enough to overcome the antihunting groups or bring back our game numbers.

The new administrator of Nevada Division of Wildlife (NDOW) Terry Crawforth, is off to a dismal start in his new position The majority of his first month on the job he spent hunting. So much for making sacrifices for a new promotion. In addition, he has appointed Dave Rice as his assistant deputy director. (You remember Dave. He is the fellow who called trophy hunters red-necked animal killers who hunt for ego gratification".) Worse than that is Terry Crawforth's blatant disregard for sportsmen's organizations' concerns.

Below are the major changes and why sportsmen need this bill passed.

There are 750 coyote hunters working for a program called Wildlife Services (WS) under the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 17 western states.

Glynn Riley, 63, of Brownwood, Tex., is acknowledged by his peers as the best...."There are more coyotes today than I've seen in all of my 38 years with WS. And they're causing more problems than ever before."

• - 112 WSAs, 5.1 million acres
• - Most WSAs and largest acreage in BLM
• - All or portions of 52 WSAs recommended "suitable" for wilderness designation.
• - Nevada manages 112 WSAs totaling about 5.1 million acres.
• - All or portions of 52 WSAs recommended "suitable" for wilderness designation totaling about 1.9 million acres.
• - All or portions of 60 WSAs totaling about 3.2 million acres recommended to be released from further wilderness consideration.

In the last two weeks, many Nevada newspapers have run articles about the accomplishments of Governor Bob Miller. In the fairness of good journalism, the other side of the story should be told. Bob Miller demonstrated for ten years that he was no friend of Nevada sportsmen.

Pete Liakopoulos is an outdoor writer and radio talk show host. His program, Outdoor Adventures, will launch a new series on K-DAWN, AM720 starting Sunday, February 21. The show will air each Sunday from 6:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.

Pete welcomes your participation in discussing the shooting sports including archery, hunting, fishing and the information necessary to preserving the hunters' lifestyle. Pete is always willing to give mention of any group's upcoming events as well as information pertaining to hunting and fishing in all of the western states with interviews and bulletins of current interest. Please feel free to call in on Sunday mornings with information, opinions and conversation at 383-8255.

On February 18, Senator Richard Bryan announced he will not seek re-election for the U.S. Senate. The democrats are pushing Bob Miller to run for this vacancy.