Nevada Hunters Association

 

In July, 2005 a couple riding on ATV’s discovered 22-24 dead desert sheep carcasses at the McCullough #3 water development in southern Nevada. At least 3 of the sheep were very large rams in the Boone & Crockett category. All the sheep appeared to have died in a close time range of each other.

Good times are coming for the people who are concerned about the loss of our deer. The newly appointed Wildlife Commissioners have been told by Governor Jim Gibbons to bring back our deer. It won’t be easy nor will it be quick. Let’s review who was responsible for the loss of these deer and why it happened.

 

Out with the old, in with the new was in order for the Wildlife Commission appointments.  The last of former Governor Kenny Guinn’s appointments to the Wildlife Commission have finally run their course. For Nevada deer hunters, that’s a good thing. Former commissioners David McNinch, Dan Swanson and Ron  Lurie did nothing to bring back our deer.  Quite the contrary. Most predator control projects to benefit deer were opposed by them.

Steve Smith, a rancher and lion hunter in Arizona, wrote an article that originally appeared in Western Hunting Magazine and was reprinted in Deer Times-Fall, 2007 magazine. The title was Out of Balance: One Expert’s Commentary on Mountain Lions, Mule Deer and Wildlife Mismanagement.

 

The author made many valid points and HUNTER’ S ALERT would like to compare his views with those of HUNTER’S ALERT.

“I sure appreciate your good work. We need to do full battle against these morons.” J.G., Las Vegas

“Thanks for your efforts!” A.S., Henderson

“Keep up the good work!” H.P., Moapa, J.H., Carson City, R.F., Las Vegas, V.E., Las Vegas, G.K., Las Vegas, D. & D. C., Reno

“Wildlife Commission sucks.” D.C., Reno

“Just read your Fall 2003 publication. I can’t believe my eyes!! I’m a 50 year Nevada resident; what can I do to help our cause?” K.I., Reno

“Keep up the good work” “NDOW director makes too much money. I also have been applying for Nevada elk 26 years and mountain goat 26 years. Something wrong with bonus point system.”  R.G., Hawthorne

“I am very angry with NDOW over the rancher in Mina named Bob Eddy. They (NDOW) should be cited for their illegal activities! NDOW has way too much authority and should be more regulated and better managed. Keep up the good work and please keep us informed on all their activities.” J.M., Fallon

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.

You would think that a person who saved 53 Desert bighorn sheep from dying would be waiting for a commendation for doing a good job. Not so! He is waiting for the government to give him a citation. He has asked us not to disclose his name yet because of possible court proceedings.

 

My name is Cecil Fredi and I have lived in Las Vegas for 64 years. For many of those years, I deer hunted and everyone in the hunting group took home a nice big buck. Those days have been gone for years. Nineteen years ago, I helped form a group called HUNTER’S ALERT. Our primary purpose was to inform sportsmen that we have a predator problem and that something needed to be done about it. We have mailed 31 newsletters resulting in over a quarter of a million copies distributed throughout the state as well as other states. Every issue stated we had a predator problem and what other states were doing about their problem. It wasn’t like NDOW and the Wildlife Commission were not made aware of the fact that we had a serious predator problem for many years. 

DEER INCREASE: Yes, Nevada’s deer herd, rock bottom for years now, has increased—drum roll, please—a whopping 3%, from 105,000 in 2005 to 107,000 in 2006.

Kind of a letdown. 3% rate of growth? Even with back to back years of good/excellent habitat conditions? Even inbred crummy wild horses, animals we don’t want to see increase, manage 10 to 20% a year. With deer, the rate of growth can be explosive. In 1984, NDOW estimated 129,500 deer were here; by 1988, that number had almost doubled to 240,000. And that had occurred in the very heart of a terrible drought to boot.

So, what’s going on? A little over a year ago, NDOW released with much fanfare, a much awaited explanation of why Nevada’s deer herd, from 1992 to present, has failed to bounce back, despite yearly predictions for significant rates of growth. Their “Mule Deer Population Dynamics” had all sorts of interesting data and covered many angles, but, disappointingly, conveniently ignored the reason of reasons—Mountain Lions.

In the 2001 legislative session, Assembly Bill 291 became law. The bill was sponsored by HUNTER’S ALERT and Nevada Hunters Association. Not another so-called sportsmen’s organization was there to support this bill. A.B. 291 enacted a $3.00 fee on all tag applications. This money was to be dedicated exclusively for wildlife damage control (wdc) formerly called predator control. This money has amounted to over $300,000 a year for wildlife damage control. Wdc is something that neither NDOW nor any of the Wildlife commissioners wanted. However, by law, they were in charge of how the money was to be spent.