CoonDawgs.com Coonhound Classifieds and Message Forum

 

It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 9:33 am

All times are UTC - 6 hours




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 2 posts ] 


Author Message
PostPosted: Tue Sep 13, 2016 3:32 pm 
IP:
Offline
Silent Mouth
Silent Mouth

Joined: 18 Apr 2011
Posts: 14
Location: Wyoming
It is a windy, rainy and chilly day, so I am stuck inside and figured I would try to write an update. Some of this stuff has been gone over previously, but I would like to get all pertinent information in one spot, so I may be repeating some a couple of things.

In the past couple couple months we have had two different meetings.
The first meeting was held in Gillette, Wyoming. With a group of 15-20 houndsmen, a vote was taken and it was decided that we would start on getting the Wyoming Federation of Houndsmen officially organized. Once we got that out of the way we opened the floor for the nomination of officers. A vote was taken and new officers were put in place.

Tex Adams - President
Dusty Fenley - Vice President
Rob Peterson - Secretary/Treasurer

The second meeting was held recently in Casper, Wyoming, so that more houndsmen from around the state could participate and take part in the discussions. At this meeting a discussion came up surrounding costs and membership dues. With the members present, a motion was made and voted on to set in place a $40 per year fee. The dues will go to offset costs incurred while traveling to and from the different meetings with the G&F and legislature. Once dues are received, each member will be sent a window decal.

Dues can be mailed to :
Wyoming Federation of Houndsmen
C/O Rob Peterson
36 Benjamin St.
Gillette, Wy 82716

When sending in your dues, please include :
Name
Address
Telephone Number
Email

At both of these meetings, several different issues surrounding the hunting of mountain lions were discussed.
They included, but are not limited to :
Passing a state statute that will recognize hound hunting as part of Wyoming's history and heritage going all the way back to the first settlers who ran the wolves off the range. Also, we would like to see hound hunting recognized as a valuable wildlife resource management tool. (Without houndsmen, this state's mountain lion management would be non-existent)

Hunter congestion and overcrowding
Limited nonresident sub-quotas in specific areas
Possible requirement for everyone actively involved in a lion pursuit to have a valid tag
Pursuit/Training season - When an area quotas out it would remain open for pursuit only by residents only until the scheduled end of season
Pursuit/Training Only License (Non Harvest) - At a lesser cost
Making a full price harvest tag valid for pursuit once the license holder harvests a lion, or an area hits the quota. This would also apply to nonresident license holders until the nonresident sub quota was met in a given area (if applicable)
Possible waiting period between the time a license is purchased and a lion can be harvested.

There are many reasons behind these discussions and the houndsmen of this state are trying to figure out the best ways to help manage Wyoming's wildlife resources while protecting and promoting sporting opportunities for houndsmen. Any constructive comments are welcome.

We have a meeting coming up during the last week of the month where a few of us will be sitting down with representatives from G&F to start discussing the wording of legislation that will hopefully address several of the above issues. The G&F Department is well aware of some of the issues faced by houndsmen in this state, but they are prevented from acting on them due to having a limited authority. Since we are going to have to go through the legislature to address some of the issues we face, we will also be looking to expand protections and hunting opportunities for houndsmen.

If anyone has any questions, or would like to participate in the upcoming discussions, please let me know. We are also looking for houndsmen from different areas of the state who are willing to act as representatives for hound interests.

Thank you,
Tex Adams, President
Wyoming Federation of Houndsmen

Image

Image

_________________
=2
Tex Adams
Evil Eye Kennels
Treeing Walker and Trigg Hounds
Gillette, Wyoming


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  

 

Join the forum today and remove this ad!
Author Message
PostPosted: Tue Sep 27, 2016 5:48 pm 
IP:
Offline
Silent Mouth
Silent Mouth

Joined: 18 Apr 2011
Posts: 14
Location: Wyoming
*** UPDATE ***
As I mentioned previously, we have been planning to meet with reps from the G&F once we had our meeting in Casper and got a few things decided upon. The discussions held in Casper were a success and a general direction was agreed upon for a few different issues with a 'go ahead' given to start the talks with G&F. Myself, VP Dusty Fenley and members, John and Larry Bird, got together and hashed out the specific issues that we intended to go over with G&F, so that we could start navigating the legislative process.

We talked about several different routes we could go with different alternatives if one or another option was not available. The items on this list are in no way set in stone. We listed them merely as a place to begin discussions.

Here are the issues we wanted to discuss with G&F -
Hound hunting recognized as part of Wyoming's history and heritage
Recognized as a valuable wildlife management tool
Limited nonresident sub-quota (area specific)
Hound handler/training permit for everyone actively involved in the hunting of hounds (not just lion hunting)
Age limits on permits ???
Permits half the cost of harvest tags ???
Waiting period between license purchase and harvest
Pursuit/training season : once an area hits quota it shall remain open for pursuit and training purposes only for residents only
Reciprocity with other states ???

I was able to meet with several reps from G&F in Wright, Wyoming, yesterday, and we talked for about three hours on how to make hunting with hounds better in Wyoming.

In attendance at yesterday's meeting was -
Tex Adams, President of the Wyoming Federation of Houndsmen
Kieth Culver, Wyoming G&F Commissioner
Scott Edburg, Deputy Chief Game Warden
Dan Thompson, Head Carnivore Biologist
Justin Clapp, Mountain Lion Biologist
Joe Sandrini, Blackhills Region Biologist
Craig Smith, Game Warden, Sheridan Area (I believe)

I will go through each of the different topics and explain what was discussed.

-Hound hunting recognized as part of Wyoming's history and heritage
Recognized as a valuable wildlife management tool

In several states, hunting opportunities have been lost because of anti hunting groups using emotion and scare tactics to paint hound hunters in a bad light. Their method of attack is to go after the different hound pursuits by saying they don't want to completely shut the hunting down, they just want to eliminate the hunting of a certain species with hounds. With emotion, alot of money and a few bad examples, they have successfully eliminated bear, bobcat and/or mountain lion hunting in several states. Wyoming is one of several states that has constitutional protections in place for Hunting, Fishing and Trapping, but there is nothing specifically mentioning hounds or hunting with dogs. Because of this, the houndsmen of this state feel it is very important to go after some sort of recognition and protection through the legislature.

This item was discussed with G&F, but they are legally prohibited from lobbying for any sort of legislative changes. They can offer background and data when asked, but they cannot actively lobby for a measure such as this. It was suggested though, that I speak with State Rep Tyler Lindhom. Commissioner Culver had already been in contact with him discussing the hunter overcrowding issues and , Rep Lindholm, being a hunter and supporter of houndsmen, said that he was happy to help us work our way through the legislature with on these issues. With that information, I decided I would reach out to him to see what kind of support I could get for some sort of measure that better protected houndsmen and hunting with dogs.

He asked my reasoning behind what we are trying to do and then did a really good job of explaining the differences between resolutions and state statutes. In this particular case, neither of these avenues are entirely appropriate and the best route to take would be a constitutional amendment. Work on this will have to start very soon, so that it can be introduced during the next legislative session with final approval, hopefully, coming during the following regular legislative session in early 2019.

Representative Lindholm was out of town and has a few other items on his immediate schedule, so it was decided to set up a meeting date once he got back home and cleared his plate some. Also, since it was, Ogden Driscoll, who was able to push through the original amendment that protects Hunting, Fishing and Trapping, Rep Lindholm, felt it best if he reach out to the senator and invite him to the table as well. He feels that what we are looking for is very reasonable and should have plenty of support in Cheyenne. Once we get a little further along in these discussions, I will give everyone an update as to where we stand.

Limited nonresident sub-quota (area specific)
As many lion hunters in Wyoming know, hunter congestion and overcrowding has become a serious problem in some Mountain Lion Hunt Areas. More than a few different solutions have been discussed over the past several months, but the setting of a limited nonresident subquota is the solution that everyone keeps coming back to. As I mentioned before though, the Commission does not have the authority to set different quotas or limits for residents and nonresidents in this situation. For that reason, we are now going through the legislature to remedy that. Representative Lindholm has spoke with G&F reps as well as myself and we are to write this legislation out as it needs to be and he will see that it makes it before the legislature.

With the possibility of similar issues in the future coming up, we intend to word things so that this legislation can apply to more than one scenario, hunt area and/or species. The Wyoming Federation of Houndsmen hopes to one day see bear hunting with hounds become legal in this state and we hope that doing things right this time will save us from having to go back to Cheyenne due to something similar arising down the road.

Hound handler/training permit for everyone actively involved in the hunting of hounds (not just lion hunting)
For a couple years now, the houndsmen have been talking about possibly implementing a "hound handler, or training" permit. One would think that offering to funnel more money into the G&F coffers would be a no brainer and would have roaring support. NOT SO. This idea has been met with opposition from the field guys up to the commission. We have brought it to their attention that requiring a permit like other states have, people hunting for free would virtually be eliminated and would insure that everyone who is enjoying the hound pursuits would be paying their fair share to help manage and protect the resource.

The idea is not completely dead or abandoned, but it has been tabled at this time. In order for this idea to become reality, we would have to have a separate bill brought before the legislature granting the commission the licensing authority to set up and sell a new permit/tag. With the other issues we are already going after, we felt it best to limit our efforts to the most important issues. We are still going to pursue this, but it will be at a later date.

Age limits on permits ???
Permits half the cost of harvest tags ???
These two topics both go with the handler permit mentioned above. They were just notes that will need to be discussed when we do eventually start pursing this issue in earnest.

Waiting period between license purchase and harvest
This issue is part of the regs in other states and has been up for consideration among the houndsmen in this state. The premise behind it, is that it will help eliminate people sitting on tracks while they wait for another party to go and buy a tag. At this time, we will not be going anywhere with this issue. It is not a legislative item and can be dealt with at the commission level at some point in the future.

Pursuit/training season : once an area hits quota it shall remain open for pursuit and training purposes only for residents only
Houndsmen have been bringing this item up repeatedly and we have been given every excuse under the sun why it wouldn't work. I believe we are making some positive headway on this issue, but we still have a few people that need convinced this is a good idea. One of the main reasons against, that I have found, is that it would mean more work for the game wardens. Maybe we need some relief for the overworked game wardens, but limiting hunting opportunities is not the solution.

Basically, what we are wanting with a pursuit, or training season, is for an area to remain open for pursuit only, by residents only, until the scheduled end of season. At this time, only a handful of areas would even be affected. Last season, I believe there were only four hunt areas that reached quota and shut down.

We WILL continue working toward this and I believe we will find success in the near future.

Reciprocity with other states ???
Reciprocity surrounding hound hunting issues and nonresidents has been mentioned quite a few times in recent years and came up again at the meeting yesterday. I flat out opposed it for several reasons. Implementing something like this could mean a list of rules and regs so full and confusing, nobody would ever be able to figure it out.

I told the G&F personnel that Wyoming was in a very unique and good position, in that we don't have things so over-regulated yet that people avoid coming here. It is not our intent to limit opportunities for nonresidents, but merely to put the needs and desires of resident hunters first. I told them it is our desire to see Wyoming become a destination for houndsmen from other areas who would like to come out west and hunt large game with their dogs. To do that though, we have to do a better job of managing our resources and make sure that we take the correct steps to insure that hound hunting has a positive impact on the game and in the eyes of the public.

We are having to take small baby steps, because we are just now developing a good working relationship with the Wyoming Game & Fish Department. Progress is being made, but it is slow in coming, it seems. The thing is though, we have to keep at it and we have to be ever mindful of how we are perceived. Our image and how the public views us is playing a big part in the processes we are going through. Keep this in mind when you are in the field and please try and make time to participate in the upcoming meetings with our lawmakers.

This is all being done to help protect hound hunting and promote more hunting opportunities. Your help is needed.

If anyone has any questions, please do not hesitate to get a hold of me.

Tex Adams, President
Wyoming Federation of Houndsmen


Top
 Profile  
Reply with quote  
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  

Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 2 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 6 hours


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  

cron


Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group

Want to DISABLE pop-up ads & banners after 1st post of threads? Become a member of the forum & view the forum logged in.

CLICK HERE for more info.

CoonDawgs.com - Your One Stop Coon Dog Source for Coon Hunting!!