|
[ Return to Contents
| Post a Reply
| Post a new message
]
Senate Bill 170 and 85
Posted by bushrat on Oct 09 2005
To all,
Here is a link to Senate Bill 170:
< http://www.legis.state.ak.us/PDF/24/Bills/SB0170A.PDF >
It's a pdf file. There are quite a few amendments proposed. When you open the file, the new amendments (changes) to Title 16 are underlined and the deletions are bracketed.
Thanks to David for posting this. Before all you hunters and fishers decide about this issue, please think hard are read about the changes. I'm all for accountability of F&G but some of the changes Seekins is seeking (also with the ORV use on haul road in SB85) severely change things inre: hunting in Alaska. For more hunters to be successful (ie: supposedly more prey base after intensive management and widespread predator control of both bears and wolves) in the field as Seekins and AOC would have it, we'd have to open more areas to ATV use (and abuse) and get more hunters to where the game is. If you want your hunting experience to get even more crowded than it is now, then support Seekins and AOC. If you want to wear blaze-orange vests while hunting, then support Seekins and AOC. If you want to see ATV trails over vast areas of the state, then support AOC and Seekins. If you want to make it easier for fat slob hunters (and hunters who also use the quads God gave them) to get game each fall, then support Seekins and AOC. While I support AOC in principle on many issues, they have not adequately thought out the repercussions to habitat of more widespread ATV use in Alaska. And neither have they or Seekins contemplated the social aspects of the hunt, the desire for some solitude and quiet that so many of us seek each fall, the desire to hear a wolf howl and to also know that you are in the land of the grizzly, an apex predator who just might eat you for lunch. By establishing "game farming" in Alaska as many would wish, we may indeed have a larger prey base (with far less animal predators) to hunt for a short period of time, but with that we will see such an increase in hunters that it will be insane out there every fall. Read many of the management reports that speak to this. Intensive management and the goals set for many gmus would have 4K hunters just in unit 20E off the Taylor each fall. And most of those would be using ATVs. This is your state. You get to offer input on how you want it managed. Please think long and hard before totally supporting AOC and Seekins on this position. I DO appreciate some of what AOC tries to accomplish, and I certainly respect many on the staff there, but the answer to our growing population in Alaska and the desire for more hunters to take more game can only go so far. Some of the game management reports say the biggest danger to a unit is the ever-increasing amount of human hunters, particularly those using atvs who are now getting into areas previously unaccessible. For success rates (harvests) to increase, yes we will need a larger prey base, but we'll also need a much larger amount of hunters in the field each fall.
Thanks, Mark
Previous: Don't forget martentrapper Oct 10 2005
Next: Access PatrickH Oct 09 2005
 Message Thread:
|
