we are losing the battle for our rights to hunt also

[jackrabbit]

we are not so far away from losing our rights to hunt and fish also. as more and more of the non hunting and anti-hunting communities choose a career within the departments of natural resources throught out the country the dnr decsions made by non hunters get less hunter friendly. indiana has more than its share of dnr employees that want to make hunting less available on our state ground. and laws more stringent against the hunter on private ground. the fact that so many states have total bans on dog running and training during the spring is just one such example. on the surface there seems to be ample reasons to have such a ban. the major reason being giving the wildlife a quiet time during the rearing and nesting times. i doubt that anyone is against this. however, lets not forget that our dogs need to be exercised and trained twelve months a year. somewhere along the line sound game management should be tempered with the needs of the sportsman. while protecting the game during the rearing times there should also be tracts of land set aside to allow for year round training of the dogs and exercise or running. at this time indianas executive branch has assured us that there will be some running and training available year round on state ground. the reservoir property managers and the division of fish and wildlife, however , would like to change all that. they are putting together a recommendation to be presented to the executive branch recommending that 100% of state land be off limits to dog running and training during april, may, and june, and possibly march and july. for those who have ample private ground its no big deal. for the person that doesnt have access to private ground its a big problem. none of the group/s that i have contact with are in favor of a 100% ban. most say that should the dnr leave at least a few hundred acres on each area for the training and running or their dogs, not onlly would they not oppose it, but they would actually support it. i know your own bob kane feels i am fighting sound game management with my feelings. we are not against good game management. we are for hunter opportunities and we can see no good reason to have a 100% ban at anytime. there are about 1200 hunters in our group already and we have alliance with another 150,000. but as you can see from great britians problems numbers doesnt always do it... lets hope the executive branch has common sense enough to stand by its promise.

[harvhounds]

Geeezzz Jackrabbit these folks just won't quit! How long have you been fighting this?I live in MI and can't run from april 15th till July 15th I belive.During this time my hounds have to be content with my yard.I take that time for manners training and some fun I wish I had a forty to fence in but land around here is going for big bucks and the Farmers are selling out left and right nothing to see a 250.000 house in the middle of a grape patch soon taxes will be so bad people won't be able to keep land then where do we go?Thats why your fight is so important.Good luck !

[jackrabbit]

thanks harvhounds . its good to hear from you. we are hoping that the executive branch. mostly john davis, deputy director and john goss the director of indiana dept. of natural resources will remain true to their word. we are already pushing our position in that direction. we understand the importance of "sound game management" as they want to call it. and yet see that states that are forcing their dog owners to kennel the dogs three to five months a year have the same miserable quail numbers that we do. and they are losing the same 3% of those birds a year that we are. one future observation that ive made is that at our tri-county fish and game area in kosciusko county they already have no dog running during the off season... meaning from the end of hunting season in january till the early season opens in oct. they have one really nice dog running/training area that is open to dogs year round. so if you would guess that the best hunting is in the areas that get no dog disturbance 9 months of the year......YOU WOULD BE WRONG..... the best hunting is in the dog running/training area. kinda shoots their theary in the butt dont ya think. we are watching this one carefully for sure. its nice to have a chance to be at least a little pro-active for a change instead of trying to play catch up. the wildlife people didnt want an outsider at their meeting though and ive yet to find out if those meetings are really closed to the public......

again good to hear from you harvhounds. hope you have a great christmas

jackrabbit

[Guest]

jackrabbit:
"fighting sound game management with my feelings"

Not wanting to create havoc, but just wondering if you could elaborate a bit.

Not trying to be a troll, wouldn't let me sign in.
travel

[jackrabbit]

hey no problem guest. i am pro-opportunity when it comes to our state ground. as there is less and less private ground available to hunt on our state land staying open to the hunter becomes more and more critical. there is a movement in many states to totaly close 100% of the state ground and in some states 100% of all land to the dog owner during the months that the upland birds and small game are breeding, nesting and rearing their young. my feeling is that there must be available land for the dog owner that doesnt have access to private ground, or for the dog owner that for what ever reason wants or needs to work his dog on state ground. we are not saying all land needs to be open year round. we are saying that on every state property that is designated for hunter use there should be several hundred acres left open for the training , running, and exercise of the dogs. i can imagine the frustration of dog owners in the states that close running completely, when their pup is six months old and they cant work the dog in the field untill its ten months old. and no i dont think thats what training pens are for completely. sound game management must be tempered with the needs and desires of those who are footing the bill for the program. salamonie reservior for example( in wabash county indiana) has 8500 acres. there is no valid reason that two four hundred acre tracts of land should not be left open and designated "dog training area" even if or when the dnr people get a law to keep us off. there are hundreds of thousands of acres of state land. surely the pitman roberts act doesnt say we cant use any of them... pitman roberts is the ploy they are using again to make changes that negatively impact the dog owner.

somewhere along the way bob kane felt that i was fighting sound game management by fighting the actions of the dnr at the salamonie reservior when they effectively shut down 840 acres to dog training/running except for 8 days per year for a minimum of 5 years. they also attempted to close all dog running from feb 28 to oct 1 on the entire reservoir area, and let it be know that they wanted to expand on the small game area at a later date. then it was revealed by dnr that the real reason for the smalll game management area is to build a case against dogs. and a year after they started the small game management area you can drive around the land and see that nothing has been done to increase any game animal... except keep the dogs off. i (we) feel completely within our rights to work to force the dnr to be more responsive to our needs too.

i know ive taken the long way around the barn more than likely in explaining what we think. thanks for asking and have a great day

[jackabbit]

and to add one last note here travel.... i guess im just concerned enough about keeping our hunting heritage open that im willing to stand up and do something about it....

thanks again

[S.R. Patch]

I'm with you on this jack, we live in the middle of this mess. The state does nothing for small game. Deer, turkey & geese make up their gravy money and the farmer can feed them. They live in the big woods and lakes. It actually takes a little work to maintain the small game. Our locals(dnr) bought a new road grader to pull in gravel. I told them they should have bought a bulldozer to push out the soft wood into brush piles & open up fields for food plots. The plots they have, they never lime or fertilize and when planted produce nothing. Why waste the gas & time, though the new John Deere & equip. is fun to drive, I'm sure. Everyone has a new dnr truck to drive, we have a new 1 million dollar headquarters office & the gamewarden drives one of those $38,000 Fords. I'm glad they raised the license fees, those don't get the best of MPG.
I don't mind paying, but I sure would like to see something of improved small game management for my $...Patch

[jackrabbit]

i remember the salamonie reservoir area before the reservoir was built. there were dozens of covey of quail. back then the land belong to the farmer and inorder to survive he kept the crops planted, the fences repaired, and could leave creekbeds, gullies and ditches grow up in weeds. there were pasture fields for the live stock also. once the land was leased by dnr the work stopped and the pasture fields become scrub brush thickets, the fence rows rotted away and there were no more crops. last year according to salamonie reports there were four quail killed there. and to this point , almost a year into this small game management project nothing has been done to increase small game and upland birds except keep the dogs out. the dnr is infiltrated with non hunting fish and game specialists that have gotten their training from college professors that couldnt make a living in the real world so they decided to teach. book learning takes them only so far.... the rest must be common sense.. thats not taught in college.

we are monitoring the salamonie weekly and taking digital pictures of the area. we will also be making an annual report to the executive branch along with the pictures and asking where the research is and what is really going on....next season we are going to start trying to get the squirrel hunting back on that 840 acres. its time the sportsmen started going back and going back asking for more opportunities rather than the antis going back asking that we be deprived of more and more.