Sure, some folks feel that is is fine to restrict hunting in enclosures, after all, it's not really hunting...

WAKE UP

quote:

BLM Plan Will Set Game Retrieval Restrictions: The Bureau of Land Management has released a draft management plan for travel routes on lands it administers within San Luis Valley, Colorado. The proposal will limit the retrieval of game off designated routes except to a perpendicular distance of 300 ft. from the edge of a route. Comments on the plan are being accepted until December 31. The document can be viewed at http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/slvplc/Travel_Management.html. For further information, please contact Mark Swinney, Project Lead, by phone at (719) 655-2547, or by e-mail at mswinney@co.blm.gov. Once again, it is critical that gun owners and sportsmen take an active role in this process!

now the blm wants to turn hunting/game retrieval to be limited to within 100 yards of a road.

In the first go around on this post, I addressed the topic of exotic animal management several times. And yet, no response. Does anyone here want to discuss to heart of the matter, which is the animals first and then protecting our right to hunt and manage them? Or are we just going to argue about what we selfishly want and dont want, like and dont like!
..............wapiti7

They are wrong. There should be NO off-road travel to retrieve game. Well, maybe 10 feet so the OHV isn't blocking the trail. The Western States need to get a handle on the abuse caused by OHVs on our public lands.

People just do not realize the problems which OHV use in the West has caused to wildlife and the habitat. Off-road retrieval has created so many new trails that it may be hard for some to comprehend. The escapement percentage on some units has been drastically reduced by OHV use and illegal trails, many of which were created by game retrieval.

That being said, my oldest friend is in a wheelchair and hunts from a quad. Right now all National Forests (and maybe BLM) are writing OHV plans. The areas where we hunt are leaning towards banning ALL OHV, for even established (i.e. numbered and open) roads. Eric has contact the local FS offices and no exceptions will be made.

Eric is VERY responsible, and while he does go off road, it is usaull only a couple hundred yards where he can setup a stand.

This movement is going to really mess things up for him.

FWIW, here's a letter I wrote to our local outdoor columnist a month or so ago.

Dear Bill:

I enjoy your column and while I am happy for you, I was chagrinned to hear that you are about to retire. We only subscribe to the Sunday paper and you column is the thing that I turn to first.

I’m not one to write to a newspaper, but your comments about ATVs column last Sunday (It's about a lot more than the deer ) compelled me.

I have a friend whom I’ve known since High School. He was (and still is) an avid outdoorsman. Mazama, hiker, hunter, fisherman, and the most elegant down hill skier I’ve ever seen. Most of this could have come to an end one day when he fell out of a tree he was limbing. He suffered a spinal injury that left him paralyzed form the chest down.

His ability to over come this injury was and is amazing. He lets little slow him down. We’ve hunted together before this and after. Even going so far as hunting in Montana and New Mexico as well as planning an Africa trip.

However, he hunts from an ATV with a disabled hunting permit. It’s the only way that he can truly be independent outdoors and be able to fully share the experience with us. He shoots deer nearly every year and usually sees a monster or two.

You wouldn’t know if from looking at him while riding that he has any issue.

Last week while riding on a open forest service road in the Paulina Unit near Willow Butte, he came upon a dually truck that was pulled off to the side of the road. Eric slowed down and the driver extended his arm out the window to wave him around. As soon as Eric started to pull around, the truck pulled out, spun his tires, and intentionally showered him with gravel and cinders. Clearly a person who has similar issues with ATVs as you express.

Unfortunately Eric was unable to get the plate numbers as he was closing his eyes to shield them rain of debris.

Now I fully understand having issue with persons who are tearing thing up with an ATV. However I think that it needs to be mentioned that there are responsible people that use them and some have to if they want to have any sort of outdoor independence.

I hope you think about Eric and this driver the next time you feel the need to paint ATV riders with a broad brush. I fear that the movement to ban ATVs from hunting will ruin our Autumns together.

Sincerely,

Steve Holder

quote:

Maybe we (you and I included) should e-mail that individual above and express an opinion on stiffer fines/punishments for violation of the EXISTING laws.

Could not agree with you more. Will be sending a letter this weekend.

First, how this relates to the loss of "Hunting Rights" is a blurr to me.

I also agree with Todd, in that the fines and policing of the abuse should be a higher priority for land managers. As an owner of an ATV since 1984, I have used them productively for over 2 decades. That said I would gladly throw mine in the dump if that is what it took to stop the abuse of the resource (land and animal) created by ATV abuse. I feel they shoudl confiscate the darn things which are off-road and sell them to pay for the expenses of policing. It would not take long to get the point across.

On Steve's topic, I may sound crass and indignant, as the written word seems to carry a different attitude, but that is not my intent. While I feel very bad for the situation of your friend, and many more like him, I do not believe the solution is to give variances for people to cross-country our public lands on OHVs. The elderly/entitlement card is being played at a rate which is raping our country of its future. As I age, I feel that there should be no guarantee to physically revisit areas which I can not. Accidents will and do happen and most states give special variances for people with such needs; earlier seasons, later seasons, shoot from a vehicle, etc. Cross-country OHV use should not be one.

In Utah, we just had to change a law governing our Muzzleloader specs. We now have to allow people whose eyesight is not perfect (20-40 or worse) to have magnifying scopes on muzzleloaders. This impact will be huge in our open country hunting. Magnifying scopes coupled with the new age technology will produce a rifle hunt, but only for those who need reading glasses. This is just one example of how, as the population ages (which is where the real pressure will come from), our resources will be altered due to their politically correct uses.

I do not want to see an end to road-use of OHVs in the West. I do want to see a complete end to OHV off-road use.

This doesn't have one thing to do with limiting huntng. What it has to d with is limting the destruction of the landscape. As has already been stated above, we have a HUGE problem with Yahoos destroying habitiat via ATV's. And that is what is being adressed.

This will simply limit the use of ATV's to 300 ft from the road. Lots of people are running all over creation with their ATV's and use the excuse they are simply either using them to "access the hunting area" or to "get game out". The basic problem is you never see one parked anywhere. Every ATV I've ever seen has somebody riding around with either a rifle or bow handy looking for game and disrupting everybody else's hunt.

Before anybody gets their panties in a twist, I will go on record as stating not everybody abuses them, but a large number of people do. Because the people using ATV's will not self police themselves, the rules have to change.

In Colorado, where this is being looked at, there are already rules in effect that take handicapped hunters into consideration and allow them to use vehicles for hunting. I'd be willing to bet that same rule will be enacted in this case.

Bottom line, peole are getting lazy. Nobody wants to have to hunt for their game. They want to ride around on some mechanical contraption, making noise and disrupting everything. This will make them park the machines, get out on foot, actually hunt, and maybe learn to pack their game out at least part of the way on foot.

Seems like a good plan to me. I'm all for it.


Mac