Pretty soon the bear baiting act will be up for vote on Nov. 2nd. This is a time when we all need to stick together as a group and help defeat the anti's. It does not matter if your a trapper, fisherman or just shoot trap. If we do not stick together united then we will be defeating ourselves.

Time to start getting the word out and let the non-Alaskan interest groups know how we stand. United!


03BEAR - An Act prohibiting the baiting or intentional feeding of bears.
Application was received in the Lieutenant Governor's Office on May 14, 2003. A copy of the application and signatures were sent to the Department of Law and Division of Elections on May 14, 2003. The Division of Elections determined that there were a sufficient number of sponsor signatures on May 19, 2003. Legal review was received from the Department of Law on June 11, 2003. The application was certified on June 18, 2003. Petition booklets were distributed to the initiative committee on July 1,2003. Petition must be filed by June 30, 2004. Petition booklets were submitted to the Division of Elections on January 8, 2004. Lieutenant Governor Leman certified the petition for this initiative as properly filed on March 8, 2004. The initiative will appear on the 2004 general election ballot.

Ray, Thanks for the response and the websites.
As you well know, it is a fact that most bears are so shy that you won't often see them in close enough for hunting purposes. It is also a fact that the best way to hunt for bear is to let him find you with his nose. Probably more bear, both black and brown, have been taken over the gutpile resulting from a successful deer, moose, caribou hunt than by any other means. We all thought that we were pretty good sportsmen when we did that... we were just taking advantage of the opportunity at hand to harvest the bear that were attracted by our successful hunt. Bear have been harvested in this manner for several thousand years.

I think that it is not a matter of hunting bear over a gutpile or over placed bait, I think that it is a matter of people losing touch with nature and hunting and the outdoors in general, and simply not understanding the strong instinct that many of us have to be picking berries and catching fish and hunting in the wind and the rain and the cold. These are people who eat chicken twice a week, but have never cut off one's head and watched it flop around like chickens do. They have also never milked a cow or used a hoe in a garden or hunted mushrooms or hulled walnuts. They are spectators to life and just don't know.
What they don't see is that they kill more game with their housing developments and urban expansion than we ever will with our guns. I think the only answer for us is to educate as much as possible, challenge the direction that society is taking, and live with our families for today.
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Are you aware that there is a venus fly trap that is native to Alaska but is mosquito sized and lives in the muskeg. Find one with your children and send it to show and tell. Then take your child's class on a field trip. Then show and tell all of the neat things that you know to those kids. Think about it .... this is where we start...
Ray.......... thank you