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we have 1.5 million alligators in this state

Excellent point. If you in Florida want to be overun by gators, all the power to you. You are complaining to the wrong fellow. We do not want the same thing happening here with wolves.

But the question is begged; do gator numbers promote hunting? Do gator numbers threaten other hunting opportunities? If they expand and promote hunting and do not threaten other hunting opportunities then I say you have a great resource. Use it and manage it. Such is NOT the case with wolves in Idaho.

you speak of the destruction of hunting,

I beg to disagree. As has been flatly agreed with by several wildlife managers I have spoken to here, I am speaking about the protection of hunting as a culture, not the restricted Royal Right you seem to favor or don't favor but are being deluded into promoting. The hunting culture I seek to protect is the culture that can be sustained and perpetuated generation after generation. Wolf introduction threatens that culture.

because like it or not we out of staters fund your game dept.what is the cost of your elk tag compared to an out of stater,and most of the land is classed as federal not state.

It is true to say that you out of staters provide substantial funds to our Game Department. And those funds are seriously threatened by wolf introduction. I have been speaking to several IF&G Dept officers recently about this very topic, and their very real concern is that they know that wolf numbers are devastating several elk herds right now, and reduced elk means reduced out of state hunters and thus, reduced revenue to the Department. Yes, out of state hunters do in fact contribute substantial funding to the Department, and that funding will drift away as elk hunting opportunity also diminishes, a diminishment everyone agrees will occur as a result of wolf introduction. Remember one thing, though I myself favor the irradication of wolves in Idaho, THAT will not occur under the current plan the state is trying to get passed in the face of resistance by freak environmental groups. It is possible that we can live with the Federal quota of 30 breeding pairs, but the IF&G knows they must manage to numbers in excess of that in order not to trip the ES Act and thus relisting of wolves. Instead of merely letting IF&G manage the wolves, the political field is muddy, complicated and full of mischief from wolf lovers from sea to shining sea.

Also as regards the funding issue, the IF&G department knows that out of state wolf tags sold will never replace the value of the multiples of elk tags they threaten and will in fact reduce the purchase of. Funding IS an issue, and wolves will COST the Game Department dearly, and do nothing to replace the cost they incur.

Compensation funds for domestic stock losses are already severely limited. Remember, we already HAVE coyotes, cougar and bear. There is a state fund the IF&G manages. Wolves will contribute heavily to the syphoning of dollars from that fund while in no way replacing those funds with tags sold. Wolf introduction is bad from stem to stern. And it is just as preposterous for hunters to support the notion that wolves will bring in "photography tourists" who will inject dollars to the state. In the first place, wolves are difficult to find to see. Tourists and tour guides will figure that out after a time. Secondly, these tourists, if they do indeed show up, will not provide funds to the Game Department at all.

You speak of the absolute truth about land ownership in a general sense. That is precisely why my compromise above is not meant to be a rhetorical statement, but rather a workable and realistic approach.

I am full of the knowledge that my personal desire {irradication of wolves in Idaho} is not going to happen. At the philosophical level I want them gone. At the political level I am well aware that the sooner we get them out of the hands of the Feds and into the management hands of IF&G the better.

lets just vote out the game departments and go back to the way we were.

I'm beginning to think you may be merely a troll on this issue.

why should anyone tell me when and where i can hunt no matter whose land its on it does not belong to the land owner.

Why? Because the last time I checked, at least some property rights still existed in this country. I think you speak rhetorically or in jest here.

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What are the Rosary, the Cross or the Crucifix other than tools to help maintain the fortress of our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

Edited by 9ThreeXFifty7 (05/03/08 03:24 AM)

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