[TN-Bird] Re: Bluebird License Plate Response
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 19:18:55 -0600
Larry Marcum, Chief of Wildlife Division of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources
Agency, reported that $28,000 of the Bluebird License Plate earnings from
the Watchable Wildlife Fund was spent on the Elk Restoration Project during
2002.
Right there is a red flag to watch ! Someday they will claim they need to
harvest the surplus of the Elk population in Tennessee by having a hunting
season. But right now TWRA will say the Elk are for non-game wildlife
viewing.
Eventually they will say we look at the bears in the Smokies and elsewhere,
we love to watch deer and we count bobwhite, ducks, geese, grouse, turkey
and what-have-you on our bird counts so we can just as easily spend
watchable wildlife money on that. Then TWRA will say we go "watching" on
refuges and so they can spend it on paving roads.
Then TWRA will say they need to harvest the suplus of all that and pay their
people to ride four-wheelers throught the fields and stir them up so we can
"watch" them fly past and so hunters can "harvest" them after we get through
looking at them.
This is a major temptation for TWRA.
Maybe we should ask the legislature to form a TWWRA (Tennessee Watchable
Wildlife Resorce Agency) and start appointing more "wildlife watchers" to
the commission (TWWRC).
I am not against non-game people helping to pay. I am fully aware that
non-game and huntable species are something we all share in common. I
realize that hunters pay most of the bill. I realize that a really
significant number of wildlife viewers are also hunters and fishermen. I
realize that many of our birders have hunting and fishing licenses and hunt
waterfowl and big game and small game and will eventually hunt Elk.
I just don't like the way the legislature hit us up for more Bluebird tax
dollars just out of the clear blue for no good reason. They rewrote the
rules. I bet the hunting and fishing fees will not go up 20% this year!
I like truth and honesty in government (no matter how little we get). I
know that is a pipe dream but if the money
from Bluebird tags is for watchable wildlife, then we are starting to
stretch the definition to pay for big game programs in Tennessee and that
may be a serious question with a serious red flag for all of us -- birders
or not birders.
I'm renewing my Bluebird -- Watchable Wildlife -- tag this month under
protest.
The major part of that protest is to challenge everyone within sight of this
message to become watchdogs and to keep an eye on every penny and let TWRA
know we are watching and we expect the funds to be handled and spent in the
spirt of how TWRA asked us to buy into the tags and the fund and not in the
spirt of how they want to manage Elk.
I want to thank Larry Marcum for the good job his division does for the
widlife resources of Tennessee. I want to thank TWRA for their really great
job with non-game and endangered species. We are proud of them and proud of
what they do. But we would not be proud of ourselves as citizens of this
state if we do not watch carefully and ask our agencies and managers to be
accountable for what they do.
Larry Marcum was great to have provided this information and I hope we will
continue to see regular reports as to what is happening with non-game
wildlife. This accounting of the use of those funds is an important, valued
and appreciated statement. We didn't expect anything else from Larry or
TWRA -- even if we don't always agree on how to go about it. Thanks to
Larry and to Troy Ettel for posting it.
Let's go birding.....
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958
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