In regards to the printing of the regs in Spanish. It's not a waste of tax dollars it's more a waste of sportsman's dollars since they fund the better part of the G&F budget. Average AZ tax payers don't contribute a dime to the Department. But they feel they have all the say in the world about how it should operate. Having several of the largest anti hunting organizations call your state their home isn't all it's cracked up to be. Something few of the northwest and midwest states have to battle. Do a google on Sabino Mt. Lions and see what you get in case you think I'm blowing smoke.
I use to not get it... It took a few years after moving to AZ from Michigan but I get it loud and clear now. After traveling a bit for work and having discussions with other hunters and folks outside my state about immigration over the past 10 years it's been funny. Only two other states did I find folks that understood life as a border state. Texas and Florida. For example while sitting in a bar eating dinner in Orlando I was talking about hunting with a few guys that were in my training class when I brought up illegal traffic. The guys I was speaking with in this case were from ID, Iowa, PA, WI and AL. They didn't see any problems with illegals or trafficking of any sorts. Now clue of what was going on when I asked them. One said he caught something on CNN but that was it. Sure it wasn't in their back yards. They thought I was just 'paranoid' or blowing things out of proportion. For a laugh I then asked the bar tender how the Cuban thing is working out with Flordia... He laughed his a$$ off as he was listening to my stories thinking the same thing I was that folks don't get it. He chimed in that after years of meeting folks from out of state he too sees that few other state get whats going on with their invasions. Ya CNN and Fox News covers it every now and then but when the news folks leave the problem isn't over. The flood still takes place. Folks in Boston don't have a clue what happens at the border in AZ, CA, NM and TX. Why? I feel because they don't see it like we see it on such a regular basis. Only in the 10 o'clock news.
So by now some of ya got to say... here's another resident hunter just miffed at the world. Pissed off racists most likely. Uh.. no not really. Take a gander at this picture for a second... brought me to tears when I walked over the ridge to see it in person. Prime deer, javelina, and quail habitat ruined.
There are dozens of sites like this in Southern AZ. I have yet to walk a wash where I didn't see a back pack, blackened water jug or can of beans left from a human crossing through our forest illegally.
If I be so bold to ask... How many of you folks outside of AZ or any other border state have seen this happen to your local hunting grounds?
To me it's not a race thing at all. I don't care what race is doing it. We have laws against it and they need to be enforced. Again folks sitting in their cushy tree stands or blinds in some midwest state don't really care what happens to our local hunting grounds, do they? At least that's the sentiment I've gotten over my past 10 years of travels and discussions with hundreds of out of state hunters.
Now I'm just rambling with no point but to bitch... I'm done.
cmc
