What section on the 13th is critical for hunters to show up for? The agenda says they're be discussing the spring bear hunt until the 21st.
A correction I should make, the 14th is the public comment day (with the 13th being the general discussions that we can view). No, we are not on the agenda for the meeting, but it is an open public comment session. This is the LAST one of those prior to the 21st when the special commission will be forced to vote on the BHA proposed rule to bring the season back based on lack of public notice and as such is the last chance you have to get your voice heard.
My proposed speech is below. I made a VERY clear decision not to call the opposition hysterical, or to accuse anyone of being emotion based. I wanted to focus on how this decision was based on inaccurate accusations about our hunt. Another theme worth exploring would be "budgetary considerations of conservation", hinging on drawing a specific line between those who have framed themselves as conservationist (anti-hunters) and those who fund the lions share of conservation efforts with their time and money (hunters):
Speech:
In the schools of Denmark, children were told to bring rye bread for lunch. If they didn’t, their teachers called their lunch unhealthy. This may seem insignificant, but it was part of a large push to denigrate immigrant cultures as not being appropriately “Danish”. Today anti-hunting groups that slander us as being “mama bear killing trophy hunters” are doing just that. These groups have told me that my food is not civilized enough, and tragically on November 19th 2021 four special commission members agreed with that message and took away one of my ways of feeding myself.
I’ve spent the last few decades trying to develop a close relationship to the land that feeds me. It’s been a progression from cooking to gardening, gardening to farming, and most recently farming to hunting. This relationship was best put into words by the hunter conservationist Aldo Leopold:
“
There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.”
We are in grave spiritual and physical danger on both counts. Physically, from climate change. and spiritually, from our disconnection with the land. I cannot view further disconnection to the land as progress.
Animals are destroyed or displaced to grow my vegetables, and the meat on my plate did not materialize within Styrofoam and plastic wrapping. As a hunter and farmer I have looked these costs in the eye and have become much less wasteful as a result. I became a conservationist through hunting. I would be willing to argue that case to anyone in any forum given the chance. But that chance was taken from us in relation to spring bear.
The rule change that ended our hunt as it still appears on the WDFW website makes no mention of the words
cancellation,
ban, or
outlaw. Nothing was said about the ethics of fair chase, nor any concerns brought up about the harvest of lactating sows. Had they been hunter conservationists would have been given an opportunity to speak up, to point out the science, and to demonstrate our ethical way of life. The disparity between what was proposed and what was done was vast enough to be a breach in public trust.
On January 21st the special commission has the opportunity to correct this. Before the vote is cast I’d like to remind each member that their mandate is to “…
preserve, protect and perpetuate fish, wildlife and ecosystems while providing sustainable fish and wildlife recreational and commercial opportunities.”
Forcing us to buy from the supermarket is not a part of that mission.
Thank you.
