MT Legislature - Week 10

[Ben Lamb]

A day or two late, but we're rocking and rolling. Keep fighting ,and keep those comments coming in. The volume has been kicked up.


House FWP

17-MAR-11

HB576 - Reclassify mountain lions as predators - Bill Harris

SB124 - Reorganize and recodify fish and game criminal statutes - Rick Ripley

SB144 - Revise laws governing translocation of bison; prohibit free-roaming bison - John Brenden

SB174 - Prohibit state funds for movement or relocation of bison to Spotted Dog WMA - Gene Vuckovich

15-MAR-11
SB118 - Revise laws on leasing of outfitter/guide equipment to include contracting - Larry Jent

HB607 - Clarifying procedure for sale of B10 nonresident big game combo licenses - Jeffery W Welborn

SB160 - Allow off-highway vehicles on designated roads/trails in state parks & FAS - Chas Vincent

SB43 - Revise the primitive parks act - Jim Keane



Senate Ag
17-MAR-11
HB318 - Ensure county oversight in movement of publicly-owned wild buffalo or bison - Wendy Warburton

Senate F&G

17-MAR-11

HB335 - Provide accompaniment penalty in addition to fish & game privilege loss - Mike Menahan

HB449 - Revise penalties for unlawful introduction of fish - Mark Blasdel

SB390 - Revise laws related to wildlife population management funding - Llew Jones

15-MAR-11

HB144 - Revise FWP licensing laws related to large predators - Ted Washburn

HB172 - Revise laws related to hunting of grizzly bears - Ted Washburn

HB536 - Repeal registration for sale of grizzly parts - Kelly Flynn

SB402 - Provide for spring wolf hunts - Joe Balyeat

 

[Ben Lamb]

SB 402 passed out of committee unanimously.

 

[onpoint]

Wow, 67 views.....good thing you responded to yourself. Not even a wolf hunt got 'em going. Don' t worry, at least a couple stubborn SOB's will be with it till the end with ya... 5 comments on the legislative hotline yesterday, some rather futile legislative conversations with co-workers today, on here... Still one month to go, Ben, hope you have a teddy bear. Or can drink without alcoholic consequences.

 

[tjones]

Ohh we are still working it, just lots of irons in the fire and its a damn hot fire.

 

[shoots-straight]

I didn't fight SB402 I didn't think it to be unfair to ask for a hunt in the spring if the fall hunt didn't take place. So lets see, 3 out of 100.

I saw a lack of attention to HB 309. Hum?

 

[Drake4]

Just because we aren't posting on here doesn't mean the fighting has stopped. I'm still writing.

 

[Ben Lamb]

I figured that everyone was either drunk like I was, or was working overtime.

HB 309 comes up for Executive Action on Thursday. There is some talk of amendments, but no amendment can make that bill palatable. KILL THE BILL!

SB 402 is a good bill. The committee amended it to exclude pups and females w/ pups. I didn't think the amendment was necessary since FWP has rule making authority, and no ethical sportsmen or woman would harvest those animals anyway;. but so it goes.

 

[Horn Seeker]

Yeah, keep calling on 309. If you call more than once on the same bill does it count? I have called 5 times on that one....

 

[onpoint]

I figured that everyone was either drunk like I was, or was working overtime.

HB 309 comes up for Executive Action on Thursday. There is some talk of amendments, but no amendment can make that bill palatable. KILL THE BILL!

SB 402 is a good bill. The committee amended it to exclude pups and females w/ pups. I didn't think the amendment was necessary since FWP has rule making authority, and no ethical sportsmen or woman would harvest those animals anyway;. but so it goes.

SB 402 is one I thought would raise some discussion of support for....treating elk populations as disease vectors is akin to taking away our stream access.......unnacceptable

 

[Ben Lamb]

SB 237 is Arthurn's Test and Slaughter bill. It has been refered to House Agriculture.

 

[tjones]

Does Hinkle still have a job?

HELENA, Mont. -- Senator Greg Hinkle is standing by comments he made Monday, when he compared Montana's medical marijuana problem to the tsunami in Japan.

Hinkle said if the current marijuana law isn't fixed, Montana will be "faced with a tsunami that is going to make what happened to Japan look mighty small."

NBC Montana caught up with the senator to set the record straight.

"When that tsunami came into shore, they really had no idea of what was going to happen and it overwhelmed them," explained Hinkle.

"I believe the same situation is happening in the state of Montana and the United States of America with the drug problem. It's getting larger, there will be lives lost and there has been lives lost."

 

[onpoint]

Does Hinkle still have a job?

HELENA, Mont. -- Senator Greg Hinkle is standing by comments he made Monday, when he compared Montana's medical marijuana problem to the tsunami in Japan.

Hinkle said if the current marijuana law isn't fixed, Montana will be "faced with a tsunami that is going to make what happened to Japan look mighty small."

NBC Montana caught up with the senator to set the record straight.

"When that tsunami came into shore, they really had no idea of what was going to happen and it overwhelmed them," explained Hinkle.

"I believe the same situation is happening in the state of Montana and the United States of America with the drug problem. It's getting larger, there will be lives lost and there has been lives lost."

Keep in mind, he won a simple majority election...

 

[lamdilligaf]

SB 402 is a good bill. The committee amended it to exclude pups and females w/ pups. I didn't think the amendment was necessary since FWP has rule making authority, and no ethical sportsmen or woman would harvest those animals anyway;. but so it goes.

Ben, I have been called an "ethical sportsman" a time or two, but given a legal wolf tag I wouldn't hesitate a second to kill a female with pups. In fact, I would make it a priority, if possible. The key issue is immediate wolf population reduction in certain areas, if you want anything left of the game herds. I'm not anti-wolf, provided their numbers are kept at resonable levels. We're about 8 years past that point. I'm am anti-"stuff this unregulated, government sponsored wolf program down my throat crap". If that makes me unethical in your book, then you need your definitions rewritten.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Maybe that amendment was a good thing then.

 

[tjones]

Keep in mind, he won a simple majority election...

Yep,,,just hoping they ran him out of town.

 

[shoots-straight]

Ben, I have been called an "ethical sportsman" a time or two, but given a legal wolf tag I wouldn't hesitate a second to kill a female with pups. In fact, I would make it a priority, if possible. The key issue is immediate wolf population reduction in certain areas, if you want anything left of the game herds. I'm not anti-wolf, provided their numbers are kept at resonable levels. We're about 8 years past that point. I'm am anti-"stuff this unregulated, government sponsored wolf program down my throat crap". If that makes me unethical in your book, then you need your definitions rewritten.

Mark this post up as time #3.

 

[lamdilligaf]

Mark this post up as time #3.

Care to explain yourself Robert.

 

[mdunc8]

Ben, I have been called an "ethical sportsman" a time or two, but given a legal wolf tag I wouldn't hesitate a second to kill a female with pups. In fact, I would make it a priority, if possible. The key issue is immediate wolf population reduction in certain areas, if you want anything left of the game herds. I'm not anti-wolf, provided their numbers are kept at resonable levels. We're about 8 years past that point. I'm am anti-"stuff this unregulated, government sponsored wolf program down my throat crap". If that makes me unethical in your book, then you need your definitions rewritten.

How is making any animal suffer ethical? I don't have a problem with someone wasting their tag on a pup the following fall if they want. Just like shooting a nice tender elk calf. It's a whole 'nother ballgame when you leave them to waste away.

Whether you like it or not. Wolves are here to stay. If you want to keep management in the states' hands, it would probably be wise not to undermine the plans they put in place. There's nothing better than a bunch of hunters running around the woods executing their own management plans.

 

[lamdilligaf]

mdunc8,

I think the time for pleasant solutions to the wolf problem has passed. It certainly would not be easy to swallow leaving pups to starve, but it would have an effect on the numbers. I think that the 15,000 elk that have been lost in the northern yellowstone herd probably suffered a fair amount themselves, as well as the lost elk and deer in the upper bitterroot and throughout western Montana. Watching wolves kill and feed on still alive animals leaves a person to wonder where exactly "suffering" fits in this scenario. I myself would rather starve to death than be eaten alive. Either way, the whole problem is way past that at this point.

 

[tjones]

Liberal hunting seasons in the Bitterroot for 6 years and restrictive lion seasons had as much to do with declining big game numbers as the wolf did.