Peggi:

>Actually, Don, it wasn't the hunters I was complaining about. It's Fish &
>Wildlife. The more licenses they sell, the more money they make.

I doubt very much that many additional licenses were sold due to the
extension. In fact, the extension wasn't even a surprise - hunters
have been taking fewer duskies in recent years, apparently the id
classes, etc have paid off to a degree. ODFW makes it clear that if
the dusky take runs ahead of the estimate, they'll stop the season
early, and if it runs behind, consider additional hunt days.

So, any claim that they added hunt days in order to sell more licenses
is kind of strange, to be honest.

In some past years, they've cut days.

>Secondly, they should have used some common sense in designating the date of
>the special season. A great deal of waterfowl hunting in this area is done
>at Fern Ridge Res.

Are the waterfowling areas open? Where clashes are a problem, generally
they close areas to the non-hunting public on hunt days.

>I knew they were responsible for private refuges, but I
>didn't realize they were also responsible for public ones.

Yes, and this is why they have primacy on many state and federal refuges.
Money is raised via the excise tax on guns and ammunition - a tax passed
at the instigation of hunters, something to remember the next
time you hear a birder bitch about hunting and in the same breath
bitch about the "Teaming with Wildlife" proposal to tax binos and
the like for acquisition of non-game refuge lands (I'm not accusing
you of this, BTW). Hunters pay their way, we don't - we're guests
on land they've bought, for the most part, when we bird on refuges.

So, when land gets bought with our excise tax, we can rightly complain
about lack of attention to non-game species on many refuges. Until
then we ought to be thankful that Congress has thus far had the good
sense not to make hunting the #1 activity on all refuges (as the
recent NRA-sponsored legislation I mentioned moving towards).

This excise tax money goes to federal and state land acquisition
programs.

Money is also raised via duck stamps, which are mostly bought by
hunters.

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, at http://www.xxxpdx.com/~dhogaza