David Wright:

>Say what? If one of us is confused about this, it isn't me. I said
>nothing about rights of hunters on WRs. I brought up the public non-WR
>lands precisely because hunters did *not* pay for those lands: we are
>not beholden to hunters for them, and it's not "ungrateful" to question
>hunting on them.

Peggi originally brought up the issue strictly in regard to WRs and
my first round of posts were in that context.

I'm not saying you shouldn't've brought up this separate issue of
hunting on other public lands. In fact, I explictly said I didn't
mind talking about it.

I just want to make sure that folks understand that they really are
not the same issue. It may come across as confusing for folks who
haven't followed closely.

> Most of the acreage open to hunting in WA falls into
>this category.

Yes, but Peggi wasn't talking about that acreage when she originally
raised the issue, and I just want to make sure that people don't
think that I'm insisting that hunters have the same claim to non-refuge
lands that they do (in my opinion) to refuge lands that they mostly
purchased.

In other words, my first posts weren't prefaced with the caveat "of
course, I'm only speaking of such refuge lands" but I was writing
in that context. Now that you've raised this additional issue, I'll
try and make it clear which issue I'm responding to. I simply asking
you do the same.

>And yes, of course, there are historical and political reasons that F&W
>depts are focused on hunting. I criticized the way a part of Wash F&W
>handles one of its jobs, not to castigate the agency, but as another
>example of why we need the TWW or something like it (increase clout of
>nongame stuff)... can we just agree to agree on TWW?

Sure. Peggi and one other person made comments to the effect that
refuges shouldn't be hunted (or shouldn't be called refuges) - I've
been responding to the thread at large, not just your posts. I didn't
mean for you to take my responses personally.

I'm used to responding strongly in part because I keep stomping idiots
over in Usenet who challenge things like basic spotted owl population
ecology and the like in groups named things like "alt.fan.rush-limbaugh".
Tends to keep me in a "take no prisoners" mode of discourse...sorry if
I upset you.



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