At 1:26 PM -0500 01/03/1998, PAGODROMA wrote:

>Most of us I believe would have no problem coughing up
>a few bucks now and then to legally visit all these wonderful and often birdy
>locations as long as it is kept simple.

I agree completely. The main problem (maybe even the *only* problem) is
how incredibly inconvenient it is to get one of these things. Kind of like
tracking down repair parts for a 1947 Bendix.

The most convenient shopping area to my house is downtown Bellevue. To my
knowledge, hunting/fishing/conservation licenses have not been available at
any of the hundreds of retail outlets there since Ernst closed its sporting
goods department many years ago -- and now Ernst is gone altogether. There
is an Eagle somewhere over north by the railroad tracks, if you can find
it, and if you can park once you get there, and if you can locate the right
counter inside the store -- an experience analogous to asking someone in
France, in Danish, how to get to Bulgaria). I go there maybe once every
eighteen months, and it's worth a whole morning to do it. There's said to
be a K-Mart somewhere on the way to Crossroads, but I haven't seen the
inside of a one of those places since hitting the one in Thief River Falls
on a June evening in 1987 when it was 105 degrees, to buy a pair of
swimming trucks to cool off in the motel swimming pool. All of those
detectives patrolling the aisles, as if they assumed every customer was a
probable shoplifter, is a great retail turnoff. Plus the odds are better
than even of having your car broken into while you're under surveillance
inside the store.

What about selling these licenses at REI and similar stores, as was
suggested in the earlier thread? Places where outdoor recreators other
than hunters and fisherfolk actually go on a regular basis? Or Audubon
nature shops and Wild Birds franchises?

Anyway, we're all on the net. Couldn't WDFW make it possible to get your
conservation license from a web site?

Hello, Olympia! Are you there?

Hal Opperman