WRC’s Myers: public comments will not erase e-mails, letters

District hearings begin across state in January

During January the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will hold its annual series of public hearings regarding proposed changes in 2009-10 fishing, hunting and trapping laws.

A source within the WRC has indicated verbal statements about these proposed changes made by sportsmen at the hearings will be checked against previously-sent e-mails or letters to the WRC. If a sportsman had sent a previous comment via e-mail or letter to the WRC and also speaks at the hearing, the source indicated a verbal statement will take precedence over any previous e-mail or letter and those e-mails or letters would be ignored. However, executive director Gordon Myers said no comments will be ignored.

“We’re going to hand out cards at the beginning of the hearings and ask sportsmen to fill out those cards, with their names and addresses, and to put any comments they might wish to make on those cards,” Myers said. “Some people may feel uncomfortable standing up in front of a group of people and speaking. I want to have every comment that we can about these proposals. We will ask the sportsmen to hold onto the cards through the meeting, write down their comments if they don’t speak, then turn in the cards at the end of the meeting with their comments. We will cross-reference comments (with e-mails and letters) but nothing will be deleted, at public hearings or from e-mails and letters.”

During 2008 the WRC emphasized at its web site and through news releases that sportsmen could make statements about proposed changes to 2009-10 fish-and-game laws via e-mails or letters.

The schedule for January’s 2009 public hearings is:

Jan. 5: District  4, Dublin,  Bladen Community College;

Jan. 7: District 5, Graham, Graham High School Auditorium;

Jan. 8: District 6, Norwood, South Stanly High School;

Jan. 13: District 8,  Morganton,  Municipal Auditorium;

Jan. 14: District  9, Sylva,  Southwestern Community College;

Jan. 15: District  7, Boonville,  Starmount High School;

Jan. 20: District 1, Edenton,  Swain Auditorium;

Jan. 21: District 2, New Bern,  Courthouse;

Jan. 22: District 3, Rocky Mount,  Nash Community College;

Jan. 28: District 3, Raleigh, WRC Headquarters, NCSU’s Centennial Campus (this hearing will be held at the Wildlife Resources Commission headquarters, 1751 Varsity Dr., Raleigh, to receive public comment on proposed regulation changes to depredation permits, non-game permits and controlled- shooting preserves).

The  news release and posting at the WRC web site regarding the Jan. 28 hearing in Raleigh has been altered from its initial form. The initial news release said in addition to discussing depredation and non-game permits and controlled shooting preserves, the WRC would consider “emergency powers of the Executive Director.” The statement about “emergency powers” has been removed from the WRC web site.

Myers said emergency powers of the director will deal with things such as outbreaks of Chronic Wasting Disease among cervids (deer, elk) that may occur suddenly at cervid farms (enclosures with deer and elk).

“The Commission) isn’t ready to do that (define emergency powers) until we do more with the stake-holders (cervid farmers and sportsmen) at physical meetings,” Myers said. “We need more input from sportsmen and the industry to determine what we do; we need to go over more ‘what-if’ scenarios. Those (emergency) powers will come before the sportsmen at public hearings at some point, just not this year.”

All meetings begin at 7 p.m. Sportsmen should note that some meeting sites, because of an expected high attendance, have changed from previous years