This month, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s 19 appointed members will make a decision that will affect future fish-and-game management. They are scheduled on Feb. 27 to announce their approval or disapproval of proposed changes to hunting and fishing regulations for the 2014-15 season, including one that may reflect a sea change in how the agency manages public resources.
What brought this to a head was a bear-hunting case several years ago that caused the agency to review its regulations and decide that hunters who run bears with dogs can release hounds near baited areas. Bowhunters pointed out that they also paid for bear tags but couldn’t arrow bruins near bait. Then outfitters and guides — who also described the law was “inequitable” — saw an opportunity and pressed their case to several commissioners. Those commissioners floated a proposal to allow still- or stand-hunters to hunt with any weapon around bait. After public comment from sportsmen across the state in January, the Commission is scheduled to vote at its next meeting to okay or reject the bear-baiting law change.
Which way that rabbit jumped isn’t the main concern. It’s where the idea originated and what this type of proposal means to the future of hunting all game species.
From our vantage point, what has occurred is the adaptation of the European-style concept of wild game, not as some have suggested, a profit motive — although, say, $10,000 or more for a 500-pound bear from client to guide/outfitter certainly is in play. It indicates a desire to return to our feudal past when landed gentry (lords) once were entitled to set the rules because, well, they felt entitled and believed any wildlife on their land was owned by them, not the grungy public.
Americans sometimes cite this philosophy as the “golden rule” — the ones with the gold make the rules. Apparently, some commissioners don’t get the tongue-in-cheek message. Although most of these guys don’t need money from well-heeled clients, four commissioners who own land in eastern North Carolina where black bears live want part of the final say in how they are managed.
This foolishness has been a long time coming, beginning when the Commission forced out the last trained biologist to serve as executive director. Staff employees have been re-assigned to other duties, including the most-veteran bear biologist. More disconcerting, only four trained biologists have served as commissioners since 1947, and this crop apparently didn’t recoil when managing bears for profit was proposed.
Ironically, these men almost certainly dislike the entitlement culture in the United States, yet in this case, entitlements for them are acceptable.
We hope North Carolina’s sportsmen stand firm against this minefield of change — and that a majority of commissioners listen.
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