Post by Woody Williams on Nov 15, 2005 7:34:26 GMT -5
State effort to close game farm met head-on by irate hunters
By PHIL POTTER, Tri-State Outdoors
November 13, 2005
Hoosier hunters tossed the Indiana Department of Natural Resources a curve ball when they showed that they do know how to write. Last week, the popular Meyer Game Farm was closed by order of the IDNR for operating too close to a public area. Irate individuals took pens in hand and wrote their displeasure to the IDNR and state elected officials. Those efforts have helped save Meyer Game Farm for at least another year. The IDNR has granted an emergency extension of operations until it can resolve the boundary issue.
All who worked in support to save Meyer deserve credit, but the game farm still could be forced to close or operate in another manner. To ensure that preserves stay in perpetuity means continuing the flow of petitions and letters to force the end of the 5-mile perimeter the IDNR imposes around its lands.
Sportsmen should be willing to settle for some reasonable buffer zone, but none more than one mile from IDNR holdings. Now also is a good time to question the logic of the IDNR banning bird dog field trials at Glendale Fish and Wildlife Area and the legislation that makes domesticated deer raising and shooting a criminal offense.
Pen-reared animals, birds, amphibians and fish of all species aren't wild creatures, but have descended from such.
Anything that is reared under a recognized farming operation has been domesticated and shouldn't come under IDNR jurisdiction.
While pursuing totally wild things in a totally wild environment is the true essence of hunting, those opportunities are disappearing because of human overpopulation. That means controlled access and controlled opportunities are the last lines at sampling any essence of the outdoors. This also means hunting in the future will cost many more dollars and will most likely be in fenced or cordoned areas.
It also means that no one who enjoys bagging a buck or a brace of birds should be denied this privilege because it lies in fenced or boundaried areas that some deem too small for hunting.
Imagine owning 100 acres that is more long than square. That's about a half-mile long and that is one big pen.
The urge to hunt can be modified but cannot be denied.
When the vast buffalo herds were gone, Plains Indians often chased and shot government-provided longhorn cattle in a symbolic form of hunting the lost buffalo.
Present-day hunters need to understand that each time legislation takes away part of this heritage, everyone loses.
www.courierpress.com/ecp/pro_sports/article/0,1626,ECP_750_4234599,00.html
By PHIL POTTER, Tri-State Outdoors
November 13, 2005
Hoosier hunters tossed the Indiana Department of Natural Resources a curve ball when they showed that they do know how to write. Last week, the popular Meyer Game Farm was closed by order of the IDNR for operating too close to a public area. Irate individuals took pens in hand and wrote their displeasure to the IDNR and state elected officials. Those efforts have helped save Meyer Game Farm for at least another year. The IDNR has granted an emergency extension of operations until it can resolve the boundary issue.
All who worked in support to save Meyer deserve credit, but the game farm still could be forced to close or operate in another manner. To ensure that preserves stay in perpetuity means continuing the flow of petitions and letters to force the end of the 5-mile perimeter the IDNR imposes around its lands.
Sportsmen should be willing to settle for some reasonable buffer zone, but none more than one mile from IDNR holdings. Now also is a good time to question the logic of the IDNR banning bird dog field trials at Glendale Fish and Wildlife Area and the legislation that makes domesticated deer raising and shooting a criminal offense.
Pen-reared animals, birds, amphibians and fish of all species aren't wild creatures, but have descended from such.
Anything that is reared under a recognized farming operation has been domesticated and shouldn't come under IDNR jurisdiction.
While pursuing totally wild things in a totally wild environment is the true essence of hunting, those opportunities are disappearing because of human overpopulation. That means controlled access and controlled opportunities are the last lines at sampling any essence of the outdoors. This also means hunting in the future will cost many more dollars and will most likely be in fenced or cordoned areas.
It also means that no one who enjoys bagging a buck or a brace of birds should be denied this privilege because it lies in fenced or boundaried areas that some deem too small for hunting.
Imagine owning 100 acres that is more long than square. That's about a half-mile long and that is one big pen.
The urge to hunt can be modified but cannot be denied.
When the vast buffalo herds were gone, Plains Indians often chased and shot government-provided longhorn cattle in a symbolic form of hunting the lost buffalo.
Present-day hunters need to understand that each time legislation takes away part of this heritage, everyone loses.
www.courierpress.com/ecp/pro_sports/article/0,1626,ECP_750_4234599,00.html
