Thursday, May 31, 2012

PostHeaderIcon Save Wisconsin Hunting Group Is Based In Berkeley, California

A few days ago I wrote a post about the Facebook group "Save Wisconsin Hunting" and the political firestorm surrounding it.  At the end I noted that we didn't know where the group was located but judging by the hunting photos used, it probably wasn't Wisconsin.  None of the hunters were wearing backtags.  Sure enough, today I find out the website The Daily Kos is behind it.  I would like to ask you, the deer hunter, do you think a website based out of Berkeley, California really cares about deer hunting in Wisconsin?

I would say the Daily Kos is left leaning, but that would be a huge understatement.  Their sole mission with this issue is to use it to garner votes from hunters against Governor Scott Walker.  It's yet another case of an organization trying to pit hunter against hunter to advance a cause that either hurts hunters or has nothing to do with hunting.

If you disagree with Governor Walker's politics on issues like collective bargaining, vote for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.  I'm not saying Governor Walker is "the" choice for governor.  I'm saying deer hunting should have nothing to do with who you vote for on June 5.  This "controversy" is a hoax.

1 comments:

2LaneIA said...

Hi Chris,

Regarding this: http://savewideerhunting.info/walkers_record.html

I would like to ask you, as a deer hunter, whether you know anything about Daily Kos, one of the biggest political blogs out there, with over 200,000 registered users, including hundreds in Wisconsin? Every month it has approximately 5,200,000 visitors, and approximately 1,400,000 of them are unique visitors. I found this with the Google thingy. You should try it. Have you looked at their site and seen the blogs from Wisconsinites who care just as much about their state as you do? You should.

As Dan Schmidt pointed out in your interview with him, hunting on public lands should not be a political wedge issue. But Walker has made it into one. Dan asked a good question: why appoint Kroll as the deer czar when there are plenty of out-of-state wildlife biologists with great qualifications? Why appoint a high-fence guy when there are available biologists whose careers are in public lands?

Walker is an advocate for privatization. You do not need to look any further than his appointment of Gunderson as Exec. Asst. at DNR, and Stepp as Secretary. Gunderson sponsored a bill that would have privatized thousands of miles of Wisconsin's waterways, (including portions of every trout stream in the state), by redefining "navigable waters" to deny public access to between one third and one half of Wisconsin's public waterways. Stepp said in a public meeting that she would be open to selling public lands, although that has been walked back for election purposes.

You should ask yourself: if privatization is off the table, what are these people doing in positions of power over public lands?

People of all political stripes are hunters and care about public land. Demonizing people who are worried about Walker's intentions, as evidenced by his appointments and his actions, does not contribute anything constructive to the decision hunters have to make about how to vote. I would argue that you should listen to Dan again and think about what he had to say about Aldo Leopold and the land ethic.

Best regards, and don't forget to vote.

Post a Comment

Connect With Us:

Check Us Out On Twitter

Followers