I don’t blame the bios at all in this province. I put a lot of the issues squarely on the shoulders of hunters. The hunting community should have a solid voice in this province but choose to not be involved in the political squeaky wheel and becoming a strong voice in which political ears have to listen to. Then when access issues, loss of habitat, or the messy business of hunting gets threatened there is no voice to help them. My opinion of this lottery is much the same as the draw system in place. There is so much priority out there to work itself through that the young person today will never see some of the fantastic opportunities you speak of.
But back to the original point of my post is that times are changing quickly and I feel that the Afga has been left far behind right now. If we have 100,000 people applying for draws and hunting licenses, why is there only 30,000 or so memebers? That’s my biggest issue. I say increase the cost of a wildlife certificate by 10 bucks and everyone is now a member. Put in place a fish certificate with the same process. You will increase revenue to afga far greater than this 10 bucks a ticket for a tag lottery. It’s run it’s course. Good riddance.
A question someone will ask me is why I’m not involved with this organization? Good question. I refuse to be involved with an organization that caters to cronyism. Albeit, they do some great work in regards to youth involvement in hunting and fishing, but that’s what they’re there for. They need to raise some money to hire some people to make hunting appealable to the youth. I remember when I first started hunting draws with my son and was explaining the draw wait times. He was all excited to get out there and he finds out he is going to need to wait 4, 5,10 years to draw tags. He chose bird hunting. Good choice and he likes it, he is still a big game hunter and participates in draws but has way less interest than when he was younger. I don’t know all the answers but you all remember what the definition of insanity is.
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