Wolves & Teal, MWA & HFW, DNR Hypocrisy & Legal Consequences

[Fish Felon]

For the sake of how this would play out in court let's start with this,

That protection was lifted in 2012 in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and the states then created wolf hunting seasons which were criticized by animal rights groups.

And then replace the biased term animal rights with special interest,

That protection was lifted in 2012 in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, and the states then created wolf hunting seasons which were criticized by special interest groups.

And then consider that the MWA and the Concerned Duck Hunters are also special interest groups and replace wolf with teal,

That protection was lifted in 2014 in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan, and the states then created teal hunting seasons. In Minnesota special interest groups successfully lobbied to prevent a season from being opened.

It's interesting that within a little over a year the USFWS gave MN the authority to implement not just one but two hunting seasons they hadn't been able to hold for decades.

Wouldn't it be funny if on one the DNR barged ahead and then successfully argued in court they didn't need public input to open a hunt because they set ALL seasons based on current and future population sustainability goals from a science based management approach, and that public input is not scientific.......

.......and then refused to open a season on the other one while admitting they didn't have any reasons from a population and science based management standpoint and used public input in the form of a very non-scientific survey as the exclusive justification for being against holding a season?


That wouldn't just be funny that'd be a potentially huge legal quandry for them if anyone ever noticed the glaring legal discrepancy they set for themselves! All one would have to do is file a lawsuit against the DNR in the MN court of appeals and get Landwehr and his cronies on the stand and hold them to their own line of testimony from the 2013 case and they're absolutely dead in the water.

On top of that Howling for Wolves would most likely sue their azzes for discrimination and be awarded millions.

Thank god for the DNR's sake no one has done this or tipped off HFW!

[cstemig]

All it takes is for one voice to be heard by someone of interest (i.e. Elected Officials, Media, Hunting Groups, etc.) and action can start.

No government agency is beyond question of the tax payer, no matter what office it is. It usually takes a long time for government agencies to change, but nothing will happen unless someone starts it. Get something started, get some support, and have at it.

If nothing else works, claim to be a member of BLM.

[Fish Felon]

You better believe the action has already started. I'm in the process of deciding on what course of action to take.


What the DNR did was illegal by their own definition for how they set seasons in the 2013 court case. They will be held accountable for their actions.

[StuStiltman]

Ff, I applaud your efforts. Do you think anything will come from it?

[Fish Felon]

Yes, I think something will come from it. What that is I'm not sure.

I have a ten page letter (the first five were originally written to Landwehr) to Dr. Maureen Backett of Howling For Wolves. It details how the DNR was faced with a similar situation with new authority from the USFWS to hold a hunting season and their actions leading up to their decision. I'm guessing she's going to want to verify it's accuracy and when she does I'd be shocked if she doesn't pursue legal action.

When you review the 2013 case and the legal precedent the DNR set during it, the teal season was almost comical in that it appears they almost had to try to be as about-face in their decision making as they ended up being.

[Fish Felon]

Dr. Maureen Hackett,


There are some questions I have for the DNR that I feel you might also be interested in hearing answered.  In my opinion they are very pertinent to you and your organization.



When the USFWS offered MN, WI, MI and IA a teal season in 2014 the DNR opted to wait and see how that season went in the other states before deciding on having a season; which you ultimately still chose against even after extremely favorable results in those states that alleviated all concerns previously cited by the department.  When the USFWS offered MN, WI, and MI a wolf season in 2012 why didn’t you take a similar course of action and wait and see how the season went first in the other states?


Wolves are an apex-level predator with relative low-density populations that were not that long ago on the brink of disappearing from the lower 48 yet the department was extremely eager to implement a season at the first opportunity they had.  Blue-winged teal are the second most populous species of ducks on the continent numbering in the millions and significantly under harvested and when given the option for a teal season you were against it.  Explain why there seems to be an apparent discrepancy in the logic and reasoning behind the department’s decisions?


How does the department determine whether or not to manage a species from a public input standpoint or from a population sustainability standpoint based off of scientific research?


Why doesn’t the department use the same processes and procedures for all wildlife species when determining management plans and setting hunting seasons?


When the USFWS offered the option for a wolf hunt the DNR immediately chose for a hunt to take place despite negative public input and argued in court that the first and future hunts would be managed and balanced on long-term population sustainability goals because that is how all hunting seasons are set.  When the USFWS offered a season for blue-winged teal less than a year later, a species of duck that is at record high population levels and under harvested according to your department, you chose not to hold a season.  What factors lead to what seems like an apparent contradiction in the department’s actions?

[get-n-birdy]

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We need more of this!

I applaud you for calling them out on their games and pure bull shit.

Have hunted a few different states and I have always thought we squander so much in this state, groveling for scraps, when we could be on the top of the heap on so many levels. We are so blessed, but there's so much more we are missing out on because of a staunch conservative, idealistic, idiotic, brain numbingly arrogantly, overly educated, ignorant thought proccess. The rub for them is calling them out on the social and scientific based decisions they've gleefully used to whatever is "appealing" to them at the time. There's no comprehensible direction this agency is heading imo. They are trying to please both sides of the aisle, yet all the while forgetting what the 3 letters in their acronym stand for.

Remember you're trying to move a gigantic dinosaur, that doesn't like to change direction.

[Fish Felon]

Thanks!

Thank god for HFW. If it wasn't for them this teal season would be just more bullshyte they'd get away with if not for the legal precedence they created while defending the wolf season decision.

The sad part is how miserably they failed in using their own standard from the wolf season so shortly after for the teal season, because it was a great standard for how they should set seasons and operate as a whole.

'For species we are legally allowed to hold a season on, if the current population is high enough and there's no risk to sustaining future populations, then we're going to hold a season.'

What a great concept they should not have strayed from and slapped in the face. What the DNR needs to do is treat everyone like they treated HFW.

[Quack]

I would add there is 6o years of annual teal population data with every indication that the data will continue to be collected on an annual basis.

When they started the wolf hunt their population data was several years old and I don't know if they surveyed on any particular interval.

They also pushed the crane season with no baseline population data for local breeding numbers. Later they developed a crane specific survey, but that was after a whole lot more cranes were shot than they expected. And now they continue tighten the clamps on crane hunting.

[Bullet21XD]

The wolf season was appealing to like 20 people...ranchers in NW MN.


A teal season was unappealing to like 500...old, anti hunting, democrats from the metro masquerading as waterfowlers...


See why we don't have a teal hunt?