More Red Tape for California Hunters

A new California regulation requires hunters to report tags--even if they were unsuccessful or did not hunt. See the announcement here.

This is a great example of how state agencies need to do a better job of explaining regulations--if we need this one at all. The announcement claims how important harvest and effort data are in wildlife managment. While we can see how recording the number of animals taken in a given season is important, what do biologists learn when a given number of hunters fail to harvest game?  Or is the whole point just to overburden hunters with more regulations? If there really is a scientific need to know how many hunters did not kill game, how about letting us know what it is?

Reaction from California hunters has been predictably negative. SoCalBowhunter wrote in his blog:

"The bad news is that it makes an already difficult and confusing system even more tiresome. Especially for the unsuccessful hunters. Why should they have to report if they didn't kill anything? To me that makes no sense and there is nothing like rubbing salt in the wound of having to eat tag soup.

"When I lived in NY, we went through similar changes, such as being able to submit our kill info via phone vs. having to mail it it. Calling it in made it very easy, saved some hassle and once it was done the NYSDEC had a digital record of it. I didn't mind doing it because the laws in NYS are much easier to follow and they try to work WITH you and not against you.

"In California I feel there is way too much political/private party influence. Plus, you didn't have to call in if you were unsuccessful.

"The other tough thing about this is that, as far as I can tell, it was just recently announced. No one mentioned this when I bought my tags, which would have been helpful. I wonder how many hunters will completely let this slip because it's so new and they weren't told about it. I hope the CA DFG is forgiving this first year."

Comments

There are hunter surveys in CO that do similar. The info helps hunters figure out their chance of a successful hunt in any given game unit by looking at the percentages of successful hunts for that unit and the number of days people spent hunting. Other info asked in the surveys entail how crowded the unit felt and how much they enjoyed the hunt. All this info allows our fish and game department to better manage for enjoyable hunting. From Som Sai on Tuesday, July 03, 2012 7:35 AM As a native of the great state of Indiana, I don't particularly have a dog in this fight, but your article "More Red Tape for California's Hunters" is misleading. The author J.R. Robbins writes how hard it already is to comply to California hunting law, which is true in my experience when compared to that of other states. A blogger from California is quoted as saying that the matter is even more difficult because the hunter cannot phone in his report. Well in the link provided in the article goes directly to a page in the Califonia Fish and Game website that details in simple instructions what I believe to be an even more convenient way than phoning. They allow online reporting. And this is not mentioned in the article. Also the author mentions that it is unreasonable to ask the hunters to report failure to fill tags and requests that California explain why this is necessary to promote the ecological health of the harvest species. I find that information to be self evident to those with even the smallest portion of common sense. Obviously, it helps the authorities keep a more accurate figure of the animals harvested, which would in turn increase the limit the next year. As a hunter I think that eating a little crow anonymously isn't so terrible to admit that I didn't fill a tag and then let another hunter have one extra the next year. I realize this is rather nit picky. I appreciate what the NRA does for gun owners. I just see the NRA as a representative of small town values and common sense in Washington and I'd hate to see it devolve into just another special interest lobby concerned with only its own agenda rather than the rights of the people it claims to represent. Propaganda is not honorable. We have to hold ourselves to a high level of journalistic integrity, even when our opposition does not. If we don't, then how can we point at the liars with three pointing back at ourselves? From Michael Thorson on Monday, July 02, 2012 10:06 AM

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