Pardon me for not having reported excitedly in August about an executive order regarding hunting and fishing from President George W. Bush.
As a matter of review, Executive Order 13443, President Bush's Facilitation of Hunting Heritage and Wildlife Conservation, is supposed to “extend a long history of collaboration between hunters and the federal government.”
Considering the way we as hunters and fishermen have to battle for every bit of access we get, for every right guaranteed us by the Constitution, Bush's order looked to be just another example of a beleaguered, departing administration looking for some at-the-buzzer legacy.
I remember Steve Conwell of the San Diego County Wildlife Federation telling me he was having trouble just getting bureaucrats in various agencies locally to even acknowledge that there was such an executive order from President Bush.
Nice when the lame-duck boss talks and no one listens.
Where was this executive order five, six years ago, at a time when it would have meant something?
President Bush certainly has been an ally for hunters and fishermen, and I understand he's been preoccupied with more important issues than hunting and fishing. But really, what took him so long to do this?
Bush's executive order was, or is, supposed to ask various agencies to:
Evaluate trends in hunting participation and implement actions that expand and enhance hunting opportunities for the public.
Establish short-and long-term goals to conserve wildlife and manage wildlife habitats to ensure healthy and productive populations of game animals in a manner that respects state management authority over wildlife resources and private property rights.
Seek the advice of state fish and wildlife agencies, and, as appropriate, consult with the Sporting Conservation Council in respect to Federal activities to recognize and promote the economic and recreational values of hunting and wildlife conservation.
On Friday, Vice President Dick Cheney completed a two-day “White House Conference on North American Wildlife Policy” in Reno, Nev. The conference, demanded in President Bush's executive order, drew about 500 men and women from the American Wildlife Conservation Partners. That group represents wildlife and hunting conservation organizations, the outdoor industry, landowners, local, state, tribal and federal resource managers.
The big announcement was that the government is going to sponsor a new incentive payment program through the old Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to landowners who allow public hunting access on their property. It's expected to open an additional 7 million acres of quality wildlife habitat for hunting. We'll see.
In a perfect world, government agencies work with non-government organizations like Safari Club International, Quail Unlimited, or locally, with members of the San Diego County Wildlife Federation, and form a strong alliance.
Unfortunately, that utopia seldom is reached, if ever, and it's going to take more than an executive order from a lame-duck president, a very unpopular one at that, to make a difference.
It's probably going to take more than $3-an-acre incentive for landowners in the CRP to accomplish anything close to what hunters need.
What we are left with here from this conference is a “preliminary 10-year Recreational Hunting and Wildlife Conservation Plan,” one that hunting organizations will be able to carry on after President Bush is gone.
I truly hope we as hunters can use this parting gift from President Bush to improve wildlife, habitat and hunter access.
Problem is, many of the bureaucrats in these agencies didn't listen to President Bush when he was gobbling as the Boss Tom. Why would they honor his last gobble at legacy now?
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225; ed.zieralski@uniontrib.com
