I quit the RMEF when they endorsed reintroducing wolves. That was not in the best interest of elk or of hunters.
KC
I don't remember that...but my memory is not the best these days. Can you back up your statement?
Hunt41Ram:
You have to go back about thirty years. The idea of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone was a common topic for some time previous to that but it didn't really get legs until the mid 1990s. It was a controversial subject even then and it was not certain that it would ever take place. One of the organizations (along with all of the tree huggers) that supported the reintroduction was RMEF and their support was one of the primary factors that allowed the feds to finally accomplish the politically controversial effort because they claimed to be acting in the name of sportsmen and hunters and for the greater benefit of elk and their over herd health. They membership took a big hit immediately after that.
They have changed their tune now that it's obvious that their previous support for reintroduction was a mistake, that it did not benefit elk or hunters. But those of us who lived through it remember.
That is too long ago to find any articles about that subject. But I lived through it. I saw what they did and so did a lot of other hunters who are still around to testify about it.
KC
These discussions seem to always head down this same path. Someone makes a BS claim, then when asked to support it, they come up with the "dog ate my homework" reply.
As a side note, I lived through "it," too. I'm still living "it" today. I was in a lot of the meetings right here in my back yard when the topic was being discussed. Not a single hunter-conservation group stood up and advocated for the wolf reintroduction; not RMEF, not any group that was hunter-based.
I'm still around to testify about "it." Your story, and it is a story, is fiction. Funny I don't remember seeing you at most those meetings where RMEF would have stated their supposed support, but maybe I missed seeing you. I don't remember you being on a lot of the conference calls where RMEF would have stated their supposed support, but maybe you were just being quiet. I don't remember seeing your at any of the public hearings where RMEF would have stated this supposed support, but maybe you were just standing in the back taking copious notes about RMEF. I do remember seeing some RMEF folks there and they were not supporting the wolf reintroduction.
RMEF, like a lot of others in the WY, MT, ID area, probably saw the writing on the wall; that we were getting wolves, whether we liked it or not. For me and many others, it became a process of getting the best possible deal out of that unwanted eventuality. No hunters I saw were advocating for wolves. Maybe you were here and maybe you saw a different group of hunters than I saw.
Again, post what you have to support your claim. The wolf reintroduction process was in 1994-1995. Google has indexed documents going back long before 1994, so if it exists, surely a quick Google search will find the documents supporting your claim. If such formal position existed, it is somewhere on Al Gore's world wide web.
