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CONSERVATION CORNER
(For the week of March 3, 2008)
Mississippi Sportsmen Held Hostage
by James L. Cummins

I have purchased a hunting/fishing license – and now a Sportsmen's license – since I was required to purchase one. Ted Nugent recently said, "A hunting license is a ticket to the ultimate health spa that the world has to offer." Well, the Mississippi Legislature is about to destroy the spa.

Some of the members of the Appropriations Committee are holding hostage my money –and your money – that has gone to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks to pay for fish and wildlife conservation. The Legislature is saying that if they don't get their baiting bill passed, our state's wildlife agency won't get the funding to pay for crucial programs. The Legislature is holding hostage the funding that goes towards not only providing good wildlife habitat, but providing places for people that can't afford their own place to hunt and fish or a place for outdoor recreation. But many of our legislators don't seem to care. Baiting is taking a priority over much more important causes like funding our public school system, fixing immigration or trying to help recover an economy that ain't exactly booming.

This brings up a question. If we pay license fees to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks for a specific purpose, why does the Legislature get to say how they will use it or if they get to use it at all? Can you picture me, at 42 years of age, working and asking my mother’s permission on how to spend my paycheck? Give me a break. Maybe the Legislature wants to take the sportsmen's dollars to help pay off the beef plant. If this is how the Legislature chooses to use our hard earned money, they certainly don’t need to be in charge of Mississippi’s checkbook. This system is broken and needs an overhaul.

All of this is over baiting for deer. Studies have shown no improvement in success rates for hunters using bait. How hard is deer hunting anyway? We can now use primitive weapons that are as powerful as high-powered rifles. I hunted over 35 times this past season and could have shot a deer all but maybe two times. If the Legislature is concerned about our state having too many deer, then they should consider allowing a tax credit for the processing of venison that is donated to food pantries to help feed Mississippians in need.

We already have a baiting bill that passed the Legislature last year and will be implemented by professional wildlife managers. Now this Legislature is trying to pass another baiting bill that will allow so-called hunters to hunt deer over a bucket of corn, which doesn't even provide the nutrition deer need. This is according to a recent article in Fair Chase, the magazine of the Boone and Crockett Club, which is North America's premier trophy hunting magazine. This baiting foolishness is not about trying to enable Mississippi to have a better deer herd. It is about trying to appease a few constituents that are trying to be armchair biologists.

This bill will have a devastating effect on farm supply stores. Instead of buying seed, lime, fertilizer and tractors and spending dollars on habitat, people will spend money on corn.

This year’s baiting bill (H.R. 1089) is before the Mississippi Senate this week. Tell Lt. Governor Phil Bryant and your senator that we already have a baiting bill that will be implemented correctly and we don’t need another one; furthermore the legislature needs to be spending their time addressing more serious issues. You should also remind them that if all hunters and anglers living in Mississippi voted, they would equal 77 percent of all votes cast in the state.