2ND VICE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Second Vice President’sReport

Like every bowhunting season, this fall has been filled with emotional ups and downs. While sitting in a tree stand or a blind for endless hours, I often think about why we so passionately bowhunt. We endure harsh weather, unforgiving terrain, and self-imposed frustration while facing failure after failure. We, with great fervor and enthusiasm, pursue animals that have superior sight, hearing, smell and possibly even a sense or two that we do not even possess. In addition, we choose a difficult means by which to pursue these animals, the bow and arrow.

At least once a season, I question the sanity of those of us who choose this endeavor called bowhunting. This was no more evident to me than the last bowhunt I went on with my son, Mitchel. We were bowhunting in Newfoundland for moose and the archery season overlapped with the rifle season on our last day there. When the guide offered to loan me a gun for the last day of the hunt, I declined. I made the same offer to my 16-year-old son, who promptly refused and looked at me in disbelief that I would even make the offer. The strange thing is that he has never killed a moose. We were seeing moose almost every day and I believe getting within rifle range would have been a relatively simple prospect. Yet it was important to both of us to hunt with a bow or fail completely. Some might say they bowhunt to obtain great table fare. I love venison and it is the primary meat in our household. But I must admit a few things about this idea, I also like beef and pork. With the amount of money I spend on hunting trips and gear I could easily purchase enough meat to fill the freezer. Not to mention the amount of time I spend in the field…if I were to put as much effort and passion into a business venture, I am certain I would be a titan of industry or at least a rich man!

Truth be told, the reason that I bow

‘hunt is that it is incredibly difficult. I have heard it said that nothing that is worth doing is easy and that is the reason I bowhunt. Because every now and then when we send an arrow into the air and it finds its mark for a clean, ethical kill, we know we have done it the hard way.

Stephen LePage

Stephen LePage

Secretary’sMessage

Ihope that everyone had a great bowhunting hunting season. Sorry to say but this year my season did not pan out too well. But there is always next year.

I just received my absentee ballot a couple of days ago. Our elections are foremost on my mind. Given the ongoing Legislative and FW Commission battles, I am concerned that our hunting and fishing heritage is under attack.

By the time you read this we will have a better understanding of the Anti-Public Hunting/Fishing politicians’ strength in the Legislature and what their tactics may be. I suspect it will be ugly. Given the results of previous sessions and from the last tenatives debacle I am pretty sure there will be moves to allow private landowners the ability to sell big game tags. And I am also sure there will be attacks on stream access and public lands and their access. On a positive note, however, The Big Snowy Mountains Jerry Davis WMA was approved by the Land Board. Our Attorney General, Austin Knudsen was the lone dissenting vote. You may remember that Mr. Knudsen sponsored a crossbow bill for one of his constituents a few years back when he was a Legislator. All other members of the Land Board voted to approve the purchase. Kudos to them!! I hope you all have let them know you appreciate their vote.

I certainly hope that regardless of your political persuasion you took time to understand how your Legislators feel about protecting Montana’s hunting and fishing heritage. That includes keeping crossbows out of Montana’s Archery Only seasons.

As we all know, there is a movement afoot to privatize the citizens of Montana’s game and fish and to limit access to those resources. We are seeing this play out in the United Properties Owners of Montana’s lawsuit against FWP to remove wildlife management from the purview of the FW Commission and to put it under the authority of the Legislature.

Given what I predict will be an extremely volatile Legislative Session I will not be looking forward to it. Seems like moderates and compromise from both sides will be a thing of the past.

We already know that there will be another crossbow bill by Senator Molnar. I am sure that will be MBA’s main focus this Session. I am hoping that you, our MBA membership, can start talking to Legislators as soon as election results are final. Let them know that crossbows pose a serious threat to Montana’s iconic Archery Only Season.

I am guessing there will also be a lot of legislation trying to limit the FW Commission authority and moves to privatize Montana’s fish and wildlife.

I cannot overstate this, but it is the voters of Montana who continue to elect legislators who do not have our interests at heart. It doesn’t seem to matter to the Legislature as to what the majority of Montana’s hunters and fishers desire. Instead it seems to be all about money.

It is only the Montana voter who can take back control to ensure our hunting and fishing heritage remains.

As I alluded to above we’ll see how the elections go. Jerry Davis

Matt Seibert, CLCS

Sales Executive, Commercial Lines

406-321-0700

matt.seibert@hubinternational.com