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Everywhere you go now days, there is someone with a big badge of fear who thinks in his own mind that he has all the authority in the world to tell anyone, anytime, any place that they can’t camp here, walk there, hunt here, park here or there. There seems to be a rule or law preventing us from riding in our trucks, ATVs, motorcycles, snowmobiles, bicycles, skateboards, boats, roller skates, inner tubes, Para planes, and even gym shoes. I know that I didn’t name all because there are so many that nobody even knows them all. I believe that those people with a big badge of fear know that the question now days is not ‘if’ there is a law, rule, tax, fine, fee, or regulation on what you are doing, it’s ‘how many’.
I remember a few years ago I was in the Fish and Game office buying a license of some kind when a man stepped up to the front desk and asked if there were any laws, rules or regulations on catching crawdads in Strawberry Reservoir? I looked at him and said….”That was a dumb question to ask.” He looked at me and said, “Why?” I said, “You should have said, ”How many laws, rules, and regulations are there for catching crawdads, in Strawberry Reservoir?” Looking at the girl behind the desk he said, “Let me re-phrase that. How many are there?” The girl gave him a pamphlet with all the up to date rules he was to follow.
You know the funny thing about it is that crawdads were never to be in Strawberry in the first place, but now that they are laws have been made to keep total control over everything. The badges love to keep us in fear that we are going to break some kind of law. We are never given the freedom to act on our own.
I remember a few years back on another little hunting trip with a good friend. We were hunting coyotes down by Lake Powell on what is called the Lake Powell National Recreation Area. It is still legal to hunt and fish, boat, camp and enjoy nature on this area, but there is always a fear in the back of your mind that you might be breaking some law no matter what you are doing or where you are going. Anyway, we were just about back to our truck after making a coyote call and we were both packing our guns on our shoulders when down the road came a park ranger. I knew instantly that he would stop and confront us long before he even got to us.
As he stopped and got out of his truck with his gun on his hip, badge, uniform, red lights and a big siren on his truck - all these things were meant to put fear into our souls - he said, “What do you guys think you are doing?” I said, “Well right now I’m holding my 223 rifle enjoying the freedom of my second amendment rights that my dad fought Hitler and the Nazis for in World War II so we would have the freedom to do so…what are you doing?” By the look on his face I knew that he knew his fear tactics hadn’t worked so well.
He said, “I see you boys have guns.” I said, “Your eyes are good; are we breaking any laws?” He said, “No, but it’s not a good thing to be seen along this main road holding a gun in your hand because as people drive by it causes a bad reaction and we can’t have any bad reactions around here.” I told him that as soon as I saw him coming down the road I had a real bad reaction. We the people look at them and hope that maybe they could be a public servant and not just a big badge with a mean streak tied to everything they do or say. Maybe they could tone a few things down so we didn’t get such a bad reaction when we see them.
We asked him if he would have stopped and interrogated us if we had been riding bicycles. He said, “No.” What if we had been drug dealers but riding bicycles? I could tell we were making him mad and a little uncomfortable. He told us to unload our guns and put them up. I asked him again if we were breaking any laws. Again he told us no. I said, “If you will unload your gun and put it up we will put ours up.” He looked at us with disgust on his face and said, “You guys have a nice day.” Then he got into his truck and drove off.
I know I was being a little hard headed and I should have done what he asked but I am getting tired of all their fear and authority tactics. It seems that wherever I go I have some kind of confrontation with the boys in authority. I’m sure that almost every one of you who hunt, fish, or just try to get out and enjoy Mother Nature can relate to this. A very wise man once said, “We have learned by sad experience that it is the nature and dispensation of almost all men, as soon as they get a little authority, as they suppose, they will immediately begin to exercise unrighteous dominion over their fellowman.” Isn’t that so true! It is true yesterday, today, tomorrow, and forever.
A lot of the freedoms that my dad, your dad, your family, my family, your grandparents and mine fought for are gone today. Every time I go by a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) sign and read, “Your public lands at work,” I laugh! Just try to do anything on your public land and see how much is yours. I can’t think of too many things that don’t have a tax, fine, fee, law, rule, or regulation attached to it.
In the fall of the year I sometimes guide a few hunters for mule deer, and every year all the rules change a little. If I don’t keep up there is always a ‘fear’ in the back of my mind that someone could and would fine me for doing something wrong. About eight or nine years ago the government made all hunting guides buy a $500,000 insurance policy so if any of our hunters got hurt hunting on their land, they would be covered. Last year the BLM raised the insurance policy up to one million dollars. This is OK I guess; just part of doing business in today’s world. But just try to get through all the red tape and jump through all the hoops.
Last year I tried to do all the right things. I called the head lady in the Kanab office telling her that I had bought the insurance policy and needed to get with her. She referred me to a Mr. Eddy in Canyonville at the new Grand Escalante Staircase Visitor Center. She told me he would fix me up. I drove from my home 220 miles, one way, to Canyonville, Utah. I arrived there around 9 a.m. only to find out that Mr. Eddy had left for the town of Escalante some 30 miles away.
We call and tell the front desk in Escalante that I will be there in 30 minutes to meet with Mr. Eddy. When I arrived and presented myself at the front desk, the lady tells me the Mr. Eddy has gone for coffee and will be back in a little while. I sat in his office for almost two hours waiting for him to get back from his coffee break. At 11:30 three people in a government car drove up. The coffee break was finely over and the main man is finely on the job. We went back into a little office and I told him what I needed, showing him my BLM insurance policy for one million dollars. He told me that I couldn’t get a policy from the BLM for this year because I hadn’t handed all my paper work in the year before.
I asked him who came up with that one. I started to explain to him that most hunters won’t even contact hunting guides until after all the draws are done - only two or three months before the hunts start. Therefore we don’t even know whether or not we need the insurance policy. I hate to spend $1,000 for a policy I’m not sure I will even need to buy. He then tells me that if he does issue me a permit for this year, that I would be penalized and would not be able to get a permit for three years straight no matter what. So it would probably not be in my best interest to hunt on the BLM this year - your public lands at work.
I asked him why they had made this rule. He said – and this is a good one – “Because we don’t have the time to sit here and type up a permit just any old time you hunting guides think you need one. We have to have lots of time ahead in order to accomplish such an overwhelming task.” A public servant working for me? Managing ‘my’ public lands, for me? Anyway, I didn’t get a permit to hunt on BLM lands even though I had driven 500 miles - which had taken all day - and I had already spent $1,000 for their insurance policy. Here again they have made so many rules and laws that if we don’t abide by them we will be in trouble. Are we living in fear? Needless to say, I didn’t hunt on ‘their land’ that year.
Now, I’m not so naïve to know that most of the time we all put old number ‘one’ first in life. To protect our jobs, make more money, protect our retirement, health insurance, plus always trying to become more important and needed in all that we do, but when you are a public servant and your job every day is to serve ‘we the people’ and the people are paying them to do so, I think the people should be first in line. We should be ahead of fungus in the sand, or a lizard on a rock, or more important than a spotted owl somewhere in the trees. Why should there be so many laws, rules, etc…so that we can’t enjoy Mother Nature anymore? Is it easier to just quit, give up, and not do any of those things we love anymore? As I look through the new fish and game proclamation there are so many laws, rules, and regulations that no one, not even the best of attorneys in the world could ever even come close to understanding all ‘the right’ things one must do to ‘never’ get yourself into trouble. I’m sure there are thousands of people each year breaking thousands of laws and they are not even aware they are actually breaking a law, rule or regulation because there are thousands of laws, rules, regulations, taxes, fines, and fees and they all seem to have seven or eight rules or laws attached to them. They even have another book with addendums, laws, and rules over and above all the other laws and rules. WOW!! Talk about living in fear in every way on everything we do in the world of hunting. For example, just to name a few:
1. Permit requirements; 2. Firearms and archery equipment; 3. Areas with special restrictions; 4. Prohibited hunting methods; 5. Tagging, transporting and exporting big game; 6. Possession and use of big game; 7. Aiding and assisting; 8. Use of motorized vehicles; 9. Trespassing; 10. Administrative check points; 11. Poaching reported rewards; 12. Premium limited entry; 13. Deer hunting; 14. Dedicated hunters; 15. Elk hunting; 16. Pronghorn hunting; 17. Anterless Moose Hunting; 18. Once in a Lifetime Hunting; 19. Conservation Permits; 20. General season buck Deer Permits; the list goes on and on and on…
If you just take one of these like ‘Donating Big Game’ how many laws are there?
1. A person may only donate at the residence of the donor
2. The residence of the person receiving
3. A meat Locker
4. A storage plant
5. A meat processing place.
6. A written statement of donation must be kept with protected wildlife
7. The number of species of protected wildlife or parts donated.
8. The date of donation
9. The license and number of donor.
10. The signature of donor plus subsections and addendums.
You would think that since you bought and paid for a tag to kill a deer that if, when and where you killed that deer, it would be your deer. Yours to do with as you wish, as long as it is tagged properly. Not so!! As you can see there are now hundreds of laws to trip you up on something. To keep us all in fear and them in total power. Just think what your life would be like if the Fish and Game was over the food you eat, the bed you sleep in, how to shower, the clothes you wear, and the car you drive. Talk about rules and living each day in fear…
Almost weekly and hundreds of times over the past few years, a lot of people I know and many I don’t know at all, tell me of the harassment, bad confrontations, and unjust treatment they and their family have received from the Fish and Game. They have received unjust tickets and fines, been threatened and harassed. They tell stories of how ‘the boys’ have manipulated things around to get someone in their family into trouble of some kind. That some little minute fraction of all the thousands of laws that is in the books end up costing them thousands and thousands of dollars and over almost nothing.
They end up having to hire a lawyer and are run through the court system. Their names are always on the front pages of the paper for everyone to read about how bad they and their family have been at breaking four or five of their laws. In a magazine called the ‘Wildlife Review’, put out by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, autumn of regulations at Strawberry Reservoir. It states, “On June 22, 2003, 36 anglers received written citations because they were breaking some kind of law. Because we are all such law breakers, the number of officers working at the reservoir has been increased in a continued effort to ensure compliance with ‘all’ the regulations at the state’s most popular fishery.”
Here again is a prime example of so many laws and rules that we must be aware of and observe to just go on a family outing with Mother Nature, that it’s almost impossible ‘not ‘ to break some kind of law. I know this to be so true because I have been there…done that. I’m sure that almost all of you who have spent any time at all hunting, fishing or out with Mother Nature can tell of or have had a bad experience just doing what you love to do. If you sent them in and we printed all your stories we would have literally thousands to read. Not long ago I had a booth in a Hunting Expo where I displayed some of my big mule deer heads. I also was asked to give two lectures each day on my style of hunting. While I was sitting in my booth a Fish and Game Officer came over and asked me if I had killed all of these big bucks. I told him that I had and immediately he proceeded to tell me that nobody could kill that many big bucks without poaching most of them. Needless to say he and I, right then and there, got into a little tiff. He told me that ‘all’ of us hunters were lawbreakers, poachers, and for the most part disrespectful of the law. He said that he could drive into any hunting camp on any mountain and find numerous laws being broken or that had already been broken. He said it was his duty to bring all of us bad hunters to justice. There was a whole lot more said, but in a nutshell, I guess I learned that day how the Fish and Game really feel about us people who love to hunt and fish.
My father, who died a year and a half ago, fought in World War II for three years of his life. He fought in four major battles. He landed on Utah Beach and was on the front lines fighting for the freedoms that we all enjoy today. I still can remember him saying many times in my life that the same tactics and methods of dictatorship used by Hitler and his Nazis are practiced in many organizations and agencies here in America. Their desire is to have total control and power over all of us. They take away that freedom to govern ourselves. The only difference is that they don’t have a little mustache under their nose. Let me ask you this…Are we losing the freedoms that our fathers fought so hard for? It just seems to me that the message that the Fish and Game is sending to all of us who love to hunt and fish and enjoy Mother Nature is that we are so bad at protecting the environment we all love to be in, we are so bad at respecting our rights as Americans, that we are so bad at leaving everything as it was, and that we are just “plain evil, poaching no good law breakers.”
The badges have literally declared ‘war’ on the hunter and the fishermen and lovers of nature. We are in the crosshairs of all Fish and Game agencies and they can hardly wait to take a shot or two at us through their powerful hunting scopes - laws, rules, regulations, taxes, fines, and fees. The king’s deer on the entire king’s land, and unless you work for the king…you’re out!!
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From
the Dec/Jan. 2005 Issue of Hunting Illustrated Magazine - posted Jan. 6, 2005
