Dear Commission Members.

Transcription

1 Dear Commission Members. I live in the town of Stoddard, NH, a region that is part of the historic stronghold for bobcats. I have been following the proposal to renew the bobcat hunt and I have gone from being indignant to damn mad!!! I am asking for your help and this is why: In 1989, as director of land management with the Society for the Protection of NH Forests, I was involved in the F & G Dept's effort to end the hunting of bobcats, by posting SPNHF lands in Stoddard against bobcat hunting. Bobcat populations were so low in the state, that there was fear of extirpation. The modest increases that have happened in the last 25 years is not a reason to resume hunting them! I firmly believe this predator is not designed to withstand hunting pressure from humans, because it destroys their complex social order. Bobcats (and other predators) are an intelligent species that play an important role in maintaining ecological balance and they should be respected. They maintain their own

2 populations, which are tied closely with food abundance/scarcity. This has been thoroughly studied with lynx and snowshoe hare population cycles. I strongly oppose and object to the notion of the need to hunt them in order to manage their populations. That is a hunter s myth! I have worked diligently and with focused purpose to help identify and protect thousands of acres of land in New Hampshire especially in southwestern New Hampshire and Stoddard in particular in order to provide large, unfragmented forest habitats for those species that require these areas in order to survive. I do not believe, especially in this day and age, that the conservation community and private landowners would accept hunting bobcats (or bears or coyotes) as a reason for this effort. They are an important part of our evolving understanding of the need to restore and maintain biodiversity and ecosystem health. Consequently, in November, 2015, the Stoddard conservation commission voted 5-0 to oppose the bobcat hunt and sent a letter to the F & G commission; we successfully got 30 other conservation commissions to sign on, as well as a letter of support from the Stoddard board of selectmen. I testified at the Feb. 1, 2016 hearing at Representatives Hall. A day later, I unsuccessfully tried to engage in a conversation with my Cheshire County commissioner, Robert Phillipston, who refused to talk to me, because I opposed the hunt. The NH F & G Commission's recent decision to go forward with the proposed bobcat hunt, after tremendous public protest, is not only a blatant breach of the public trust and public process, but it reveals a major disconnect between their mission and their actions. Here are some examples why: 1. When the Fish and Game Dept. and UNH began a four year bobcat study (focusing on the Monadnock Region), one of the trappers, hired to conduct the study, asked me for permission to use a client's land in Swanzey, NH, to set up a game camera, hang bait to trap and collar bobcats for the study. I asked if the information would be used in justifying a bobcat hunt later on. He said, "absolutely not"!. I gave him permission;

3 2. This message was reinforced a few years later, when UNH graduate student Derek Broman made a presentation to 70+ people in the town of Stoddard, and again the question was asked. Broman said "no"; 3. At public hearings held in Concord, some landowners threatened to post their lands against ALL hunting if this proposal was passed, including some of the 31 conservation commissions around the state that voiced opposition; 4. When I contacted Cheshire County commissioner Robert "Moosey" Phillipston, his wife answered the phone and wanted to know if I was "for or against the bobcat hunt". I said against. She said "he probably won't return your call"...and he didn't; 5. At the February 17th Commission meeting, Mr. Phillipston had the disingenuous audacity to say that ALL of the phone calls he received...were "in favor of the hunt"!; 6. Numerous hunters and trappers that attended hearings, wrote letters, or who spoke on NH public radio, said that most of the opposition against the proposed bobcat hunting season was based on emotion and NOT science; Here is where the blatant breach of public trust is amplified: at their February 17th, 2016 commission meeting, the five commissioners who voted in FAVOR of the hunt, did so using the following rationale: 1. They were NOT going to have landowners who threatened to post their lands "bribe" them into voting against the hunt; 2. Instead of using science...they voted with their EMOTIONS, because in the words of chairman Ted Tichy, they did NOT want to set the precedent, whereby the public influenced the policies and practices of the NH Fish and Game Department! (nor do they want the legislature to set policy).~tichy's words to me in a conversation I had a few days prior to the vote. One of the commissioners who opposed the hunt, was also a legislator. He said that in the many years he has served he could not remember a single issue where so many people turned out and spoke passionately against a bill. Over 14,000 NH residents have signed a petition in opposition to the season. An independent public poll showed that 76% of voters are opposed to the trapping of bobcats and 69% opposed to baiting and hounding.

4 The concerns of the people in opposition were summarily dismissed by a state agency that receives $600,000 of revenue from the state's general fund and whose mission, curiously, is as guardians of the state s fish, wildlife and marine resources. The commission apparently doesn't care that the department is being forced to take on another financial drain just after asking the legislature for $600,000 from the general fund. Make no mistake: the decision by the F & G commission is about protecting their "turf"; not about protecting the wildlife resource of this state or protecting the public interest! The salt in the wound is this: the F & G department is really only doing what the commission is requiring it do. The commission is screwing up; not the department! Virtually all of the biologists are vehemently opposed the bobcat season. That's part of the dysfunction. The request for a season came from a very small group of trappers and hunters - one commissioner said that four people initiated this. So we have a commission responding to an extreme minority not what the public wants. The proposed bobcat hunt is a symptom of a much larger problem of a process that is clearly flawed! Ultimately, funding for the NH Fish & Game Dept. needs to be diversified and the governance of the F & G commission needs to be changed. Meanwhile, the decision to hunt bobcat must be overturned. It is my understanding that the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules has the authority to reverse this decision because it was contrary to public intent. Here is what the public can do: 1. Send s Cheryl Walsh, administrative assistant for the Joint Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules (JLCAR) at cheryl.walsh@leg.state.nh.us ; she will distribute them to committee members; 2. Attend the 9 a.m. April 1st JLCAR Hearing at Representatives Hall, Concord. 3. Write letters to your local newspapers;

5 4. Get your conservation commission to join 31 other commissions and voice your opposition. See the Stoddard Conservation commission FB page for links to their letter and other information. 5. If your commission voices opposition, get the Board of Selectmen to write a letter of support Thank you for your time and attention! Respectfully Submitted, Geoffrey T. Jones Stoddard, NH My comments are rooted in a 35-year career as a professional forester; as chairman of the Stoddard conservation commission for the past 20 years; and as an eight-year director on the board of the N.H. Wildlife Federation. This is what is at stake: