Legislature and Wildlife Dept
Oklahoma
Did anyone see this? Some ridiculous bills being introduced. Must be some legislators who are against public hunting land.
Against sound wildlife management in general is seems. There are several bills that are very pro private - anti public lands. The one that scares me is "the legislatively changing season dates, bag limits, and means of take.
Thanks for posting I hadn't seen it. I stopped reading Ed Godfrey's Sunday outdoor article years ago as he just recycles the same old crap year after year. Finally wrote something news worthy.
I sent Ed an email asking him to follow up on these bills and get a little more information. Some of those bills almost seem vindictive towards the wildlife department employees. Interesting that Brewster abstained.
Thanks for bringing this to everyones attention. There r some real douseys on the docket
Anyone have any updates on the status of these crazy bills on the floor?
airbow is coming! we need more opportunities for out of state landowners to kill deer at no cost toher than their property taxes!
I cant believe the house wildlife committee chair could author such bills. Its not enuff that non rez get six deer for 300$. They want the richest of the nr landowners to hunt free
Either a personal beef with the wildlife department or returning favors for rich non-residents. Nothing in these bills is aimed at conservation or wildlife management.
Here are some updates I've found on a few of the bills. SB945 would shorten bow season to Jan 5
Legislation tracker From the Wildlife Department
Sorry but compared to some of those Bill's losing 10 days of archery season is nothing. How about the 21 day rifle 14 day muzzleloader like in one. It seems like almost every bill is aimed at screwing the ODWC while being insanely generous to non-residents, landowners, and especially non-residents landowners. One thing I noticed is that almost every negative bill has Casey Murdock's name on it. This seems to be a personal beef I have faith that none of the more concerning Bill's will be signed in. Still very concerning.
Just sent mister Murdock a email letting him know how I felt. Please do the same guys not sure how to pose link but easily found his email by googling Casey Murdock.
Mr Murdock even penned a bill to bar odwc employees and their families from hunting public lands. Im glad that some of u guys r paying attention to the legislation. If no one took time to look at the fine print they could slide some of this crazy crap through. Along with contacting mr Murdock we all need to contact our local rep and let them know where we stand.
There is something very wrong with Mr Murdock's agenda.
Update from the Wildlife Department
Yea appreciate the links and updates Lost Arra. Besides myself I've got 5 or 6 friends and family to send emails to there rep.
Murdock is a big rancher from the panhandle and I mean deep panhandle. A lot of the land up there is owned by ranchers who are residents of KS,TX,CO, and NM no doubt his neighbors/buddies would be grateful for all the Bill's that would essentially allow them to dictate wildlife management on their property for penny's nonetheless. Look at the bill about having a unlimited antalope rifle season the Murdock's own a ton of some of the best antelope country in the very limited antalope habitat Oklahoma has. No doubt he would financially benefit from that bill by selling pronghorn hunts on his property. It seems he believes the state has no right to dictate wildlife management on private property in a state that is vastly private land that is a dangerous idea.
But if I'm reading SB567 correctly does amenmant C open school fund lands to hunting. If so that would open a ton new public land up. Also cant find anything in that one I really oppose. The rest are garbage.
Push: I read that differently. School land is excluded from the exemption of permission required (Sect A) for state owned lands. This is classic legislative-speak and I could be 100% wrong. State owned lands in general don't require owner's permission but school land is excluded.
The reason OWDC is against the bill is folks spot-lighting and shooting animals at night or generally poaching game even during daylight hours. It's already legal to hunt pigs at night but the warden has to know ahead of time so if there are lights and gunfire without prior ok then warden investigates illegal activity. This bill would keep game wardens from entering private land unless the owner asked them to. So if owner or his buddies are night hunting for game or generally poaching out of season, warden can't access the land to investigate. If nothing shady is going on then what are the landowners afraid of? If someone saw spotlighting and gun fire on my property I sure wouldn't care if warden investigates. If I was shooting a skunk then all is still ok.
Good friend of mine is a state senator. Murdock=personal interests. There is a lot of demand for landowner pronghorn tags and very few available. Called my senator today about the problems I have with SB 703. There’s a lot of bad ones this year but I think that’s the norm. Folks are paying a little more attention which is good.
Lost Arra you could very well be right about the school lands it's that last "excluding" in the wording that confuses me.
As for the shooting at night issue as a landowner I don't think me shooting a coon getting in my chicken coop at night gives a game warden the right of be on my land. At the same time personally I wouldn't mind the small inconveniences if it meant game wardens could more effectively catch poachers. It was smart of them to separate the spotlighting and night shooting in two different Bill's. Dosen't read as well if you have a amendment blocking game warden's from investigating shots at night followed by a amendment blocking them from investigating spotlights.
Good news gang. Our phone calls and emails were heard by Governor Stitt and he vetoed the guides on public land bill.
Nice job Mr. Governor. Didn’t think he’d do it.
Man I didn't have much faith I guess not all the politicians have their heads completely up their own ass.
Now the governor has rescinded an appointment for a wildlife commissioner. First time in history? Especially for a reappointment. Things are getting ugly down there. We need investigative reporting.
Not a great fan of Mr Stitt, but he is starting to grow on me. Nice to get a "non" politician in there.
The commissioner he rescinded was the common hunters best voice on the commission. Im really not sure what is going on there other than commissioner robbins and rep Murdock completely disagreed on most wildlife issues
Yep, that one is a head scratcher.
I have been out of the loop. I hunt a lot of different game, and the only type of hunting that I don't have an issue with guides on public land is waterfowl hunting. For some that the only chance they get is to go with a guide rather than investing in lots of decoys, boats, and dogs, their won't be that much competition. In walk in areas, a guide would not take anyone waterfowl hunting since some of them are already too crowded. For geese, for the most part, I would rather pay a guide for a once in every few years hunt and be on private or public, than mess around with the investment and storage of all of those decoys. Deer, turkeys, quail, ect... no, guides shouldn't be taking clients on public land.
