N. Cook
12-07-2007, 05:38 PM
Several hundred attended, the staff leaders of all the Water Management Districts, the Parks, State Forests, Dept. Envir. Protection and a lot of stakeholder groups...ie Audubon, Hikers, Sierra Club etc....
A very well run program with the attention of the state politicians as a number attended...including Gov. appointed officials and elected legislatures....
There were two hunting representative...myself and Capt. Chesley our Regional Director on Lake Okeechobee....To say we were out numbered, out gunned and the agenda was slanted totally toward passive use is an understatement.
HOWEVER... because of our prior contacts with staff people at the FDEP we were able to "shock" a few of the "Passive" crowd.
We were able to set up in advance a meeting with Bob Ballard, Deputy Secretary for Land and Recreation Dept. of Evironmental Protection. The meeting ran far longer than planned as we covered numerous items, including the rewriting of the "hunting" provisions in the new Florida Forever legislation....from this we were introduced in a joint meeting with Sue Mullins (Lobbyist and contract advisor to the FDEP and the person who wrote the hunting provision in the old Florida Forever Program and will be writing the new version) and Marrianne Gengenbach (Mr. Ballards dept.'s Environmentat Administrator) UW-F will be reviewing the new language in advance of any new Florida Forever proposal.
Also, while meeting with Mr. Ballard we covered the problem of hydrilla spraying that was detrimental to wildlife and water quality in some detail....As a result UW-F will be attending a meeting in Tallahassee of Mr. Ballard and the head of the FDEP plant control program (I expect to ask Diane Eggeman to be in the meeting)...This will be a small number...get down to brass tacks....meeting.
Also, while meeting with Mr. Ballard the problem of access to certain agencies properties for hunting, especially those managed by the State Forest, FDEP and SWFWMD for hunting....and when access was granted it was often for quota and very restricted number of days programs and not really "open" for hunting. Mr. Ballard wanted to address the SWFWMD first and asked that we have a representative deer hunter, turkey hunter, and, of course UW-F set up to meet with the SWFWMD officials and he would come down to be sure the SWFWMD was working in the same spirit as the SFWMD and SJRWMD where access is much better and there is an improving attitude toward hunting. It sounds as if similar meetings can be arranged with the State Forest management as well in the future.
As a result of this meeting the word "hunting" was heard twice in two days from the podium....both times during comments by Mr. Ballard....
But the best was yet to come!!!
The last symposium featured legislative needs to get a new Florida Forever passed....On the podium was Sue Mullins and State Rep. Will Kendricks ( along with the "chair" Eric Draper, Deputy Director Audubon Society, a state senator and Trust for Public Land Director....
Hunting finally got up front and personal when Rep. Kendricts announced his son had killed a nice buck over Thanksgiving and we had to get more folks out on the land hunting....There was a bit of a audible gasp from the several hundred in the audience....Not once, but several times he mentioned hunting and recieve support from Sue. NOW this may be because Capt. Chris and I were sitting directly in front of the podium and he knew who we were (and later in a conversation he said he was glad we were there). He is a dedicated dog hunter for deer....and thanked me for supporting Rusty McKeithen, the dog hunt rep., on the FWC Deer Management Cmtee, and FWC Ouota Hunt Review Cmtee. Rusty and I sit on.....
Incidentally, he remembered our (UW-F) emails and letters on the license and duck stamp issue and said they were appreciated...
The "off the floor" work was productive...I will not go into detail but we were able to have extensive conversations with the following: Bill Kerr, SJRWMD Gov. Board, Dan Cotter, SFWMD Land Management, Steve Couglin, SFWMD Land Steward, Nels Parson. SJRWMD, Gary Cochran, FWC, Don Conyers, FWC, Robert Christianson, SJRWMD Director of Operations, Steve Miller, SJRWMD Land Steward, John Nicholotte, SWFWMD Basin Director, James Turner, local ranch owner and came up and offered help with the SWFWMD meeting.
There were a number of opportunites to comment in the meetings as well.
I was particulary glad to see wide support for the need for a large increase in prescribe burns....one entire symposium was dedicated to the issue....We will need to help with the PR work with the public to support the various agencies.
Some of the topics:
UNIQUE CHALLENGES OF MANAGING RECREATION ON CONSERVATION LANDS
LAND MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES, PRESCRIBED FIRE LAG AND HABITAT
THE FLORIDA FOREVER SUCCESSOR PROGRAM
IMPLEMENTING LAND MANAGEMENT
LEGISLATIVE STATUS FOR A FLORIDA FOREVER SUCCESSOR
And last of all...I spoke with next year's meeting coordinator and she agreed hunters will be ON THE PODIUM and speaking at that meeting.
All in all a very productive meeting....really more so for the turkey and deer hunters who we ended up speaking for (the fact I killed a nice nine point last week was an incentive!!!) However....we now need representatives from those groups to appoint an "ambassador" to the SWFWMD meeting.
I will be glad to discuss the meeting in more detail...call 561/339/0243
Newton
A very well run program with the attention of the state politicians as a number attended...including Gov. appointed officials and elected legislatures....
There were two hunting representative...myself and Capt. Chesley our Regional Director on Lake Okeechobee....To say we were out numbered, out gunned and the agenda was slanted totally toward passive use is an understatement.
HOWEVER... because of our prior contacts with staff people at the FDEP we were able to "shock" a few of the "Passive" crowd.
We were able to set up in advance a meeting with Bob Ballard, Deputy Secretary for Land and Recreation Dept. of Evironmental Protection. The meeting ran far longer than planned as we covered numerous items, including the rewriting of the "hunting" provisions in the new Florida Forever legislation....from this we were introduced in a joint meeting with Sue Mullins (Lobbyist and contract advisor to the FDEP and the person who wrote the hunting provision in the old Florida Forever Program and will be writing the new version) and Marrianne Gengenbach (Mr. Ballards dept.'s Environmentat Administrator) UW-F will be reviewing the new language in advance of any new Florida Forever proposal.
Also, while meeting with Mr. Ballard we covered the problem of hydrilla spraying that was detrimental to wildlife and water quality in some detail....As a result UW-F will be attending a meeting in Tallahassee of Mr. Ballard and the head of the FDEP plant control program (I expect to ask Diane Eggeman to be in the meeting)...This will be a small number...get down to brass tacks....meeting.
Also, while meeting with Mr. Ballard the problem of access to certain agencies properties for hunting, especially those managed by the State Forest, FDEP and SWFWMD for hunting....and when access was granted it was often for quota and very restricted number of days programs and not really "open" for hunting. Mr. Ballard wanted to address the SWFWMD first and asked that we have a representative deer hunter, turkey hunter, and, of course UW-F set up to meet with the SWFWMD officials and he would come down to be sure the SWFWMD was working in the same spirit as the SFWMD and SJRWMD where access is much better and there is an improving attitude toward hunting. It sounds as if similar meetings can be arranged with the State Forest management as well in the future.
As a result of this meeting the word "hunting" was heard twice in two days from the podium....both times during comments by Mr. Ballard....
But the best was yet to come!!!
The last symposium featured legislative needs to get a new Florida Forever passed....On the podium was Sue Mullins and State Rep. Will Kendricks ( along with the "chair" Eric Draper, Deputy Director Audubon Society, a state senator and Trust for Public Land Director....
Hunting finally got up front and personal when Rep. Kendricts announced his son had killed a nice buck over Thanksgiving and we had to get more folks out on the land hunting....There was a bit of a audible gasp from the several hundred in the audience....Not once, but several times he mentioned hunting and recieve support from Sue. NOW this may be because Capt. Chris and I were sitting directly in front of the podium and he knew who we were (and later in a conversation he said he was glad we were there). He is a dedicated dog hunter for deer....and thanked me for supporting Rusty McKeithen, the dog hunt rep., on the FWC Deer Management Cmtee, and FWC Ouota Hunt Review Cmtee. Rusty and I sit on.....
Incidentally, he remembered our (UW-F) emails and letters on the license and duck stamp issue and said they were appreciated...
The "off the floor" work was productive...I will not go into detail but we were able to have extensive conversations with the following: Bill Kerr, SJRWMD Gov. Board, Dan Cotter, SFWMD Land Management, Steve Couglin, SFWMD Land Steward, Nels Parson. SJRWMD, Gary Cochran, FWC, Don Conyers, FWC, Robert Christianson, SJRWMD Director of Operations, Steve Miller, SJRWMD Land Steward, John Nicholotte, SWFWMD Basin Director, James Turner, local ranch owner and came up and offered help with the SWFWMD meeting.
There were a number of opportunites to comment in the meetings as well.
I was particulary glad to see wide support for the need for a large increase in prescribe burns....one entire symposium was dedicated to the issue....We will need to help with the PR work with the public to support the various agencies.
Some of the topics:
UNIQUE CHALLENGES OF MANAGING RECREATION ON CONSERVATION LANDS
LAND MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES, PRESCRIBED FIRE LAG AND HABITAT
THE FLORIDA FOREVER SUCCESSOR PROGRAM
IMPLEMENTING LAND MANAGEMENT
LEGISLATIVE STATUS FOR A FLORIDA FOREVER SUCCESSOR
And last of all...I spoke with next year's meeting coordinator and she agreed hunters will be ON THE PODIUM and speaking at that meeting.
All in all a very productive meeting....really more so for the turkey and deer hunters who we ended up speaking for (the fact I killed a nice nine point last week was an incentive!!!) However....we now need representatives from those groups to appoint an "ambassador" to the SWFWMD meeting.
I will be glad to discuss the meeting in more detail...call 561/339/0243
Newton