News
Opinion
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — The Nevada Wildlife Commission failed to uphold the democratic process and listen to its constituents when it voted in late December to approve the state's first-ever black bear hunt.
Despite fielding many public comments in December and again in February and receiving thousands of e-mails from Tahoe and Sierra Nevada residents against the hunt, wildlife commissioners brushed it all aside while expressing unanimous favor for a hunt that is clearly not supported by many Nevadans, with board chair Scott Raine going as far as labeling the e-mails as “spam.”
The actions by this governor-appointed board — the majority of which is composed of individuals who do not live in the Sierra Nevada region, where nearly all the state's bears reside — are unacceptable because they run contrary to American principles of representative government and blatantly flout the legitimate concerns of a large segment of the board's constituency.
Despite a patent lack of voiced support, the board approved the measure. One of its chief reasons? Bears can be problematic for residents because they raid garbage cans and break into homes, so a hunting season is a good way to control nuisances by instilling fear of humans into the creatures.
Yet hunting is not allowed in residential areas, where the nuisances occur. Instead, it occurs in the wilderness, where bears are in their natural habitat and can not be characterized as nuisances to humans. It is illogical to think killing a bear in hunting grounds outside of Reno or Carson City, for example, will reduce the amount of nuisance bears who roam the communities at Lake Tahoe.
For these reasons, we feel the wildlife commission failed to carry out its democratic objectives of representing the people of Nevada and should reconsider legalizing a black bear hunt. The Bonanza is not taking a position regarding whether hunting bears is fundamentally right or wrong — however, we urge the board to act according to the democratic process by which this country was founded.
The following statement appears on the commission's website (www.ndow.org/learn/com): “In Nevada, wildlife resources belong to the people of the state of Nevada.”
We urge the wildlife commission to keep this in mind before casting unanimous votes.
Despite fielding many public comments in December and again in February and receiving thousands of e-mails from Tahoe and Sierra Nevada residents against the hunt, wildlife commissioners brushed it all aside while expressing unanimous favor for a hunt that is clearly not supported by many Nevadans, with board chair Scott Raine going as far as labeling the e-mails as “spam.”
The actions by this governor-appointed board — the majority of which is composed of individuals who do not live in the Sierra Nevada region, where nearly all the state's bears reside — are unacceptable because they run contrary to American principles of representative government and blatantly flout the legitimate concerns of a large segment of the board's constituency.
Despite a patent lack of voiced support, the board approved the measure. One of its chief reasons? Bears can be problematic for residents because they raid garbage cans and break into homes, so a hunting season is a good way to control nuisances by instilling fear of humans into the creatures.
Yet hunting is not allowed in residential areas, where the nuisances occur. Instead, it occurs in the wilderness, where bears are in their natural habitat and can not be characterized as nuisances to humans. It is illogical to think killing a bear in hunting grounds outside of Reno or Carson City, for example, will reduce the amount of nuisance bears who roam the communities at Lake Tahoe.
For these reasons, we feel the wildlife commission failed to carry out its democratic objectives of representing the people of Nevada and should reconsider legalizing a black bear hunt. The Bonanza is not taking a position regarding whether hunting bears is fundamentally right or wrong — however, we urge the board to act according to the democratic process by which this country was founded.
The following statement appears on the commission's website (www.ndow.org/learn/com): “In Nevada, wildlife resources belong to the people of the state of Nevada.”
We urge the wildlife commission to keep this in mind before casting unanimous votes.
