Open house meet-greet
- Thread starter brock ratcliff
- Start date
Be careful what you say to Tonk....he takes stuff personal...Yeah I'll just leave it at that since the world is reading.
HA! I figure I'm already on his shit list, so confirming that in person is just an added bonus!!!
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I have nothing against the man personally... Don't know a dang thing about him.. It's the position and direction taken that I take issue with.. I wouldn't care if the guy was Bob Slinkeywowski.. It's the position and actions of the position not the man that I'm going after.. If you don't like public criticism and take stuff personally then don't be the tip of the spear....
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I can be at the Columbus meeting, but won't get there until after 1:00 PM. Who's going and can we try to meet a few days ahead of time?
Schu72
Well-Known Member
huntn2
Senior Member
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Was up all night sick...I aint goin.
Joe, Eric tried to get ahold of you to meet up. I figured that woman had you bound and gagged.
Joe, Eric tried to get ahold of you to meet up. I figured that woman had you bound and gagged.
Wish I wasn't working and could have made it to one of them today. Take plenty of notes and report back for those of us that couldn't make it.
Mountaineer
Banned
Personally.. I think you guys are wasting your time. These meetings are basically set up to look like they are intrested about the concerns of hunters. Hunters are considered nothing more than a TOOL.
There are many other alterior motives they have to appease too besides the hunters. You guys will always be there for them ..and they know that.
I choose my hunting areas where i feel the ODNR has little influence. Areas that receive the most influence or effect from the ODNR or any game agency will probably have poor hunting. If you have land..manage it according to YOUR intrests..If you hunt publicland, go in deep and try to escape the ODNRs influence.
Thats my approach..because i know deep down that game agencies do not have the best intrest of the Hunters at the top of their lists. Remember one thing.. ..its a Business..Economics will determine everything.
There are many other alterior motives they have to appease too besides the hunters. You guys will always be there for them ..and they know that.
I choose my hunting areas where i feel the ODNR has little influence. Areas that receive the most influence or effect from the ODNR or any game agency will probably have poor hunting. If you have land..manage it according to YOUR intrests..If you hunt publicland, go in deep and try to escape the ODNRs influence.
Thats my approach..because i know deep down that game agencies do not have the best intrest of the Hunters at the top of their lists. Remember one thing.. ..its a Business..Economics will determine everything.
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Schu72
Well-Known Member
Did my part. Talked with one of the wardens for at least 30 minutes. Was starting to get the stink eye from others in attendence due to the length of the discussion. Glad I went.
Just back from the D4 open house. I've had a tough week and really needed some entertainment so I hung around the first hour hopping to listen in on the posse comitatus but they never showed. I came back around 2:30 but things had pretty much wrapped up by then.
I thought the crowd was above average in size but I haven't been to one of them in years and really have nothing to compare it with. A fair amount of those in attendance were "Hillbilly Training Center" students. I'm guessing they may have got some kind of class credit for attending. 108 people signed in at the door but I'm sure there were a few who wished to remain anonymous. I spoke with Mike Tonkovich at length after the event and he thought the afternoon was very constructive. He spent the last week at a deer management conference in Florida and we discussed some of the new information now available regarding coyote predation...interesting stuff.
I thought the crowd was above average in size but I haven't been to one of them in years and really have nothing to compare it with. A fair amount of those in attendance were "Hillbilly Training Center" students. I'm guessing they may have got some kind of class credit for attending. 108 people signed in at the door but I'm sure there were a few who wished to remain anonymous. I spoke with Mike Tonkovich at length after the event and he thought the afternoon was very constructive. He spent the last week at a deer management conference in Florida and we discussed some of the new information now available regarding coyote predation...interesting stuff.
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I think you are wrong there. Without game agencies such as the Ohio Division of Wildlife we wouldn't even have enough wildlife to even be having a discussion like this right now. Game agencies are a hunters friend. I do agree that there are always elite individuals within those agencies who could care less what average hunters like the majority of us on here think, but $hit stinks and they will be smelled sooner or later. It's not the agencies at as a whole that are at fault. The majority of the people working for them have no more say what go's on with the regulations than you or I do.
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Driving back from district 1 hq where I met Curran and Milo towards the end of the meeting. Was interesting to listen to the individuals who showed up with various complaints. Attendance sheets showed about 70 who came and went throughout the day. I mingled and discussed numbers with many of those in attendance. Mostly I eavesdropped on conversations between visitors and the DOW.. I surmised very quickly that anyone wishing to talk deer numbers was immediately directed to a specific warden. An big guy named Bill who was nice and cordial on any topic of conversation besides numbers. Once those topics were brought up the mood of the conversation instantly changed and a very defensive from the script response was given. Topics like pistol caliber rifles, turkey tags, etc, were very cordial and you could tell the DOW staff listened, asked questions, and cared about the responses.. Even bill was. Open and receptive on such topics. But as soon as anyone brought up lower deer numbers the attitude changed. They were immediately defered to bill where the conversation became one of telling and hard nosing vs listening and caring.
After these people walked away from bill I talked to them myself and asked how they think it went. All of them said they felt like they instantly struck a nerve and was talked at and somewhat down to. I asked what county they hunt and showed them the numbers and explained why they were seeing the issues. And also explained why they were somewhat accosted for bringing it up. It was like a lightbulb went off and they got it.
I spent most of the three hours following bill around and not saying a word while he talked with individuals. I listened to what both parties had to say and the mood of the hunters. Bills never changed. He was reading the script and that was that.
Noticing that bill was obviously somewhat annoyed by me standing there for 2.5 hours not saying anything and following him around while he talked to others, and me talking to those people once they walked away from the conversation i decided to leave about 2:30 as attendance had dwindled to only a handful. Curran and Milo showed up while I was outside and I missed their arrival. I had a text from Eric that said they were in their way. I had somehow missed them in the parking lot and they were inside. When I walked in they were talking to bill. They were defered to him like all the others after bringing up deer populations. Afterwards I asked what they thought about it and they confirmed my observations. Anyone wishing to talk deer numbers was to be referred to bill where he would toe the party line and talk at people with the general attitude of you're wrong. The more you tallked to him the more he simply repeated the same stuff over and over with a slight more annoyed attitude.
In the end it was just as I thought it would be. A dog and pony show of green. For most issues they wanted to hear people's opinions and paid attention to the feedback. But for anything deer population related they were referred to Bill the enforcer to be talked at and down to.
After these people walked away from bill I talked to them myself and asked how they think it went. All of them said they felt like they instantly struck a nerve and was talked at and somewhat down to. I asked what county they hunt and showed them the numbers and explained why they were seeing the issues. And also explained why they were somewhat accosted for bringing it up. It was like a lightbulb went off and they got it.
I spent most of the three hours following bill around and not saying a word while he talked with individuals. I listened to what both parties had to say and the mood of the hunters. Bills never changed. He was reading the script and that was that.
Noticing that bill was obviously somewhat annoyed by me standing there for 2.5 hours not saying anything and following him around while he talked to others, and me talking to those people once they walked away from the conversation i decided to leave about 2:30 as attendance had dwindled to only a handful. Curran and Milo showed up while I was outside and I missed their arrival. I had a text from Eric that said they were in their way. I had somehow missed them in the parking lot and they were inside. When I walked in they were talking to bill. They were defered to him like all the others after bringing up deer populations. Afterwards I asked what they thought about it and they confirmed my observations. Anyone wishing to talk deer numbers was to be referred to bill where he would toe the party line and talk at people with the general attitude of you're wrong. The more you tallked to him the more he simply repeated the same stuff over and over with a slight more annoyed attitude.
In the end it was just as I thought it would be. A dog and pony show of green. For most issues they wanted to hear people's opinions and paid attention to the feedback. But for anything deer population related they were referred to Bill the enforcer to be talked at and down to.
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Milo
Tatonka guide.
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it was eye opening that's for sure.....deer were not to be discussed and you could tell it. unless you had an opinion on their muzzeloader proposal. they were really nice people for sure. glad I went and I will be back it looks like. pick a fight? really mike? i'm stiil trying to figure out how deer in unhuntable fields disappear so quickly..i mean like 10 year every time you drive by to none... it was also clear they did not want to hear about less deer that you were seeing. glad i had paper out to write it down so they couldn't say i didn't tell them
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