A glimpse of our future waterfowling opportunities:

[deltadukman]

It's not Ed. Its Polles and Deviney who dont have a clue what we have to go through hunting public land. Sure they went on the Otter Slough guided hunt extravagaza, but as royalty and not as the common man way we have to do things. Ed does a great job, and is the scapgoat for the big dogs....and in my opinion that is chicken chit of the commission. I dont think they have the stones to open listen to the general public about our concerns and take appropriate measures. They pretty much laugh at us like Deviney did when someone mentioned having to wake up at 3am to go duck hunting. I wanted to reach across that table and slap the arrogant "illegitimate child".

[msbigdawg1234]

Like said before Ed is a nice guy and only doing his job..he has someone to answer to...and i think he is doing it well...i also think that Ed did take our concerns, they just fell on deaf eras that dont give a damn about us...its now time for us to do our job and let the ears know how we feel in an organized way to get a response....yes we will have to live with it this yr and may have to live with it from now on...but we will never get achange unless we do it the right way...

[greenheadgrimreaper]

[PWS]

I guess I should have toned my post down a little. I did not mean it as an assault on Ed Penny, his character or his qualifications. I was referring to the statement that is posted on the topic board of the MDWFP web site. That statement is the same party line that was used by all the officials that addressed the group in Vicksburg. And I meant no personal insults to any employee of the MDWFP and if it came across that way I sincerely apologize I despise an internet bad booty and I think I was coming across that way . Now having said that I still have issues with the new draw hunt procedures.

[Wildfowler]

[Wildfowler]

How about we discuss what the best way to get the message across might be?

It's probably too difficult for everyone to get mobilised and organized to attend a meeting at a particular point in time. Everyone should be able to find a time to pick up the phone to make phone calls or to write a letter.

I suspect many of us here could even find the time to try and schedule aim face to face meeting with one of the officials.

In my view this would be the correct way.

[torch]

You have a better chance to get a walk up permit if you are from out of state on the MO plan. Missouri hunters were pizzed that an out of stater had a better chance of hunting public land than they did. I have done the walk up in MO and those guys hated me. Its a bad idea guys if you public hunt.

[Don Miller]

When one of our local freelance opportunity WMA was all but done for going to a draw, many of us mobilized, started a letter writing, phone calling and emailing campaign and asked to be heard before it was a done deal. Close to 30 of us took off work and showed up in Jackson at 8am on a Wednesday morning to speak out against the draw on this WMA. The powers that be listened to what we had to say and tabled the draw system for now. I expect we will have to cross this bridge at some point again but for now we still have freelance opportuntities. For those of you that like to sit behind the keyboard and bitch, I suggest you be pro-active, make calls and send emails. Do what you have to do to be on a first name basis with commission members and the shot callers at MS Dept of Wildlife Fisheries and Parks.

[msbigdawg1234]

Yes Mark ....thats the very reason they did not let the public know about the changes before it was done....they knew we would be at a meeting to try and stop it.....now we have to deal with it till next yr after it has had the chance to run ....this way they will have some data good or bad on the idea.......commission meeting in the spring is gona be the only way to handle this......the emails and calls will not hurt either but it will have to be face to face.....if anyone knows a state rep get them on your side to help.....i already have one that will be with us at the meetin when we need him......if it does not get handled the right way u can bank on all of the wma to be done next yr....even the one yall saved.....HH says the north is comin next yr......

[greenheadgrimreaper]

Precisely, face to face is the only way to truly be heard. A fellow can't run when it is 2 people in a room talking. I had a few concerns about our local meeting that I didn't get to attend for reasons beyond my control. I made a trip 100 miles away to talk to that person face to face.

Not saying ohone calls and emails don't work or help, but it is pretty well documented that a good debate can only happen in person.

There is not many people bitching on this thread, that I know of, that hasn't been involved directly at some point with the MDWFP. And truth be told all you have to do is look at the occupy movement to see that, like it or not, the internet has changed the way we communicate. It turns out these "just a forum" forums have made a huge impact on society and the hunting community is certainly no exception.

[DuckBoat]

I agree we need to do more to possibly change this back for next year. I have only sent emails and complained on message boards.