A few weeks ago we had a long thread here about a column written by Director Sykes in which he referred to landowners hunting their own land, children, and hunters over 65 as welfare recipients because they weren't required to buy a hunting license. This is also the column in which he complained about his department spending so much time regulating field trials on private land, an activity in which no game is taken and no firearms are used. Despite the fact that it clearly isn't hunting, our director took upon himself the need to regulate this activity, and then complained vigorously about how much time that regulation takes. Only a genuine bureaucrat could use such circular reasoning.

There have been calls to replace the current dcnr with a new system that puts hunting and fishing back into the hand of the People. This week, Capital Ideas, the newsletter of the Alabama Forest Owners' Association, took note of Mr. Sykes' article and had this to say about it:

>>>“WELFARE CASES” That’s what Chuck Sykes, Director of the Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, called you in an article in Great Days Outdoors, 12/16. Evidently, in Sykes opinion, hunting on your own land without a license, a legal activity in Alabama, deserves nothing but his contempt. Is Sykes unaware that nearly all of the hunting land in Alabama is privately owned? Does he not realize that insulting the folks who provide nearly all of the resources he and his agency depend on for a living is counter productive?

BACK IN 2011 WE WROTE: “We wonder what would happen if trespass laws were strengthened and vigorously enforced. Would it be possible to repeal the game laws and allow private owners and the hunters who lease their land to develop and enforce their own game management rules?

Might it be possible to have abundant wildlife without a Division of Wildlife?<<<

http://www.afoa.org/CI/2017/01.pdf

I've been a member of the AFOA for many years and have found it to be the organization in this state that is most interested in protecting the rights of forest landowners. If you own any timberland, I'd encourage you to join. It is really the only outdoors oriented organization in the state that is willing to challenge the state bureaucracy.

I would not quite agree with the stated idea in the article of repealing the game laws; I'd still much prefer to see them set by a board elected by license holders and then enforced by the sheriffs, but any call for change is something I will cherish. My opinion is that the current administration will never cease from its attacks on private landowners and will continue to add as many regulations as it can in order to increase its power.

The election of Trump has given us the chance to reverse the intrusion of the federal government. What we desperately need is a new governor in AL that will do the same at the state level.