Scott Raine on hunting, wildlife, and conservation

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(Raine also served a 2010/11 term as Chairman of the Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners.)

 

Press Release AP 2009

 

Eurekan Scott Raine elected Vice Chairman of the Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners

 

The nine-member Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners held their yearly elections of officers on 14 August 2009 at a regularly scheduled meeting in Elko Nevada.  Gerald Lent of Reno was re-elected as Chairman of the Commission, and Scott Raine of Eureka was elected as Vice-Chairman, replacing former Las Vegas mayor Ron Lurie.  

   

The nine-member, governor-appointed Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners is responsible for establishing broad policy, setting annual and permanent regulations, reviewing budgets, and receiving input on wildlife and boating matters from entities such as the seventeen county wildlife management advisory boards. 

Prior to 1969, each County had one representative on what was then a 17-member Commission.  In 1969, the legislature changed the makeup of the Commission from 17 to 9 members.  In following years, the Commission changed from 9 to 7, then in 1989 changed back to its current nine members. 

Until Vice-Chairman Scott Raine, was appointed to the commission in 2007, Eureka County had no members on the Nevada Board of Wildlife Commissioners during the 40 years since the elimination of the 'one Commissioner per county' rule.

 

"Changing the status quo is a very difficult thing," said Vice Chairman Raine, "however, despite resistance from a few individuals within the Department and several very vocal members of the public with political agendas hostile to the wildlife of Nevada, we have made dramatic progress in making NDOW a far more public-friendly organization."

Raine cited several changes in regulations with that focus that have been made over the past 2 years:

 

  1. The return of a tag for any reason, which eliminated NDOW's role as the 'excuse police' and now allows hunters to return tags up to a generous deadline after the tag draw without stating a reason while treating applicants with respect to bonus points as if the applicant had been unsuccessful in the draw.  This regulation was first put into effect in the 2009 hunting season.
  2. At the August 2009 meeting, we passed a very hunter-friendly regulation that will allow tag applicants to withdraw erroneous applications and re-submit them if sent electronically.  It will also allow for the withdrawal of electronic applications up to 7 days after the application deadline, and allow for 'bonus-point-only' applications up to 7 days after the regular application deadline.  Hunt applicants are valued customers, and must be treated accordingly.  In the past strict rules were punitive to our customers, and did not serve any valid purpose.
  3. The Commission recently passed a regulation explicitly defining the minimum requirements for harvesting meat from a carcass replacing past rules that gave wide latitude to law enforcement and led to the confusion of sportsmen.
  4. One of the most sportsman-friendly of recent regulation changes was the implementation of the '48 hour' rule in 2009, which mandates that the tentative results of the big game tag draw be published on NDOW's website within 48 hours of the draw’s taking place.

The one thing that we have been unsuccessful in, but are increasing our focus on, is the plummeting Mule Deer population in Nevada.  The Nevada Wildlife Action Plan states that the management concerns for mule deer are:

Loss of wintering habitat in areas that are near burgeoning urban areas. Cattle grazing results in loss of hiding cover for fawns, possibly may increase rate of loss of fawns to predation (Loft et al. 1987). On summer range in the Sierra Nevada in CA, cattle evidently competed with deer, particularly at high stocking rates and during a year of below-average precipitation; adverse effects could be reduced by reducing or eliminating cattle grazing during early summer on all or part of a grazing allotment

"This is the entire list of management concerns listed under the Nevada Wildlife Action Plan, and this pack of outright politically-motivated disinformation and disconnection with reality basically summarizes why we have a mule deer population problem in Nevada," states Raine.  "While NDOW has many fine biologists and personnel, the reason we have had a dramatic mule deer decline in this State is because certain key elements in the NDOW leadership truly believe the Action Plan and plans like it.  I have gone on record as stating many of these ‘plans’ are 'pseudoscientific trash'." 

 "NDOW needs to come back to reality and focus on the management of the Mule Deer as they truly are, not as the world of the 'politically correct'  (AKA people with no sense of reality) wants them to be."

 

"The reality of what is causing our mule deer decline is quite the opposite of what the Action Plan states.  The majority of Nevada's urban growth is in Clark County, most of which is not Mule Deer country.  About 50% of our deer herd is in Elko County, Nevada.  If we do continue to reduce grazing, our range conditions will continue to decrease to a point from which our mule deer population will likely not recover to former levels."

 

 "What do mule deer need to increase their population? 

  1. - Reduced risk of getting their throat torn out by everything with sharp teeth, AKA predation control. 
  2. Reduction in wildfire intensity and damage to key forage through a dramatic increase in well-managed, high intensity, short-duration grazing on all public lands. 
  3. Broad latitude to be given to ranchers for the maintenance of all springs and seeps. 
  4. Elimination of doe hunting in all areas until dramatic population growth occurs."

 "I ask all Nevadan's to stand with me and compel our bureaucracy to back these changes for the betterment of all wildlife in Nevada."

 

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Contact Information:

Scott Raine
PO Box 812
Eureka, Nevada 89316

775-237-5296

scott@scottraine.com

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