July 24th, 2008
By Arthur

I was talking to my father-in-law the other evening, and he brought up something that really intrigued me. One of his renters, who had just recently returned from a year and a half in Iraq, had a plan that he thought I would be interested in helping with. The plan is a little ambitious, but in the end is definitely worth it. I honestly can’t believe that something like this doesn’t exist in our state already, but I’m hopefully that one day it becomes a reality.

The idea behind the plan is to have a dedicated place where any veteran, especially disabled ones, could be able to enjoy the outdoors. A place where they could come for a weekend, or however long, and turkey hunt, deer hunt, duck hunt, or just fish. A place where they can enjoy the things they once did and be able to forget, for just those few days, about their everyday life struggles. I think we at least owe them that much.

I have found quite a few organizations that do something similar to this, but of course they are in different states. There are also a couple organizations that do this, but they rely upon hunting clubs and such to provide the land for these hunting opportunities. Don’t get me wrong, I think that organizations like that are great as well, but the vision that he has for this project is to have a a place where these particular gentleman and women can enjoy the outdoors, and have that place be specifically built for their needs. By having a “resort” of such, it makes it much easier to provide the necessary services that will allow these veterans, despite what kind of disabilities they may have, to still be able to enjoy the outdoors.

I have to be honest and tell you I wasn’t really sure I could contribute a lot to this cause. I mean sure I would love to volunteer my services to take a couple of these veterans out on a hunt, and be a “guide” of sorts, but once I got started talking to Joe (the guy with the idea), I realized that he was already ahead of the game. He already has a lot of good contacts that he has established in the outdoor community, and with the drive I see that he has for this particular project, I have total faith that it will become a reality. He has even talked to the local VFW’s as well as the local VA and has already started the ball rolling.

The biggest obstacle he faces right now is acquiring land. He has had many people offer up donated vehicles for the lodge, and things of that nature, but land is the one thing that holds him up. He is hopeful that he can acquire some “backers” to help raise enough money to purchase a plot of land and get this project rolling.

I think this is a great idea, and I am more than willing to do whatever needs to be done in order to get this thing off the ground. I would be more than happy to take these veterans hunting and fishing, and have a chance to get to know them, and thank them for the service they’ve done for our country. It only makes sense to give back to these particular individuals and allow them to be able to enjoy our state’s great outdoors.

If any of you have anything you could contribute to this particular idea I would love to hear about in the comments section.

Popularity: 5% [?]

May 28th, 2008
By Arthur

I already touched on the What Can We Do? portion of this challenge, imposed to us by Kristine, but now I want to touch on the other side of the challenge. I want to talk about the What Should We Do? portion.

I am going to take a slightly different approach to this part of the challenge. Plenty of other bloggers have listed their ideas for what the community, as well as the organizations that support hunting and fishing, should do in order to help promote our way of life. Rather than rehash all of those ideas here, and I think there are some good ones, I am going to focus on one main point that I think outdoor organizations need to do in order to help protect our heritage.

The point I’m going to make, and Kristine touched on this one as well, is to learn lessons from PETA. PETA is everywhere it seems. They are in the schools, on television, in Hollywood, and just about anywhere else you can think of. They are an in-your-face type of organization, and while I don’t think that hunting needs to be so outlandish with its message, I do think that our outdoor organizations have failed on many levels when it comes to exposure.

The main thing I see that would help to get our message out there is marketing. Why don’t we hunters and fisherman market ourselves? I think we need to not only market ourselves, and the activities that we love, but we also need a bigger push from the organizations that we support to help market us. I’m sure Kristine, with her expertise in this field, could shed some more light on this topic for us, but why don’t we have television and newspaper campaigns supporting our cause? Sure you might see some advertising when there is a hot hunting topic in the news, or a vote on a particular hunting or fishing issue coming up, but where is the everyday marketing of hunting? I think a newspaper or television ad that promotes the outdoor lifestyle would go over great in many communities. Why not an ad that shows our love of the outdoors, while promoting the things hunters and fisherman help to protect? An ad listing the positive things that come from participation in hunting and fishing? Also, there has to be some prominent Hollywood or music stars who participate in hunting and fishing. Why not have them do a celebrity endorsement of our outdoor heritage. PETA does this with their ads that promote not wearing fur. Why not have a star who does this by promoting their love of the outdoors?

I think the whole concept of regularly running positive outdoor lifestyle commercials would do wonders for the hunting and fishing community. It would be a great way to counter the nonsense and lies that is distributed by PETA and the HSUS every day through various outlets. I honestly can’t believe that this has not been brought up before. And while I don’t think certain news outlets would be any help, because of their anti-hunting stand, I do think that local as well as national organizations could benefit directly from running periodic television commercials that show all of us fisherman and hunters as the honest, nature loving citizens, that we are.

What do you think?

Popularity: 26% [?]

March 06th, 2008
By Arthur

I actually saw this a few weeks back, but I kept forgetting to write a post about it and update everyone.  I have talked about the Michigan DNR and their budget woes a few times this year.  In one post I talked about how the governor was going to allow a portion of the State General Fund to be transferred to the Game and Fish fund to help with their budget shortage, and in another post I talked about how the DNR had magically found 20 million dollars after this agreement was worked out.  The story keeps unfolding.

MUCC, after the DNR found they had a 10 million dollar fund balance instead of their projected 10.8 million dollar shortage,  called for an independent audit of the Game and Fish fund.  The MUCC felt that they couldn’t clearly represent their members without having a good grasp on where the money in this fund was actually going.  I was all for this move and thought it was the best way for the DNR to put themselves back on the positive side of the sportsmen in the state.

It is still unclear to me on where the status of this independent audit is.  What I do know is that now the Michigan DNR will  be providing monthly budget updates to the Natural Resources Commission and the public.  From the MUCC website:

These monthly budget reports will summarize the DNR’s appropriations and plans for spending (by DNR division) for the current fiscal year which ends Sept. 30, 2008. They will be updated monthly, with explanations of any mid-year changes necessary due to legislative transfers, supplemental appropriations, Executive Orders, and revenue adjustments. More detailed division reports are planned for dissemination quarterly to the Natural Resources Commission.

This is still not the audit that I was looking for, and I plan on digging a little deeper to see if I can find out if this audit is still going to happen or if the MUCC has decided that this monthly budget update is sufficient enough.   I think it is definitely a positive move by the Michigan DNR, and will be a great resource for all the groups that are interested in the Michigan DNR’s monetary status on a monthly basis, as well as a good resource for people like me who are curious about the status of the budget.

If any of you are interested you can find this monthly report here.

Popularity: 24% [?]

February 16th, 2008
By Arthur

We did attend the Big Buck Night event this evening, and I have to say, for it being the first time that this event took place in this particular location, I thought the turnout was very respectable and even exceeded expectations.

We all had a very good time, enjoyed a good meal, and had some fun chatting and talking to friends.  Of course we also got to enjoy some big buck stories and see some incredible deer that were taken in our county.  As promised Mark Thomas, a member of the QDMA board of directors was the guest speaker, and he did a very good job.  I have to be honest though, and say that his message was a little over the top for me, but his underlying ideas were very good and something I will try and use in the future.

I have to apologize because I don’t have any pictures.  We were allowed to take cameras in, but it would have been too much of a hassle to get everyone’s permission to put their pictures up on the website.  A friend of mine took some pictures of all of us at the event so when I get them from him I will share (hopefully you read this Ron).

All in all a good night, good food, and it went to a good cause.  I’m looking forward to the QDMA REACH banquet in April.

Popularity: 22% [?]