Save our hardwoods

A Forest is Being Murdered.

We are a group of voting sportsman and sportswomen who wish to express our outrage at the abuse of our public lands by our own government agencies, often at the behest of environmental groups pressing their own agenda. Our native forests and habitats are being destroyed by the cutting down and excessive burning of oak hammocks, sand pine forests and scrub tracts of land.

Some of our most pristine forests have been turned into open palmetto flats that will never recover in our lifetime. All of this destruction is being perpetrated by tunnel visioned land managers using taxpayer monies and land to conduct single species management for the scrub jay and the grasshopper sparrow for example. No consideration is being given for other native species nor is any input from other user groups, such as hunters being taken into account. Many of us have lived in Florida and hunted these forests our entire lives, as have our families before us, and we feel we have an innate knowledge of the land that should be solicited and have weight beyond that of those who are basing their decisions on theory.

There are government employees, in supervisory positions with the agencies who are responsible for these public lands, who are also on the boards of environmental groups, such as the Sierra Club, Classic, and Audubon Society, who have an anti-hunting agenda. These employees are using their position to hinder or even ban other user groups, such as hunters, from using public lands to which we have equal right of access. This is a conflict of interest! These employees are paid by taxpayers, and should be responsive to all citizens, not just these special interest groups.

They say that they want to return these lands to the way they were before the European settlers arrived in Florida, but the European settlers did not plant the oak hammocks, sand pines or native scrub that is being destroyed so that justification makes no sense at all.

Most of these tracts of land were acquired under the C.A.R.L Act which specified that these areas are to be protected as they were when acquired due to their unique habitats. These lands were never meant to be an environmental experiment.

The state claims that they are running out of money to pay for managed check stations on management areas but the state can pay a biologist thirty-five thousand dollars a year to count frogs, or fifty thousand dollars to count scrub jays. Without manned check stations on these areas there is no means to collect data on the game species to ensure proper population management. Also, the lack of manned check stations limits the control that law enforcement has on poachers and limits how officers can enforce the rules and regulations.

We have attended meetings on the proposed boundary and time changes but our opposition to these changes has fallen on deaf, or perhaps prejudice, ears. These changes are being made without thorough research, such as that which was previously collected by biologists at manned check stations. The data being used in some areas is outdated, from as much as 40 years ago and other areas are being subjected to change without having ever been researched at all.

Youth hunter participation has declined ten percent over the past ten years and efforts are being made by the government to encourage private landowners to donate land to establish areas on which we can teach and train our youth to be safe and ethical hunters. But there is no need for the State to solicit such land when there are already public lands available which could be used for this purpose if the special interest groups were not blocking such action. We are told that changing to allow such use would involve too much red tape, but the reality is that these groups hope to eliminate recreational hunting altogether, if not by destroying the habitat then by attrition.

The tax money used to destroy the unique habitats of Florida should be spent eliminating all of the invasive plants and animals that have been dumped onto our lands and that are murdering our native forests. We have played God with nature too many times with negative results to continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. Nature should be natural, no manufactured, based on someone's theory of how things should be.

Sportsmen pay more tax dollars than any other user groups on these lands. Sportsmen have a vested interest in maintaining the health of the environment so they can continue to enjoy the land in the future. Sportsmen spend time in these habitats and know what needs to be done to care for them if only someone will listen. If you want to stop the destruction of these public lands, speak with a native born Floridian who can tell you what places such as Arbuckle Tract, Walk-in-Water, Three Lakes, and Avon Park Bombing Range have been in the past and should be in the future, not what certain biased officials of the Division of Forestry and the Florida Wildlife Commission tell you.

We are a growing organization and we are going to make a change by voice and by vote. If you are willing to help us with our cause or would like to speak with us please contact us as noted below.

Thank you for your time.
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Saveourhardwoods@hotmail.com
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