My message to Nevada Department of Wildlife commissioners is to give democracy a chance.
Postpone the decision on hunting bears for one year. It is too controversial and polarizing. Let Nevadans form focus groups at the county level to discuss bear management philosophies and strategies. People such as myself, and the 500 signatures on the petition I submit to you who oppose the bear hunt, have no real voice. I am given three minutes to speak to deaf ears and made-up minds.
A person such as myself cannot even serve on a county wildlife advisory board. One is required to be a sportsman to do so, according to the job description on the NDOW website. This imbalanced representation continues at the state level of appointments to the commission. This is not representative government, but the hijacking of a government institution for the expression of hunter philosophies and outcomes.
The proposed bear hunt is totally out of touch and out of step with Northern Nevada's vision of the future. The Chamber of Commerce's, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the Visitor and Convention Authorities of both North and South Lake Tahoe, have united the public and private sector in a vision for economic development and prosperity surrounding four economic clusters. Tahoe and Nevada are being promoted as an international stage and destination for ecotourism, sustainability and green innovation.
Bear advocates are a large part of this initiative. The next international exposition of this initiative occurs next summer at the Lake. I submit you support materials regarding this.
It will be pretty embarrassing and sad to have our Department of Wildlife policies so contrary to the vision of local private and public sectors.
Tahoe bears and what happens to them are the stuff of legend. Our bears are not just a statistic, but cultural icons. The whole nation watches. I submit to you just one recent example of many, a lengthy article published this year in the Wall Street Journal, about the Wild West exploits of Bubba and Carl Lackey. Note in the article, that when Bubba consumed a massive amount of peanut butter by breaking into an Incline church, even the pastor felt Bubba should be treated kindly, in the pastor's opinion, that being the Christian thing to do.
Bubba was the wildlife equivalent to Fast Food Nation. He had real talent and should have been a reality television star instead of a bear death.
"Biggest Losers," Dr. Drew's rehab or Kristie Alley's "Living Large" could all benefit from Bubba still being with us. Is the nation now going to watch as Nevada's solution to human misbehavior in handling trash to be to inflict further injustice and cruelty upon these beautiful creatures, as the commission suggests, by hunting them to raise money to support humans, who are either not paying attention, or are too lazy or cheap to properly handle their trash? It will be an embarrassing and sad day for Nevada as this chapter plays out in the national and international court of public opinion.
Commissioners, please postphone the decision for one year. Let Nevadans join the initiative endorsed by all Northern Nevada private and public sectors and develop innovative bear management policies that can be presented as an international model at next year's exposition. Give democracy a chance.
Kathryn Bricker is a Zephyr Cove resident. She said she has lived in harmony with bears for 40 years.
