From Doug's site,
Some of you have heard that the General Assembly has “deferred” a decision on weather to “sunset” the TWRA’s 13-member commission. This is serious news, not something that should be overlooked. It could be that a few members of the House--and that is where this deferrel is coming from (not the Senate). I’m not sure which issue these few House members are upset about, but I do know that the sportsmen of Tennessee don’t deserve to be a part of whatever issue these members have. And this is the second year that the “sunset” provision has been used to threaten the existence of TWRA as we know it. I’m not going to name names, in part because I really don’t know them, but am I going to tell you the sportsmen that the sunsetting of the commission would open doors wide to the whims of political motivations. I promise you that you do not want your fish or wildlife managed by folks with politics in mind and not the resource.
Sunsetting the body that governs TWRA would ultimately leave the agency in ae lurch. Who would govern decison made? Where would TWRA end up? Where would management ideas come from and who would administer them? There might not be a single job lost, but what would happen to the management of our fish and wildlife?
You may be thinking, can a committee make such enormous changes to our wildlife agency without input from the full House and Senate? My understanding is yes, it could. I urge you to visit the Tennessee Wildlife Federation’s website to learn more since this is the primary organizaton of sportsmen who work with the legislature on a daily basis (
http://www.tnwf.org/).
The TWRA in its current form was created in 1974 to remove politics--as much as is possible--from wildlife management. Sure, governors appoint commission members and so there definitely are some poltics involved. But, open it even more to scores of legislators and watch out.
You may not see this in the main press for a while. And everything may soon smooth over. But, I’ll tell you again---it would be a bad idea for the sake of average sportsmen (like me) to lose your wildlife commission.
As a sportsman of Tennessee who has purchased licenses for nearly 40 years, I’m concerned about the future of an agency that, while not perfect, has made a many good decisions and worked hard to create a wonderful hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing state.