Of course not Pat, you know better. Let's talk about a club environment for instance. Say a new member suggests a hunt at a state park where he has hunted for years, with no problems. He has knowledge of the rangers and their interests, knows the rules are simple, state parks are under the discretion of the local site ranger as far as md'ing goes. Now the other members of the club, who are timid, sheepish and almost afraid that their hobby might offend someone speak out against him, saying state parks are off limits in total, never mind their inability to quote the regulations, which are posted at the site.
Well say this member shows them a permit for a particular state park and tells them this is the procedure at some, others are posted off limits while still others have little regard whether or not you hunt here. So a few of the members start this process where they start calling the state office, Springfield, straight to the top of the chain and begin wanting to know specifics about the hobby of md'ing and it's limitations. In fact they are directed to the state archaeologist for specifics, who is brought in to make such determinations. Well guess which way such determinations are going to go?
After years of having hunt sites w/o any issue, now some of the most remote, unheard of sites have had their site rangers "educated" about md'ing. Do you think their education involved anything of benefit to us? Don't bet on it. All of a sudden sites are off limits or severely restricted. Not because I'd hunted them for years, because some bureaucrat directed the issue to a policy advisor, both of whom were unaware that it was an issue until they started getting calls on it from who? Someone calling several times to ascertain md status, chasing it up the chain to get the bureaucrat they apparently wanted.
Another example is a medium sized town downstate where I hunted a park, in full view of local police, showing them the digs to their amazement and passive curiosity. When I told a non-md'er who lived there it's a great site he thought it a great idea to make sure it's okay to hunt there. Called the city hall and bingo, no md'ing in the parks in town there. The cops did not mind one bit. Until they were told to. What prompted their new direction to that end? A single call.
We have too many hand-wringing md'ers who are from parts and periods of the country where you could trust local authorities to deem something as benign as md'ing as fair play for a hobby. We do not have a country with that mindset anymore. Creeks are plainly marked no wading, might step on a crawdad, walks in the woods are done only on designated trails, might squash a dandelion.
I'm just saying that if you're a timid person who needs specific permission to hunt public property keep in mind you are probably gonna get me cutoff and that will make me much more po'ed than it will you. You will go on asking and maybe get an okay here and there. But the more likley scenario is a desk jockey will see you as an outlier on the human activity bell curve, one that can be dismissed with little regard. Somewhere beneath skateboarders, who now even follow the rules and only board in designated areas.
If this offends you then don't get mad at me, look at the record and the public officials who are continually limiting what you can do and where you can do it. I've never had a face to face with any official that resulted in restriction because I do not ask them what I can do and where, I tell them they need to learn the conceptual difference between public service and "public serves us"
They're on my payroll, not the other way around. We should all start acting like we're aware of that!
