New Jersey Sportsmen united with new group
12-27-2004, 01:11 PM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: GOOD OLD JERSEY SHORE
Posts: 15
New Jersey Sportsmen united with new group
The outdoors have been my life for most of my 56 years. I remember walking the fields in Plainsboro and Grovers Mills and hunting pheasants and rabbits in the fall, then fishing the irrigation ponds for bass, pickerel and crappie. Of course, that is all gone, replaced by houses and asphalt.
While the landscape has changed and the numbers of hunters and fishermen in New Jersey has dropped over the years, there are still better than 2 million hunters and fishermen in New Jersey (throw in boaters and other outdoors enthusiasts and that number more than doubles), and some are very angry at the things that happened in 2004.
Unfair regulations on the saltwater fishing front, a Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) commissioner who plays politics with the state's wildlife, a supreme court that makes laws from the bench and puts itself above laws made by the legislature and misuse of money from the hunter and angler fund have forced Garden State sportsmen into finally doing something that should have been done years ago: Coming together to fight for their rights as sportsmen and women.
Two weeks back on a Sunday, when most people were out holiday shopping, some 200-plus sportsmen met at the Sportsmen's Center in Bordentown[/b]. This was not just hunters, or just fishermen, it was a diversified collection of people from every type of outdoor sport and activity throughout the state. In all the years I have been an outdoors writer I have never seen as many people representing such a variety of outdoor interests in one room.
And while many of the groups who had representatives at the meeting have had their ins and outs with other groups who attended the meeting, there was no dissension in the room as to the fact that it was time to draw the line in the sand and say enough is enough.
The result was the newly formed New Jersey Sportsmen's Congress (NJSC).
One of the main topics at the meeting was the complete disregard DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell has for New Jersey sportsmen. For someone like Campbell to come out with the statement that "he is the steward of New Jersey's wildlife," a job given to the Fish and Game Council by the state legislature and upheld by the courts on at least two other occasions, shows you just how far this disregard goes. Especially since Campbell has no degrees in wildlife management and even less experience. As one person at the meeting put it to me, "Commissioner Campbell has set fish and wildlife management in this state back 20 years by turning the state's wildlife into a political football."
One of the main reasons the NJSC was formed was to take politics out of wildlife management and put it back into the hands of the biologists who use sound, proven fish and wildlife management based on science, not emotions or for political gain.
The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife has a lot of problems. The loss of personnel (the Division has gone from 260-plus employees to around 220 in the last three years), misuse of money from the Hunter & Angler Fund and falling revenues are but a few of the problems the Division has seen in the last couple of years and some of the things that need to be looked into.
Many sportsmen who attended the meeting blame these and other problems on mismanagement of the Division by the DEP. The Division personnel who have done their jobs with skill and competence for many years now are unable to do their jobs effectively because they are being micro-managed by the DEP, something that was unheard of until Campbell took over. Why pay skilled and trained personnel to do a job, then not allow them to do it?
The year 2005 is just days away, and the newly formed NJSC needs the help of every sportsman and woman in the state. If your organization was not represented at the first meeting, make sure it is at the next meeting. If you don't belong to a club or organization, then join one. Even if you don't, support the new organization, as they are fighting for your rights as a sportsman.
Think of it this way. Politicians in New Jersey cater to the unions. The two things they understand are money and votes. Well, the NJSC is nothing more than a union of sportsmen, and there are 2 million sportsmen in New Jersey. Likewise, those 2 million sportsmen spend, by recent estimates, in excess of $1 billion in New Jersey.
While doing lectures and shows, and in many of the e-mails I get from readers, one of the most often asked questions is, "Why doesn't someone do something?"
While the landscape has changed and the numbers of hunters and fishermen in New Jersey has dropped over the years, there are still better than 2 million hunters and fishermen in New Jersey (throw in boaters and other outdoors enthusiasts and that number more than doubles), and some are very angry at the things that happened in 2004.
Unfair regulations on the saltwater fishing front, a Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) commissioner who plays politics with the state's wildlife, a supreme court that makes laws from the bench and puts itself above laws made by the legislature and misuse of money from the hunter and angler fund have forced Garden State sportsmen into finally doing something that should have been done years ago: Coming together to fight for their rights as sportsmen and women.
Two weeks back on a Sunday, when most people were out holiday shopping, some 200-plus sportsmen met at the Sportsmen's Center in Bordentown[/b]. This was not just hunters, or just fishermen, it was a diversified collection of people from every type of outdoor sport and activity throughout the state. In all the years I have been an outdoors writer I have never seen as many people representing such a variety of outdoor interests in one room.
And while many of the groups who had representatives at the meeting have had their ins and outs with other groups who attended the meeting, there was no dissension in the room as to the fact that it was time to draw the line in the sand and say enough is enough.
The result was the newly formed New Jersey Sportsmen's Congress (NJSC).
One of the main topics at the meeting was the complete disregard DEP Commissioner Bradley Campbell has for New Jersey sportsmen. For someone like Campbell to come out with the statement that "he is the steward of New Jersey's wildlife," a job given to the Fish and Game Council by the state legislature and upheld by the courts on at least two other occasions, shows you just how far this disregard goes. Especially since Campbell has no degrees in wildlife management and even less experience. As one person at the meeting put it to me, "Commissioner Campbell has set fish and wildlife management in this state back 20 years by turning the state's wildlife into a political football."
One of the main reasons the NJSC was formed was to take politics out of wildlife management and put it back into the hands of the biologists who use sound, proven fish and wildlife management based on science, not emotions or for political gain.
The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife has a lot of problems. The loss of personnel (the Division has gone from 260-plus employees to around 220 in the last three years), misuse of money from the Hunter & Angler Fund and falling revenues are but a few of the problems the Division has seen in the last couple of years and some of the things that need to be looked into.
Many sportsmen who attended the meeting blame these and other problems on mismanagement of the Division by the DEP. The Division personnel who have done their jobs with skill and competence for many years now are unable to do their jobs effectively because they are being micro-managed by the DEP, something that was unheard of until Campbell took over. Why pay skilled and trained personnel to do a job, then not allow them to do it?
The year 2005 is just days away, and the newly formed NJSC needs the help of every sportsman and woman in the state. If your organization was not represented at the first meeting, make sure it is at the next meeting. If you don't belong to a club or organization, then join one. Even if you don't, support the new organization, as they are fighting for your rights as a sportsman.
Think of it this way. Politicians in New Jersey cater to the unions. The two things they understand are money and votes. Well, the NJSC is nothing more than a union of sportsmen, and there are 2 million sportsmen in New Jersey. Likewise, those 2 million sportsmen spend, by recent estimates, in excess of $1 billion in New Jersey.
While doing lectures and shows, and in many of the e-mails I get from readers, one of the most often asked questions is, "Why doesn't someone do something?"
12-27-2004, 02:18 PM
#3
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Andover NJ USA
Posts: 226
RE: New Jersey Sportsmen united with new group
It's actually NJ Outdoor Congress.
Membership is still being ironed out. Details will be posted at www.njoutdoorcongress.org
Membership is still being ironed out. Details will be posted at www.njoutdoorcongress.org
12-27-2004, 04:16 PM
#5
Join Date: May 2004
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 207
RE: New Jersey Sportsmen united with new group
Sounds like a great group i just e mailed the general information spot asking them how i can get info on becoming a member.
I belong to every other pro hunting group in this state another one cant hurt.(ubnj etc)
I belong to every other pro hunting group in this state another one cant hurt.(ubnj etc)
