SPORTSMEN: Question dismissals

Dear Governor Otter,

This letter is written to inform you of our disappointment with your decision to seek replacements for Idaho Fish and Game Commission chairman Mark Doerr of Twin Falls and sitting vice-chairman Will Naillon of Salmon. We recognize that the commission serves at your pleasure and that commission decisions are always controversial. However, we must question the motives involved in this unfortunate decision, given that these two men have performed well and remain popular with sportsmen. Their only failing appears to be having found themselves on the wrong side of the usual group of Legislators; a group which generates new Fish and Game controversies every session.

In 1938, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission was created by voter initiative. The people of Idaho did this for the expressed purpose of having a Fish and Game Department that is free from manipulation by the Legislature. This was necessary because every generation produces powerful men willing to benefit themselves by acting contrary to the best interests of the public and the wildlife held in trust for that public by the state. The most recent Legislature was rife with bills introduced to reduce public land and wildlife to private benefit. Bills were also introduced to punish the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and the Commission for resisting some of these attacks on those citizens who value wildlife and wild places.

In short, they were to be punished for doing their jobs. The Idaho legislature’s actions against Fish and Game, the commission and the public who value them have grown so outrageous that they defy belief. Hopefully they were outrageous enough that the public will sit up and take notice. We now depend on our Fish and Game commissioners to defend us from men who provide little evidence of concern for the interests of their constituents.

We the undersigned protest this unprofessional behavior from our Legislature and the dismissal of Commissioners Doerr and Naillon. Since you have long been a friend of the Idaho Chapter of SCI we hope that this handful of malcontent Legislators has not convinced you that their interests supersede ours, and those of the larger public.

Respectfully — The Officers and Board of the Idaho Chapter of Safari Club International.

Tony Hafla, president; John Kolbet, vice president; Les Stone, treasurer; Jackie Hafla, secretary

Bruce Mincher, board member; Eric Krassa, board member; Rich Wabrek, board member

Erik Butts, board member; Judy Wabrek, board member; Howard Johnson, board member

Nick Rice, board member