HR 972-To establish a wildlife refuge in west Riverside County

[PewPew252]

This is a bipartisan bill to open a wildlife refuge in west Riverside County. Take 2 minutes to write your congressman to support/co sponsor the bill. It is introduced by a Republican, and co sponsored by a Democrat, so it doesn't matter what party your rep is from.​

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Shown Here:
Introduced in House (02/11/2021)​

Wildlife Refuge Conservation and Recreation for the Community Act

This bill directs the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to establish as a national wildlife refuge the lands, waters, and interests therein acquired pursuant to this bill, to be known as the Western Riverside County National Wildlife Refuge.

The FWS shall publish notice of the establishment of the wildlife refuge in the Federal Register.

The FWS shall establish the acquisition boundaries of the wildlife refuge as the lands and waters within the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan Area.

 

[Hunter527]

Will there be duck hunting on this refuge?

 

[PewPew252]

Will there be duck hunting on this refuge?

I sure hope so.

 

[GUNDOGLOVER49]

I did a little searching and all I could find is. If established as a refuge, the land, 150,000 acres could one day be open to hunting. The bills text makes no mention of hunt, but says, for recreational use.

 

[PewPew252]

I did a little searching and all I could find is. If established as a refuge, the land, 150,000 acres could one day be open to hunting. The bills text makes no mention of hunt, but says, for recreational use.

It would put it in DFW hands I believe, and according to DFW, a wildlife refuge with no hunting is uncommon.

 

[Designed2Hunt]

There is no mention of hunting in the current plan, and historically hunters have not shown up in significant numbers to advocate for their position. San Diego and many other areas in CA have lost the opportunity to hunt state and federal land in the past few decades for this reason. We can get 600+ ppl to attend a spring turkey tune up but getting 10 people to show to advocate for hunting land is a herculean task....and then ppl complain that hunting spots are crowded. Numbers of advocates would need to be consistently high at meeting after meeting to have our positions heard and counter the anti's.

 

[sportyg]

What is the bill number, want to look it up and read it oops just noticed it in the heading. Message sent to Ruiz.

 

[PewPew252]

What is the bill number, want to look it up and read it

HR 972, in the title.

 

[GUNDOGLOVER49]

What is the bill number, want to look it up and read it

H.R. 972 ???????????????????

 

[PewPew252]

There is no mention of hunting in the current plan, and historically hunters have not shown up in significant numbers to advocate for their position. San Diego and many other areas in CA have lost the opportunity to hunt state and federal land in the past few decades for this reason. We can get 600+ ppl to attend a spring turkey tune up but getting 10 people to show to advocate for hunting land is a herculean task....and then ppl complain that hunting spots are crowded. Numbers of advocates would need to be consistently high at meeting after meeting to have our positions heard and counter the anti's.

I agree, but there was a good deal of advocacy in getting rid of the bear hunting ban. Do you know of any wildlife refuges that are not huntable? I understand there's BLM and National forest land they've taken, but I don't know of any refuges where there's no hunting, then again I don't know a lot of things..

The information that made me think it will be huntable is from the DFW website where they say that refuges are almost always huntable.

 

[ilovesprig]

San Diego Bay NWR to name one that doesn't allow hunting....And we used to hunt there.

 

[Designed2Hunt]

I agree, but there was a good deal of advocacy in getting rid of the bear hunting ban. Do you know of any wildlife refuges that are not huntable? I understand there's BLM and National forest land they've taken, but I don't know of any refuges where there's no hunting, then again I don't know a lot of things..

The information that made me think it will be huntable is from the DFW website where they say that refuges are almost always huntable.

Pixley, tijauana, SD,, Oceano, bitter creek, seal beach, ellicot, san joaquin, hopper mtn, large parts of sunny bono and imperial, batisquitos, jamul ER could have been a WA. Holenbeck has limited access, that spot where @ilovesprig just posted the monster buck could have been huntable, but less than 10 hunters showed up. More ppl for the mtn bike community, who are not friendly to hunters interests, showed up . Plenty of other ERs that could have been WAs. Need i go on? We, as a community, should be fired up about this stuff.

 

[HATCHET1]

If there's a dove hunt..I'm in.

 

[HATCHET1]

Post covid of course...

 

[sportyg]

you can look them up on the dfwg website there are a few that are not Hunt able

 

[ilovesprig]

Pixley, tijauana, SD,, Oceano, bitter creek, seal beach, ellicot, san joaquin, hopper mtn, large parts of sunny bono and imperial, batisquitos, jamul ER could have been a WA. Holenbeck has limited access, that spot where @ilovesprig just posted the monster buck could have been huntable, but less than 10 hunters showed up. More ppl for the mtn bike community, who are not friendly to hunters interests, showed up . Plenty of other ERs that could have been WAs. Need i go on? We, as a community, should be fired up about this stuff.

If you're talking about Canada de San Vicente, I was there along with MJB and a few other SCH'ers...The biker crowd were most certainly the loudest.

ps...I have toured the property since then and I do believe they had a limited dove hunt last year...We're also scheduled to have a youth turkey hunt next spring.

 

[Designed2Hunt]

Yes, I agree the bikers and anti's were the loudest. I was also at that meeting with my wife along with cal and jack. There is a small core group of the hunting community lead by long time advocates like @ilovesprig that show up to these opportunities and carry the ball for everyone else, but that's not enough ppl to counter other interests.

As you mentioned, the property has very limited hunting access. In my opinion, if 600+ hunters were involved in the process since the inception of property, there is a good chance that we would have more access.

 

[ilovesprig]

Yes, I agree the bikers and anti's were the loudest. I was also at that meeting with my wife along with cal and jack. There is a small core group of the hunting community lead by long time advocates like @ilovesprig that show up to these opportunities and carry the ball for everyone else, but that's not enough ppl to counter other interests.

As you mentioned, the property has very limited hunting access. In my opinion, if 600+ hunters were involved in the process since the inception of property, there is a good chance that we would have more access.

Totally agree...The hunting community has been very complacent...The anti's and special interest groups, not so much.

ps...We (NWTF) have meetings every month here in San Diego that covers many of todays issues and what we need to do politically...We barely can get folks to attend.

 

[PewPew252]

Totally agree...The hunting community has been very complacent...The anti's and special interest groups, not so much.

ps...We (NWTF) have meetings every month here in San Diego that covers many of todays issues and what we need to do politically...We barely can get folks to attend.

Would love to come but those are 3 hour drives on weekdays.

 

[ilovesprig]

Would love to come but those are 3 hour drives on weekdays.

I understand...There are a number of hunting & shooting clubs/organizations in the LA and Orange Co. area...I was also told that NWTF is going to start new chapters in Santa Barbara & LA.