Michael A Sawyers - Outdoors
Sunday hunts killed
Never count your Sunday bowhunting days until they are in print in the Maryland hunting guide.
I thought it was a done deal. I thought for sure that here in Allegany and Garrett counties we would get four more Sundays on which to use bows and arrows to hunt deer. I thought for sure that either the house bill or the senate bill making it so would get to Governor Martin O’Malley, be signed and become law for this coming hunting season.
I wasn’t alone. Paul Peditto, director of Maryland’s Wildlife Service, told me he thought it was a done deal.
Bill Wilhelm, president of the Allegany-Garrett Sportsmen’s Association told me he thought it was money in the bank.
After all, the house bill passed 129-10. The senate bill passed 45-1. Similar and separate bills asking for the same thing in Frederick and Charles county sailed through, were signed, and are now law.
Cecil County messed up. Legislators there jumped in with our bill for Garrett and Allegany and now have the same thing we do, no additional Sundays.
This was indeed a slam dunk, a dunk that would have brought our two counties to the same level as many others in Maryland where a total of five Sundays are available for bowhunting on private lands. It looks as if, though, somebody didn’t take the ball all the way to the hoop.
I was stunned 10 days ago or so when I called up the Web site for the General Assembly and discovered that both bills had failed.
What happened? That’s what I asked Sen. George Edwards who introduced the senate version.
“I’m as stunned as you,” Edwards said, adding that when he heard of the death of the senate bill he asked his staff to investigate.
“They contacted the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee and were told that after we added Cecil County to make it the same as the house bill that it never came back for concurrence, that it must have gotten lost in the woodwork,” Edwards said.
“When something like this happens, you start to ask yourself ‘Is there someone the committee that I irritated along the way,’ but I can’t think of anyone.”
Edwards said that he can’t remember getting any negative comments about the additional Sunday hunting bill from any of his constituents.
What happened? That’s what I asked Delegate Wendell Beitzel about the house bill, introduced by the entire delegation for the two counties.
After all, only one of the bills had to make it through for the proposal to become law.
Beitzel said he too believed the bills were destined to become law. “I didn’t find out about it until I got home,” he said. The delegate said it is his understanding that the fact that Cecil County was being amended into the bill originially written to have impact on Allegany and Garrett counties that it had to be returned for another committee review and that the legislative session ended before that could happen.
“We will pre-file the bill early so that it will be introduced again next session,” Beitzel said.
Contact Outdoor Editor Mike Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com. The Outdoors page and his column will return to the Cumberland Times-News on Sunday, May 17.
- Michael A Sawyers - Outdoors
-
-
Caution: numbers ahead!
I know it can get a little crazy when we start throwing around deer harvest numbers.
-
Now, now, let’s not be bow snobs
I know this won’t happen, of course, but I’d like to see all hunters support the Maryland Wildlife & Heritage Service proposal that would legalize crossbows for all licensed hunters throughout the deer archery season.
-
New Md. hunt rules look good
The GPS unit on the dashboard of our hunting truck has gotten us halfway to our new hunting regulation destination in Maryland.
-
Keep early hunts
On Feb. 28, that’s next Sunday, West Virginia’s natural resources commissioners will be presented at a meeting in South Charleston with the recommendations of their biologists for the upcoming hunting seasons.
-
Surprise fishing regulations not cool
In a column in June I wrote, “I believe that the folks who run the Maryland Inland Fisheries Division are trying to become better communicators...”
-
Conceive, propose, finalize
From what I know thus far, this could be an exciting regulation year for Maryland hunters, especially turkey hunters.
-
Hook slides! Hook spurs! Trout hooks!
As you know, I’m gaga about spring gobbler hunting.
-
That’s a shooter
am the luckiest deer hunter in the world.
-
Hunt regs up for talk
In a little more than two months, probably sometime in March, the Maryland Wildlife and Heritage Service will conduct public hearings about changes to the hunting regulations that will be in effect from the fall of 2010 through the spring of 2012.
-
Odds and ends at year’s end
You may remember that I complained annually that it took the Maryland Wildlife and Heritage Service too long to let us know how many deer had been killed.
It did. Take too long that is.
- More Michael A Sawyers - Outdoors Headlines
-
Caution: numbers ahead!
