January 2008 Updates page 6
13 January
Long time archery hunter, recurring success.
Thanks guys. You all are great to work with. Congratulations and we wish you all the best of luck to come.
11 January
Pheasant w/o Dog
Congratulations Klint. We all recognize great dads make great kids. Thank you working with a new youth hunter and for showing how it is done without a dog.
Our Side
CA Appeals Court Rules Unanimously in Favor of SAF Lawsuit.
BELLEVUE, Wash., Jan. 9, PRNewswire-USNewswire. In a unanimous decision today, the California Court of Appeals ruled that the City of San Francisco's handgun ban is illegal under state law, upholding a lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation...
Senators Push for Guns in National Parks, by Matthew Daly, Washintgton (AP), January 10, 2008.
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Nearly half the Senate is pushing the Bush administration to let gun owners carry handguns and other firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges...infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners who wish to transport and carry firearms on or across these lands," the senators wrote..."
Farming
We continue to be in a dynamic agricultural period that will invariably have second order effects on hunting. Any one piece of land can support only so much activity.
"...Fischer said he has seen firsthand the benefit a soybean-biodiesel plant can have for nearby farmers. 'We have seen the price of soybeans escalate over the last 60 days," he said. "When we started this project, soybeans were $6 a bushel. Now, it's $12 a bushel. It's just a higher demand for the product.'..."
Soy-diesel plant gets cooking near Nevada, by Melissa Dunson, Nevada, Mo., The Joplin Globe, January 09, 2008.
There is a positive in terms of hunting second order effect. With grain prices having an increasingly larger profit margins and farmers having only so much time, more of that time will be committed to making more money raising grain than cattle. Less cattle leaves more pasture for wildlife.
CRP
Conservation program takes hit as crop prices rise, Thursday, Jan 10, 2008, Lincoln, NE., AP.
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...Federal records show that the state's [Nebraska] active inventory in the Conservation Reserve Program declined about 6.5 percent between September and November, from 1.34 million acres to about 1.25 million..."
The Dakotas continue to get the most press coverage relative to pheasant and duck hunter concerns, however the farm grain price effect covers everywhere there is CRP. This is expected to continue as the average CRP acre price paid is around $50, below what grain will pay and not having been increased over time relative to cash rent and property taxes.
