Visit SCI's website.

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

South Carolina Wildlife Federation

National Rifle Association

Gun Owners of America

Africa News

US Department of State Travel Information

Larry Gilbert provided the following information about this important issue.  Please contact your Legislators and let them know how you feel about the SCDNR's budget being slashed!

FYI regarding Pat Robinsons column in the State paper and his note to other members.

Fellow SCOPe members,
We need to bring all the forces we can to bear on the people who are
supposed to be representing us in Columbia. Jim's column today was right on
target. Here's the one I wrote in The State today:
Pat

South Carolinians enjoy a multitude of natural resources and some of the
best hunting, fishing, boating, paddling, hiking, camping and wildlife
watching that can be found anywhere in the country ? in the world for that
matter.
But our rich natural heritage is in serious danger of being diluted,
damaged and, in many cases, destroyed. The fate of the state's hunters,
fishermen and wildlife lovers is in the hands of the state legislature.
And they are doing a deplorable job of protecting the future of our great
outdoors by gutting the S.C. Department of Natural Resources under the
guise of budget cuts.
Three years ago total DNR funding in the state budget was $30 million, less
than * of one percent of the state?s total budget. Since then the agency's
budget has been slashed by $10 million and next year's budget will drop it
down to $17.4 million ? a 42 percent cut in just four years!
That?s far more than any other state agency has had to endure.
?Everyone must tighten the belt some,? said Bob Bailey, executive director
of the South Carolina Sporting Protection League, a lobbying organization
for the state?s hunter?s fishermen and other outdoors men. ?But, to have one
agency penalized so out of line with the rest of state government says that
the General Assembly does not care about the future of our natural
resources.?
The result is crippling. Since 2001 the agency has lost 277 positions ? 80
of them wildlife officers. And no new officers have been hired during that
time.
How does this affect the outdoors man? In 2002 there were 14 boating deaths;
in 2003 there were more than twice that number. Fewer water patrols results
in more serious boating accidents. It?s just that simple.
Perhaps the greatest injustice is what is about to happen to South Carolina
Wildlife Magazine, if sanity does not prevail in the legislature.
More than 60,000 households in South Carolina and every other state and
numerous foreign countries subscribe to S.C. Wildlife. It is such a great
reflection of the state?s people and resources that governors and the
Commerce Department use it to help attract new businesses. The Tourism
Department uses it to encourage non-residents to come here to vacation and
to hunt and fish.
The dollars it has helped bring in as an advertising tool for the State of
South Carolina are incalculable.
Not only that, it is used as an educational tool in classrooms across the
state ? and it has earned more national and international awards than any
other state conservation magazine in the country.
Amazingly, it is produced at a cheaper per copy rate than it was 25 years
ago. What private business or government agency could boast of a quarter
century of zero cost increase?
Here?s how the high quality of the magazine has been maintained while
holding the line on costs. Subscriptions and revenue from the Wildlife
Shop, a sales outlet for wildlife shirts, caps, posters, prints,
photographs and related outdoor items, pay 100 percent of the magazine?s
operating costs.
Less than $300,000 is required for personnel costs, and bear in mind that
the magazine staffers ? writers, photographers and others ? perform many
other duties for the agency besides working on the magazine.
In short, it is the best bargain in state government, period.
Yet, shortsighted legislators would eliminate it.
Rep. Bobby Harrell bobtailed a bill onto the House version of the budget
that would divert the wildlife shop revenue from the magazine and block DNR
from using revenues from any other source than advertising or subscriptions
to support the magazine beginning next year.
With half of its revenue eliminated, the magazine would die ? 51 years of
being a premier ambassador for South Carolina down the drain.
Fortunately, at least for the time being, it appears the Senate is taking a
saner approach to the matter. Yet, in the craziness of creating a final
budget in the last days of a legislative session that has ? as always ?
been bogged down in the mundane instead of sticking to business, anything
could happen and South Carolina Wildlife could by next year be just a sweet
memory.
The magazine issue is just a part of the appalling morass legislative
heavy-handedness has created for what once was a model state wildlife
agency, one admired, respected and often copied by other states.
The legislature is supposed to reflect the voice of the people. So here?s a
legislative lesson for our representatives and senators:
More than 1.7 million of our residents over the age of 16 hunt, fish and
watch wildlife. That?s a powerful constituency.
Those who enjoy and use our natural resources pump more than $3 billion
into the state?s economy every year, pay millions in taxes and create tens
of thousands of jobs. That?s an impressive segment of the state?s economy.
?We sportsmen are also voters,? Bailey said. ?We will remember this
November and we will not support legislators who so irresponsibly throw
aside the value of our fish and wildlife.?
 

This site is best viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer and an 800 x 600 monitor screen setting.

Send mail to scilowcountry@yahoo.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 01/05/09