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Bill Cochran

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BILL: While I might agree with the Virginia Bear Hunters Association about sportsmen's comments falling through the cracks with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, I cannot imagine the association wanting to reinstate “feeding” of bears. This is just a thinly veiled attempt to allow bait hunting and the “chase all night” request is equally silly.

Requesting consideration of these things, in addition to lengthening the season, it would seem that the Virginia Bear Hunters Association would be happy to kill every bear in Virginia, and then bemoan the loss as the Department’s fault.

As for cleaning up their ranks of outlaws, I wonder if all the bear hunter/members that were ticketed last fall for various violations were in any way punished by the Association.

If the Virginia Bear Hunters Association is saying they speak for Virginia’s bear hunters, then they must take responsibility for the bad with the good. A good way to start would be for the Association to publish a list of convicted bear hunting violators in The Roanoke Times. Perhaps the Game Department should help them out with that, so they could clean up their ranks.

If organized bear hunters want better relations with the public and the Department, let them do away with their radio tracking collars, radios and truck-chases on bear hunts. They have turned a wonderful, pure man/dog sport into a cheap, tawdry high-tech race to the kill. It’s no wonder that bear hunting gets a bad rap in the eyes of the public.

BILL: This [Hunters for the Hungry] is truly a great cause and I can think of no better way for my son to learn the values of becoming an outdoorsman than to offer this good fortune of tagging in a deer and helping others to eat.

I differ with you on the mandatory check off of $2, though. The donation of my son’s one buck should be enough. I paid over $72 this year for my licenses alone and I only hunt on family-owned property. I understand what these fees are used for and generally agree to pay them year after year.

For myself, I’m against anything being mandatory. Telling, demanding anyone to contribute to another’s cause rubs me the wrong way. I would like the opportunity to donate what I feel I can, when I can on my own.

The government already demands seat belts and helmets -- where does it stop? As an adult with children, it is my responsibility for the welfare of my children. I pay $439 a month in Fairfax County real estate tax. Where does it stop? I demand that everyone donate $1 to me so I can afford the $80K-plus to send off my kid to college for the next four years.

Please don’t think of me as rude. I donate my time as often as I can, whether to clean up the shores of the Potomac or while trail hiking. What little money I have left at the end of each week after all the deductions is mine and another mandatory anything is pushing me to my limits. I’m a member of the average Joe’s club and would like to have the choice as to where I donate my money.

Sorry if this comes off harsh. I don’t’ mean it to be. Protecting what little I have left over has become mandatory for me.

BILL: Green Top is one of my regular stops (See last week’s Field Reports). A couple times a year I'll make the pilgrimage up and back through that blasted tunnel to go to Richmond and Green Top. I probably spend as much money there as I do everywhere else. Their product selection is excellent, which translate into them having all of the special little stuff that I'm queer for after 40 years in the woods. Prices are reasonable. Their counter expertise is exceptional, and their customer service attitude is excellent as well. I'm also a little too fond of the barbecue vendor that has set up shop in their side parking lot.