Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.

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Bill Cochran's Outdoors

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• Hunters and anglers still in the conservation business
• Drum fishing on Virginia’s Coast comes in two colors
• Elk advocate finally gets his day
• Turkeys are plentiful, so why are hunting regulations so tight fisted?
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Bill's Mailbag

• Remembering A. Willis Robertson
• Putting down a bear cub brings complaint
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• Eagles are up; black rail are down
• A. Willis Robertson great name for new DGIF headquarters
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A few weeks ago, Carter “Butch” Ammon was ready to give up hunting and fishing in Virginia. He sharply opposed the $5 increase in nearly 60 license fees and permits that the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries approved in June.

“I feel like I am getting robbed,” Ammon said during a DGIF public input period. If the state is going to charge more, then it should offer more value, Ammon said. For him, that meant Sunday hunting.

A 45-year old Richmond resident, Ammon sent a full-page message to the DGIF. In it, he said he would like to know why license fees were being raised at a time when some “very, very negative things” were being said about DGIF.

He described himself as “one of the many loud voices of complaints” regarding the ban on Sunday hunting. He explained that he did not own land; rather, he hunted on public wildlife management areas which were crowded to the point that he was ready to give up on them. He told a little bit about himself, “I am a clean-cut, white-collared, computer programmer.”

A few days later, Ammon was jolted when he received a response from the office of Col. Gerald Massengill, interim director of DGIF. Massengill invited him to come to his office for a chat.

“I am more nervous than a cat in a room full of rocking chairs,” Ammon said when he received the unexpected invitation.

The one-on-one with Massengill lasted more than an hour. Ammon came away a changed man, defused by the wise, straight-shooting demeanor of Massengill, a retired State Police superintendent who on May 24, 2005, was sent by the governor to troubleshoot the floundering DGIF.

“I had a fantastic meeting with Col. Massengill,” he said. “It was beautiful. I can’t put words to it. I have a whole new outlook now that I understand what the Game and Fisheries is going through and how diligently Col. Massengill is working to assure that everything will run smoothly. He is a man who cares tremendously for the DGIF and the future of hunting and fishing.”

Massengill said he wished he had more time for meeting with constituents. He invited Ammon for a chat, he said, because he had raised some reasonable questions. “If we have a citizen who needs our attention, I am going to make myself available,” he said.

The need for the agency to regain the trust of its constitutes is vital, said Massengill. The agency’s support and authority, not just its finances, comes from sportsmen, he said.

That trust has been lagging, following reports of abuses, misuses and poor judgment by previous leaders of the agency. More than half of the sportsmen participating in a recent public input period opposed increases in hunting and fishing license fees. Often the comments were hostile and sarcastic. In the past, major constitute organizations would line up to back proposals made by the DGIF staff and board, but not this time.

The agency has labored to establish check and balances and has turned bad audits into good ones, but it has a long way to go to win back constitutes.

“Like any relationship, I suspect it is going to take awhile for it to mend,” said Massengill. “Maybe, in some cases, it never will go back to where it was.”

Massengill told Ammon that the DGIF needs to be more open about where it gets its money and how it spends it. An upcoming issue of Virginia Wildlife will be dedicated to that message. A financial page is going to become part of the agency’s Web site.

“We do, indeed, have to work smarter with what we have, which means some strong strategic planning to get a roadmap that will take us to where we want to go,” Massengill said. “All those things we have started.”

Massengill has reorganized the education and information arm of the agency, placing it under the capable leadership of veteran career officer David Whitehurst.

“There are so many things that this agency does that are positive and this needs to get out to the people in some form,” Massengill said.

Ammon, for one, got the message.