We, the undersigned, are BOYCOTTING, ALL, Alabama State Parks, until 'Special (Deer) Hunting Seasons,' in all state parks, are permanently revoked. Our state parks were created to be SANCTUARIES for game animals and wildlife, NOT 'hunting farms'!
In January of 2004, Barnett Lawley, Commissioner of Alabama's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, set a very dangerous precedent. He signed an ILLEGAL 'emergency rule,' to enable a special public deer bowhunt in Oak Mountain State Park. In doing so, he accommodated his department's clientele, the hunters of Alabama, who make up only 7% of this state's population.
Espousing the hunter's opportunistic mantra of 'overpopulation', Alabama's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources set the precedent of managing wildlife in a state park through killing.
(Rory Putman's book, 'The Natural History of Deer' states: "In our discussion of management, for control or exploitation, we have repeatedly stressed that most natural populations respond to reduction in numbers by increased productivity. Population reduction is thus a perpetual treadmill. Culling (killing) can prove not only expensive but counterproductive.")
When the bowhunters did not kill enough deer for Commissioner Lawley, in March 2004, he called in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Wildlife Services division, to kill more deer at night, using spotlighting. Hunting at night, and spotlighting specifically, are illegal in the state of Alabma.
Alabama's state parks, and the inhabitants therein, belong to ALL of this state's citizens; not just a special interest group.
Alabamians: A portion of your state taxes goes to support the state park system. With regard to this issue of hunting in state parks, there appears to be a situation of 'taxation without representation'!
In 1982, by state regulation, Alabama's, current and future, state parks were deemed to be SANCTUARIES for game animals and wildlife.
In May 2004, Commissioner Lawley signed a regulation providing for 'Special Hunts in State Parks' - encompassing ALL of Alabama's state parks!
We must have the audacity to insist of our state government, the return of our state parks' wildlife to management by NATURE!
STOP THE KILLING IN ALABAMA'S STATE PARKS!
