Yeah, well, the electronic posting program had a 1.5% usage rate in the three trial counties. Something like 35,000 acres out of a possible 2.5 million were signed up this summer for the pilot. In any other reality than the one we live in now, that is an abject failure -- especially as hard as G&F and even conservation groups were pushing it with publicity -- which still boggles my mind, though I'm sure the agency was under pressure from the Governor and other officials (and their special interest backers) to do so.
But the wiseguys behind it will claim that's a success, try to foist it on the G&F and then sportsmen will pay via increased license fees and other costs the half a million dollars a year it will take to continue to maintain this boondoggle that only 1.5% of all landowners will use. Meanwhile, the hunters and anglers who make up 20% of the state's population get the shaft and lose millions of acres in access.
Quit voting the alphabet and vote out your senators and representatives who voted for SB 2315 -- R, D, or otherwise. That bill alone should serve as a litmus test for sportsmen at the ballot box this year. I hate to preach one issue voting, but that truly is the demarcation, the line in the sand, and the focal point for finding out where they stand. They're either with dark money from special interest groups looking to screw sportsmen, or they're with the 140,000 hunters and anglers in this state. You don't need to call -- just look up their voting record and decide accordingly.
Buckle up, there's going to be a number of bills that are going to amend the aftermath of SB 2315 in 2021 and this financial and logistical nightmare of an online land system, which will make it worse, more expensive and more cumbersome, including:
1) NO requirements for contact information in the online database (It's coming, I've already seen proposed language);
2) All land starts as POSTED, and landowners can "unpost" it online (you know, the 1.5% that decide to log on) - exactly the opposite of what Erbele and supporters of this program said it'd be;
3) Addition of fees to sportsmen to keep this junker running, or alternatively, the cost will be borne by G&F, which is funded by our license revenue.
I hope you're well rested from two years ago. Back to the front in January! In the meantime, take some of their lieutenants out at the ballot box this November.