President's Message and Legislative UPDATE (July 10, 2010)

As I write this message (for the 4th time), the short session of the N.C. General Assembly for 2010 is history. All bills that were submitted to disapprove WRC regulations from 2009 died in the House Rules Committee. Thus, all of them will have the effect of becoming law this September when bow season opens. What this means is that come September, Crossbows will be legal for anyone who wants to use them. There will be a second week of muzzle loader (gun) season that was taken from the bow only season, and Sunday Bowhunting will be legal on private lands. NCBA’s official position was that if the WRC approved Sunday Bowhunting, we would support them on this issue, and we have done so. They did approve Sunday Bowhunting in a commission vote in March of 2009. Sunday bowhunting, for the majority of our members and bowhunters, is the one positive thing that came from this process. For those who oppose Sunday hunting in any form, they can refrain from hunting on Sunday, if that is their choice.

In addition to the added week of ML season and legalized crossbows for anyone, the WRC also approved unlimited antlerless deer harvest along with no daily bag limit for them. I think we still must purchase the “Bonus Antlerless Deer Tags” in order to do this. All this added at once is a lot to digest at one time. WRC biologists, including the chief biologist, readily admit that they really don’t know what impact all these new rules will have on deer harvest and the quality of our deer herd. This is of great concern to avid deer hunters who fear that these new rules will result in an overharvest of bucks, espcially immature bucks. All of which are very vulnerable to gun hunting during the new two week muzzle loader season. Any hopes of having a better quality buck herd in N.C. may suffer a great deal. Crossbows during bow season will also contribute to additional buck harvest. Time will tell on this issue. We will be watching closely to see how it all plays out over the next few years.

One thing NCBA members and other fellow sportsmen and women in N.C. need to know is that neither the muzzle loader rule nor the crossbow rule came from the WRC’s professional staff of biologists. Both these proposals originated and were passed by either the commissioners or someone in the administrative offices of the Director. In fact, the field staff of biologists openly and gallantly opposed both rules, but they were overruled by the administration.

The bottom line for me, personally, is that as your president, I believe our executive council did the right thing for all the right reasons in opposing these two regulations. And, the WRC did the wrong thing by approving these rules for NO apparent good, valid reasons. I know that we did do the right thing, and that we put forth our best effort to disapprove these rules. We were bound by our covenant (Constitution & Bylaws) to voice our opinions and opposition to these regulations. We could no longer just sit by and watch unpopular and bad rules be adopted without voicing our opinions and objecting to them. I want to personally thank each and every one of you who responded to the call and made phone calls or wrote letters and emails to legislators. Your voices were heard, and should the need arise again, I know you will arise to the occasion when needed. I believe we did all we could do, it just wasn’t enough to deal with the establishment and the politics that runs it.

There will also be shooting incidents, and other accidents involving crossbows. This is going to happen. We, as Bowhunters, must insist that they are identified as such, and not associated with Bowhunting and Bowhunters, for we know that a crossbow is NOT a bow and arrow. It never will be, and we must constantly remember this and remind those who don’t know, or don’t want to know and admit it. Nevertheless, if new laws are adopted governing crossbows, we must revisit our bylaws and revise them to bring them up to date. They have not been revised since they were first written 35 years ago, and they are antiquated and in need of revision. We do get a lot of criticism of this, and we need to address this issue.

Regardless of the outcome of these new laws, we must not allow anyone to define who and what we are. This goes not just for bowhunters, but hunters of every persuasion; gun hunters, ML hunters, dog hunters, small game hunters, duck hunters, trappers, and yes, even crossbow hunters. We must also try to work together in the future when challenges arise. This wasn’t the case with our current issues. Sad to say, our sportsmen’s alliance failed us. When we needed their support, they were no where to be found. They took the easy way out for the most part... silence. We will be there for them, as always, when the next challenge arises, and I’m afraid it won’t be very long before it does.

The sad part about this entire process is that no one really won anything. The WRC prevailed in the political process and the rules and regulations they passed will go in to effect. The voices of bowhunters and informed deer hunters across the state were heard, not just NCBA and its members. If our bills had reached the floor for a vote, they very well could have been approved. But, as many have said, NCBA is just one, small organization with ONLY 1,500 members.. with a special agenda. Small as we are, we still represent all bowhunters in N.C. , which could be 50 to 100 thousand in number! And, our voice and message was heard by many. Only time will tell who the real winners or losers were in this process. I sincerely hope and pray it is not the resource and all deer hunters who will be the losers. We must continue to voice our opinions when we agree or disagree with what’s going on with the management of our wildlife resources, and how it will affect them and our sport, regardless of the outcome. And, our WRC must know that when issues arise that we disagree with, they should be ready and willing to listen.

Dues Increase: Beginning January 1, 2011, NCBA dues will increase from $20 a year to $30 a year. This amounts to a mere 83 cents a month increase. Subsequently, NCBA Lifetime memberships will also increase from $300 to $450. It has been almost ten years since we have increased dues. We do so with reluctance, because we know some of our members may choose not to maintain their membership. But, if we review what all comes with NCBA membership and consider the increase in cost of providing basic services; it is still the best deal around. Five dollars of this dues increase will be dispersed to various funds as deemed most necessary by the executive council each year. Emphasis for this will most likely be placed on the “Bowhunter Defense Fund” and the “Land Acquisition Fund”.

New Guidelines for the “Youth Achievement Award”, “Bowhunter of the Year” awards, and “Local Chapter Club of the Year” have been approved also. The “Youth Achievement Award” guidelines go into effect immediately. Guidelines for other awards go into effect January 1, 2011. We will publish and make available all the new, upcoming guidelines so everyone will be informed of them way ahead of time. Any youth wishing to compete for these awards should request a copy of the guidelines and nomination form now. All these awards are based on a number of activities.. Not just hunting or harvesting game. It will be very beneficial for anyone who is serious about competing for any of these awards keep a journal of all hunting, volunteer, etc., activities. We also voted to go to four separate “Divisions” in our annual contests for all official animal and fish categories. The four “Divisions” will be: Male, Female, Youth Male and Youth Female Bowhunter. Be sure to read messages from Joey Thompson (Records Chairman) and Jamie Brady (Membership Chairman) for more information and details on these changes.

New data base for NCBA: Our “Information Technology” (I.T.) team and CIO advise that we about to embark on a new venture for NCBA. All our records and data will be stored in one common data base that will allow access by key officers in the association. We will be going back to past officers to gather copies of their records, photos, etc., for our archives, to preserve the history of NCBA for future generations to come. If you have any items that you feel would be of interest to our members, please contact me about getting this information copied, scanned and stored for future entry into the data base.

Website upgrade: Lee Matthews and a couple others have put forth a lot of work to convert our old website to a newer one over the past year or so. We continue to work to improve it. Since our last magazine, we now have the ability to accept donations on our website to the “Bowhunter Defense Fund”. In the near future, features will be added to allow donations to other NCBA funds, and to join NCBA and renew memberships, and to purchase NCBA logo items. Watch for it soon.

5th Annual NCBA Picnic: This will be held at Guilford Bowhunters clubhouse on Sunday, August 1st beginning at 2 pm. Bring your bows and a hearty appetite. Everyone is asked to bring either a veggie dish and/or a dessert. Please RSVP if you plan to attend, and include the number of people in your group. Email confirmations to: NCBA1975@triad.rr.com ; Phone confirmations to: 336-643-4455.

Again, my sincerest thanks to all… for everything you do to help make NCBA the best it can be.

For Bowhunting, “Let’em Grow!”… Ramon Bell, President