AZ hunters:Buenos Aires wildlife wants your opinion

[Ghostbird]

The Buenos Aires wildlife Refuge (BANWR) in units 36a,36b,36c is doing what they call a scoping survey.they are talking about potentially opening up the hunting and take of Bobcat,Mountain Lion,Badger and Coati.currently and in the past this refuge allowed the take of coyote,skunk,fox but not for cats or coati.At this time they are asking for comments and opinions for or against.In my opinion the place is over run with all predators,especially cats big or small.with the thousands they have spent trying to get a population of masked bobwhite quail only to watch their numbers go to zero every time they have realeased birds,I thought they ought to hear from us.The gentlemen I talked to said they are proposing that the refuge expand their hunting laws to make them congruent with state hunting law: as in allowing the take of All predators.They are also assuming most of the response on this will be from the usuals; the anti hunting population.I would like to say they are wrong.Send comments and opinions for or against to:Stan_Culling@FWS.Gov

[Anti Orange Army]

I have been hunting the refuge on and off since 1990. The times I chose not to hunt the refuge were when the refuge police harassed the heck out of every law abiding citizen utilizing their right to state and federal land. When illegal immigrants, coyotes, and drug cartel and their mules made it too risky to sleep at night or hunt certain areas on federal land. You folks that have history down there know exactly what I am talking about. 
the amount of taxpayers money and federal resources spent on reintroducing these mystical quail is embarrassing, a travesty, and downright criminal. Common sense tells you that if you are trying to reintroduce a species that has trouble surviving in the Hilton resort environment, that you may want to control the predator population congruently. The birds of prey are abundant, coyotes, bobcats, and mountain lions are more prevalent on the refuge than ANYWHERE that I hunt in the entire state. The quality and population of deer that have been diminishing over the last four decades is a testament to that! 
The idea of the feds managing anything in our state is sad and this whole debacle needs to be exposed. Give the refuge back to the people, the state of Arizona... heck, give it back to the families of the ranchers that homesteaded it in the first place. Anyone would be better stewards of that land. Whoever it might be I’m sure would mitigate the fact that I see 3-5 different mountain lions in a small area in the month of January alone. Possibly even clean up the dozens of dead deer carcasses behind the berm of the dirt tank?

I apologies for my ramblings. This is a great topic and I look forward to reading others perspectives and comments. 
God bless!

[Ghostbird]

Agreed,and no worries,I enjoyed your rant.I have been harassed most times I have hunted there,usually at gunpoint.I still get out there to hunt coyotes in the winter,and typically see a lot of lion and bobcat.I am also familiar with the money wasted on  the quail and antelope “programs”.bottom line is plenty of hunters go to BANWR to hunt deer and javelina and should also be able to harvest the apex predators as well.Lord knows the place needs a serious thinning.

[Will K]

Sent my comments in.

[Ghostbird]

Thanks will k. Info has just been put up on the main page of BANWR’s website.public comment period ends November 15th 2019