Hooray, hooray

When I was a young man, a I learned a somewhat ribald limerick about May 1 and the outdoor activities that could ensue with the coming of spring. The cleverness of that rhyme has passed somewhat through the years, but the significance of the date has not. May 1 is still a very special day - the day we can begin applying for this year’s big game licenses.

As I post this, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission is considering the proposed big game seasons for 2011. There will be some fussing about this area or that, some debate about how many licenses they ought (or ought not) to be issuing and whether the opening and closing dates ought to be earlier or later. When the dust settles, the seasons will be set for this year and the fun will begin.

Some of the members of our family have a rough time getting excited about hunting at this time of year. Not me. I stand fidgeting and whining like a Labrador at the back door. It makes absolutely no difference that I have taken part in this ritual for the last 43 years (not counting the years that I fidgeted and whined before I could legally apply) or that the licenses for which we will apply are already pretty much decided. They will likely be the same licenses we applied for last year and the year before that, back to my childhood. There’s just something magic about putting your name in the drawing for that favorite area that is tremendously exciting.

We will apply for the same antelope area for which we have always applied. The site of the annual Gasson Family Antelope-A–Looza. We’ll draw some “any antelope” licenses and some “reduced price doe-fawn” licenses. We’ll pack up the whole tribe and hunt high desert antelope in September. The days will warm and the nights will be cool. We probably won’t kill a single record book buck, but we will teach the grandkids to love the country and its wildlife. We’ll care for that meat like it was straight from God, because it is. And we’ll love every minute of it.

We’ll apply for the same elk area, too. And come October, we’ll be in the same meadow on the same mountain on the same morning. The country will feel like the dew of creation was still on it. And it will all be as fresh and new as it was the first time we did it. We will spend the next few days leaving the cabin at 0430 and returning at 0dark30. We will probably kill a few elk, if we don’t make too many mistakes. By the time it’s over, I will be exhausted, and will likely lose about 10 pounds. The younger hunters in our camp will learn a few more places that will hide an elk under a certain set of conditions. And we’ll love every minute of it.

May is the gateway, a month laden with the promise of things to come. It’s the rebirth of a new year on the land and in our family. It’s not about how many antelope we will kill, or if we will kill a 380-class bull. It’s much more important than that. It’s about renewing our connection with our home place and our connections with each other. It’s about the sights and smells and feel of the land. It’s about who we are as people and who we are as a family.

Hooray, hooray, it's the first of May. I can apply for my license today!

OP-ED: Down The Rabbit Hole

3/30/11

I got a note from Ken Salazar the other day. I was glad to hear from him. It had been a while since we had visited. Well, OK…we’ve never visited. The Secretary of Interior doesn’t know me from Adam’s cat. But still, it was nice to hear from him. I don’t get all that much mail, aside from the Cabela’s catalog and the AARP magazine. So I opened the darn thing.

And lo and behold, it says I’ve been appointed to the Wyoming Resource Advisory Council (RAC). What the heck is that, you ask? Well, according to my note from Secretary Salazar, it’s “composed of citizens from diverse backgrounds” and our job is to “provide advice to the Bureau of Land Management on management of public land resources.” Dang…I guess I’m a citizen from a diverse background. Short of the United Nations or California, you can’t get much more diverse than Sweetwater County. And I’ve been advising just about everybody who would hold still on public land resources for a long time, not that anyone has ever paid much attention. But now I’m a RAC star.

And from the perspective of this old-time RAC and roller, I think public lands policy in Wyoming was written by Lewis Carroll. Lots of times I feel like Alice in Wonderland. If you remember the story, she falls down the rabbit hole and ends up in a hall with many locked doors of all sizes. Behind this door is some outfit representing the gas industry suing the Department of Interior because they aren’t processing gas leases fast enough. Behind that door, Interior is jacking up the gas industry for sitting on thousands of acres of undeveloped leases. Behind one door, you‘ve got the suits in Houston who’d drill on their mother’s grave, or at least your mother’s grave. Behind the next, you’ve got the green left whose furnaces apparently run on rainbows and gumdrops. Curiouser and curiouser…

No less amazing is the whole feral horse dilemma. As near as I can tell, the interior West is covered up with feral horses and no one seems to be willing to admit that the system doesn’t work. It’s not unlike the Dodo in Wonderland, deciding that the best way to dry Alice and the other tear-soaked characters would be a Caucus-Race, in which everyone runs in a circle and there’s no clear winner. If anyone is winning in the feral horse dilemma, I’d sure like to know who it is. We sure seem to be running in a circle.

The whole thing feels a little like the mad Tea Party (not to be confused with the political entity of the same name) in which the Hatter asks a question: “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” When Alice gives up, the Hatter admits that he doesn’t know the answer himself. Maybe that’s the point of the whole thing. I think Secretary Salazar is a smart enough guy to know that neither the Department of Interior nor the BLM knows all the answers. I’ve been watching the Secretary for some time now, and frankly, I like the guy. Heaven knows he inherited a mess beyond all comprehension, after the Bush administration. But he’s trying hard to take a balanced, thoughtful approach. We’re no longer approaching gas leasing the way frat boys approach beer. I think he gets the feral horse issue. Being from one of the oldest ranching families in Colorado, I think he knows which end of the horse eats and which end doesn’t. I think there’s a chance that he’s the real deal. I’m hoping that by rounding up a group of Wyoming folks and asking them to help out, maybe things will get a little less weird.

The Secretary says that there will be RAC meetings (RAC concerts? RAC festivals?) two to four times a year. That’s good – my cardiologist won’t let me have donuts more often than that. But aside from free pastries, what I’m really looking forward to is common sense, maybe some balance. I just saw a list of my fellow RAC stars, and the Secretary has tapped some pretty smart folks. I hope BLM is smart enough to listen to them.

Walt Gasson, Executive Director

Wyoming Wildlife Federation