Constitutional Amendment E on the ballot seems innocuous enough, protecting traditional methods of hunting and fishing, and regulating it only to promote good wildlife management. But then it includes this zinger: “Public hunting and fishing shall be the preferred means of managing and controlling wildlife.”
Huh? So if we have too many wild horses, we have to shoot them? If there are too many bighorn sheep in an area, we’re going to shoot them? We can’t capture and transplant some to restore populations that have been depleted elsewhere? If a nonnative fish is introduced into a lake and is decimating cutthroat trout, we have to try to control numbers by fishing, not by other, potentially more effective means?
I’m in favor of hunting and fishing, and they certainly are useful in managing our wildlife. But if they’re to always be our primary tool no matter what, that is insanity. Vote this amendment down.
Steve Glaser, Holladay