Dear SCI Members in VA,
 

On Tuesday, July 17th, SCI attended the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries board of directors meeting in Richmond, VA. The main reason for attending this meeting was to monitor a hunting situation that had been brought to our attention by Virginia SCI chapter members.  The main issue of the day for the board meeting was the investigation into a proposed assessment of hound hunting.  
 
There was a massive turn-out of hound hunters from all over the Commonwealth, from the Northern Neck to Southwest Virginia, with some out-of-state individuals coming from as far away as Charlotte, NC.
 
The DGIF gave a great presentation that outlined proactive steps that they will be taking over the next year to protect the interests of the hound hunter in Virginia. It was obvious that hunting of all kinds was at the core of the DGIF’s mission and they felt that beginning this investigational period would be a positive step for hound hunters. The DGIF will be creating multiple focus groups of interested parties, hunters (hound and otherwise), homeowners, landowners, and businesses, to weigh in with suggestions and concerns and ideas.  These various focus groups will then work to create a stakeholders forum where along with the assistance from the DGIF, a viable policy for hound hunting can be created.
 
The hound hunter’s concern was well represented at the board meeting and those concerns were heard with a very sympathetic and supportive ear by members of the board.  As always, the DC office will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed of any new developments.
 
If you would like a copy of the Department's presentation, please let me know at the information listed below.  It's a heavy 4mb file so it could not be included with this email.
 
Nelson Freeman
 Assistant Governmental Affairs Manager
 Safari Club International
 202.543.8733
 nfreeman@sci-dc.org

Team HuntingLife took the time to get you all the file and convert it to .pdf so you would not have to email in for the file.

Download it here:  Hounds.pdf

Expect Team HuntingLife to keep you involved in the coming open discussions about hound hunting in Virginia.  I am proud of the VDGIF in taking a proactive approach to addressing this issue openly and publicly.  Now if they could also address the hunting of elk with whitetail tags in a similar public fashion, I could begin to believe that they actually are addressing the publics needs on all fronts.

This will definitely be a story worth watching!