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Commission won't allow disabled crossbow hunting
Archery season: Despite threat to withhold federal funds, 8-1 vote goes against.
Bob Mottram; The News Tribune
TWISP, Okanogan County - No one, including hunters with permanent and severe upper-body disabilities, may hunt with a crossbow during any hunting season in Washington, the state Fish and Wildlife Commission decided Friday.
The decision supported Washington's organized bowhunting community, which has opposed crossbow hunting in archery seasons ever since the idea surfaced in the spring of last year.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife had asked the commission in April 2000 to allow those who met certain upper-body disability criteria to use a crossbow during archery hunting seasons. The weapon traditionally had been banned in this state.
The commission declined, and Harold Saunders, a former archer who had lost his right arm and sustained other permanent injuries in a dynamite blast, filed a civil rights complaint against the department with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Washington's Fish and Wildlife director and the commission agreed to establish a committee to develop a plan by June of this year to resolve the complaint.
The committee included two members of state archery associations, hunters with disabilities, department staff and two members of the commission. The committee, with commission members abstaining, voted to propose allowing crossbows and other adaptive equipment during archery seasons for a three-year trial period.
Dave Ware, manager of the department's game division, told the commission that "there still is some concern by the archery community (that crossbows are too effective) and that this would result in reduction in archery seasons."
However, the Fish and Wildlife Service had threatened to withhold the department's federal matching funds if it failed to meet the needs of people who are disabled, he said.
The commission rejected the committee's proposal Friday, voting 8-1 instead to allow certain adaptive equipment with a regular long bow, recurve bow or compound bow. Only commission member Dawn Reynolds of Pullman voted against that plan. The commission also voted to ask the Fish and Wildlife Service if what it had done was adequate.
Saunders testified that the severity of his injuries prevented him from using adaptive archery equipment other than a crossbow. He said he would be willing to hunt with a crossbow outside of a regular archery season if he had no other option.
* Reach staff writer Bob Mottram at 253-597-8640, or bob.mottram@mail.tribnet.com
Archery season: Despite threat to withhold federal funds, 8-1 vote goes against.
Bob Mottram; The News Tribune
TWISP, Okanogan County - No one, including hunters with permanent and severe upper-body disabilities, may hunt with a crossbow during any hunting season in Washington, the state Fish and Wildlife Commission decided Friday.
The decision supported Washington's organized bowhunting community, which has opposed crossbow hunting in archery seasons ever since the idea surfaced in the spring of last year.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife had asked the commission in April 2000 to allow those who met certain upper-body disability criteria to use a crossbow during archery hunting seasons. The weapon traditionally had been banned in this state.
The commission declined, and Harold Saunders, a former archer who had lost his right arm and sustained other permanent injuries in a dynamite blast, filed a civil rights complaint against the department with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Washington's Fish and Wildlife director and the commission agreed to establish a committee to develop a plan by June of this year to resolve the complaint.
The committee included two members of state archery associations, hunters with disabilities, department staff and two members of the commission. The committee, with commission members abstaining, voted to propose allowing crossbows and other adaptive equipment during archery seasons for a three-year trial period.
Dave Ware, manager of the department's game division, told the commission that "there still is some concern by the archery community (that crossbows are too effective) and that this would result in reduction in archery seasons."
However, the Fish and Wildlife Service had threatened to withhold the department's federal matching funds if it failed to meet the needs of people who are disabled, he said.
The commission rejected the committee's proposal Friday, voting 8-1 instead to allow certain adaptive equipment with a regular long bow, recurve bow or compound bow. Only commission member Dawn Reynolds of Pullman voted against that plan. The commission also voted to ask the Fish and Wildlife Service if what it had done was adequate.
Saunders testified that the severity of his injuries prevented him from using adaptive archery equipment other than a crossbow. He said he would be willing to hunt with a crossbow outside of a regular archery season if he had no other option.
* Reach staff writer Bob Mottram at 253-597-8640, or bob.mottram@mail.tribnet.com
