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A random thought on the future of wildfowling.


Penelope
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Again, local thinking, not looking at the bigger picture. What makes you think I'm not a member of a club "around here"?

 

As it happens I am, so I know the way it works. I know you will have to complete a bag return at the end of the season, again part of the permit system you shoot under. The whole point is our enemies want to stop us shooting, and a permit system helps prevent overshooting by limiting guns on the marsh, especially at times for example "when the geese are in" - I'm sure you've seen Shep White's look like Sainsbury's car park on a Saturday afternoon when the pinks are coming over. And that's when you'll see some REALLY high shots taken, I've seen geese planing down into the marsh from high shooting and not an attempt made to pick them, and NO accountability!

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I do all of my wildfowling in Scotland and although it's a 565mile trip it's worth it. At present I am free to go where I want and it would be shame if that was to end. Having clubs means burecracy as well as conservation. The big difference in the US iis that the have a lot more public land where provided you stick to rules you can shoot a limit of x species. If there was more public freed up I could see the appeal of an organisation like ducks u limited. BASC has seriously let us wildfowlers down and the founder members of WAGBI must be turning in their graves.

 

Yet they the USA have a lot of private foreshore while ours is mainly open access.

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I'm not talking of reserecting WAGBI but wildfowling needs a body to represent fowling clubs a closed shop where all bag returns can be submitted each season so data is available to relevant organizations when it is needed

I know BASC does get some but after the greylag scenario where they actually never had correct figures

A body who can deal with NE and land issues and leases

I know if all clubs north and south of the border were to buy into this it would go along way to start helping to secure fowling for the future

I have always belonged to BASC and have been a member of other organizations at the same time we do not have to break from BASC but we do need to start looking after our own affairs as one wildfowling body

Just my take on it

 

The BASC thing was pressure from other bodies being applied I am now lead to believe, it wasn't a big enough risk of detrimental effect on the membership to tell those other bodies to do one and stand up for the greys

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Again, local thinking, not looking at the bigger picture. What makes you think I'm not a member of a club "around here"?

 

As it happens I am, so I know the way it works. I know you will have to complete a bag return at the end of the season, again part of the permit system you shoot under. The whole point is our enemies want to stop us shooting, and a permit system helps prevent overshooting by limiting guns on the marsh, especially at times for example "when the geese are in" - I'm sure you've seen Shep White's look like Sainsbury's car park on a Saturday afternoon when the pinks are coming over. And that's when you'll see some REALLY high shots taken, I've seen geese planing down into the marsh from high shooting and not an attempt made to pick them, and NO accountability!

 

Again you are muddying the water. Permit system that i am thinking about is the same one that has been discussed throughout the rest of the thread but suddenly it means different now you are here? Or reading your post it means two different things? Care to make your mind up?

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I think we as wildfowlers we need to use our support for organisations such as BASC for our benefit and the benefit of our sport. The ducks unlimited model is a good example of how to help secure a future. I have no doubt that the English clubs in their way are probably going about this with the right intentions but unless we approach this with united front the amount of influence will be affected. I doubt there is a one size fits all and in my experience a lot of locals would never dream of supporting BASC as in their eyes their sport is guaranteed for life and why pay for something you don't need.

If a modern day version of WAGBI existed today what would its priorities be, what would it do for the future of our sport. Would people join it would people be prepared to pay more subscriptions.

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Surely nobody really thinks there is any future in attempting to start a new WAGBI or any other organisation to represent Wildfowling. Look how long it took us to get where we are now. The cost involved to set up a new group would be immense, let alone how long to gain any influence. We have organisations already and I would suggest BASC is the one we should support, shortcomings and all. The way to improve things is to make sure we have the right people in place to influence decision making. As was posted earlier, lots of shooters aren't even members of any group. How worrying is that? And now we have a wildfowler in the Chair, of some repute with a history of getting things done, what happens? Lots of people go on about conflict of interest and all sorts of completely unfounded allegations linked to WHT etc. for goodness sake support the team we've got and tell them what we want and expect from them. Above all else persuade all of your shooting acquaintances to join.

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Kent in an ideal world

What I am saying is fowling needs a body to look after its own

A body where all wildfowling clubs are associated to it

A body where a data base is kept where all members can be contacted from

A body which will collect data bag returns etc

A body to negotiate with NE and other lease agents

A body to help with land purchases

As I say just my take on it

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If the organisation that most of us are affilliated to did as much for wildfowing as it seems to do for game shooting, then I would back them to the hilt. Unfortunately we seem to come a fairly distant third behind game shooting and stalking in my opinion. You only have to look in the magazine that BASC produce to see that.

I know it's catering for the masses, more people shoot game than go down the foreshore, (I might have jumped the gun with stalking) but BASC would not have existed without WAGBI.

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Much as I hate to say it BASC is the best we have at the moment , its far from ideal from a wildfowlers point of view and we can only hope for change in the future as there is at the moment no viable alternitive. However if one was to come into being I would have to give it serious thought .

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BASC has helped with land purchases, promoted the sport through the permit scheme, acted as a conduit for all affiliated clubs etc. but does it put the bulk of its efforts into more affluent areas ie game shooting and stalking? I agree starting from scratch is probably pointless but at the same time the idea of a uk version of ducks unlimited holds a lot of appeal. Perhaps some work needs be done by our existing organisations.

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DNT

Nothing ventured nothing gained he who dares wins and all that

All it would take is a committed group of people and some funding

That's how these organizations start look at the NGO / WAGBI

You know how fowlers are sentimental it would not take long before there was large support

I have been a BASC member since I started shooting and will continue too be one untill there is a dedicted fowling group

BASC are the only option at the moment

Donkey

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I still think we need to support what we've built and make sure our voice is heard. Let's look at The CA and NGO, I do not know their membership figures or their resources, but I do know that the CA was born from the BFSS and came into force for hunting and the NGO as a voice for Gamekeepers. I know several members of both groups who have never hunted of been a keeper. Why do these groups accept these members and start to offer services to other groups? Simple they need numbers and funding and there's not enough strenght or appeal in their original set up.

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