Welcome
to the Allied Sportsmen's Associations of Florida, Inc., web
site. For those of you who are viewing our page for the first
time, we thank you for coming and encourage you to take a
few minutes to browse our pages. You can find information
about the organizations that are members of ASAF, upcoming
events, and even how to become a member organization or individual
supporter.
The
mission of the Allied Sportsmen's Associations of Florida
is to provide a statewide, unified voice for the concerns
of all sportsmen and conservationist, to insure their rights
and interests are protected, and to protect and enhance the
environment and our natural resources. We accomplish this
by working with Florida Legislators, the Florida Fish & Wildlife
Conservation Commission and other local, state and federal
agencies.
One
of our newest features on the site, and one that we hope you
will come back often to review, is our Executive Director's
Report. Here you will find updates from Lane Stephens, our
executive director, on items of interest. Depending on the
time of year, the reports may contain legislative information,
items pertaining to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation
Commission, reports on meetings that ASAF has participated
in, or other useful information. The current report will show
up when you click on the Executive Director's Report button,
and previous reports will be available as PDF files. If you
have a web site, we encourage you to place a link to us on
your site, and if you are an individual sportsmen, we ask
that you share our web address with your friends. Feel free
to contact us by e-mailing our executive director at lane.asaf@comcast.net.
Thanks for joining us and we wish you success in the field
or on the water!

September 22, 2010
Alligator
season is half over, bow hunting season is in full swing,
and bird hunting will be upon us before we know it. Now, if
it will just starting cooling off a little bit!! Hello members
and welcome to guests of the Allied Sportsmen’s Associations
of Florida web site. With hunting season upon us, its time
to take a look back and forward at issues that have, are,
and will be affecting sportsmen and women in Florida. And
there is plenty to discuss.
The most obvious event that impacted the greatest number of
sportsmen in not on Florida, but the entire southeastern United
States, was the BP/Horizon oil spill. What started as a tragic
explosion that took the lives of 11 oil rig workers on April
20, turned into the largest oil spill and ecological disaster
to be experienced in the United States.Throughout
the latter part of spring and the early parts of summer, Floridians
watched as the closure of federal fishing waters kept expanding
eastward. This “watch” culminated with the closure of federal
fishing grounds off the coast of Cape San Blas on the week
prior to the 4th of July weekend. Fishermen were experiencing
one of the best red snapper seasons in recent memory, and
this all came crashing down with that final Gulf of Mexico
closure. Recreational and commercial fishing came to a grinding
halt, and we were all left to wonder why.
The lack of reports of any actual oil making it to the most
eastern closed areas only led to the frustration felt by many.
Florida elected officials scrambled to help protect our way
of life. Numerous meetings were held around the panhandle
of Florida, and as the summer wore on, many officials put
pressure on the federal government to open back up the waters
where no oil was being found. Representatives Leonard Bembry
and Jimmy Patronis, Senator Don Gaetz, and US Senator Bill
Nelson were among the dedicated elected officials who spoke
out on behalf of sportsmen in Florida. In addition, ASAF played
a key role when we had newspaper articles question the closures
and why it was taking so long to open the federal waters back
up. We even make a Freedom of Information Act request of NOAA
relative to the closure. Not two weeks after that request
was made, we were informed that the most eastern sections
of the closure were the areas that were receiving the highest
priority from the federal agencies in order to open the waters
back up. Finally, those waters were opened back up, and we
now look forward to an additional red snapper season this
fall.
But
even with these successes, this environmental disaster is
far from over. While the US Coast Guard incident commander
announced on September 19 that the well had been successfully
closed, the long term impacts of the spill will negatively
affect sportsmen and women for years to come.
The
September meeting of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commission brought to an end (at least for now) the regulation
of enclosed fox and coyote pens in Florida. The Commission
voted to ban the approval of permits for the operation of
such pens, which hound chase competitions took place. The
vote was the culmination of 8 months of work by proponents,
which included not only the operators and users of the pens,
but also supporters of hunting, in general. The result, obviously,
did not go the way we wanted it to go. But, public perception
and the pressures brought to bear on the commissioners by
that perception, was just too much to overcome.
The
Sportsman Channel brings its national Hunt Fish Feed program
to Florida in September and October. This program brings awareness
to the hunger issues being faced by many in our nation and
allows sportsmen to play a part in addressing the issue. At
homeless shelters in Orlando (Sept. 22), Tampa (Sept. 24)
and Pensacola (Oct. 27), representatives and celebrities from
Sportsman Channel and from local sportsmen’s organizations
will join together to prepare meals of wild game and fish
to be enjoyed by clients of the shelters. If local sportsmen
would like to participate, please contact Lane Stephens at
lane@scggov.com.
Sportsmen
in the central Florida area who receive Sportsman Channel
on Bright House Cable in Orlando, need to know that Bright
House plans to move Sportsman Channel from the basic digital
package to a premium tier package, effective around November
1. This means that you will now have to pay an additional
$4.99 per month in order to watch the best hunting, fishing
and shooting shows on television. Now, while most of us dedicated
sportsmen will probably pay that amount, probably 80% of the
central Florida Bright House customer base will not pay it.
What does that mean? It means that hundreds of thousands of
viewers will no longer get to see shows that promote the heritage
of hunting and fishing that we all enjoy. And that, I believe,
could lead to additional anti-hunting sentiment, or at the
very least, it means that those folks who do not currently
hunt or fish will receive less exposure to shows that could
have gotten them out in the field or on the water. If you
are a Bright House customer in central Florida, you need to
take action now. Pick up your phone and call 1-800-710-1922
or get on the web and go to www.IWANTSPORTSMAN.COM and let
Bright House know that you want Sportsman Channel to remain
on the basic digital package.