I disagree with Weldon Bosworth’s scapegoating of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (Monitor Opinion, July 6).

First, he makes claims regarding predator populations yet offers no sources to back them up. He suggests that the Fish and Game Commission is ignoring the science provided by its own wildlife biologists in not proposing to lower bag limits on predators.

If Bosworth truly believes this then am I to assume that he was in favor of opening a season on bobcats a couple of years ago? It was Fish and Game biologists who suggested that season, and in the end that proposal was withdrawn after facing much opposition from the public.

Speaking of bobcats, we are in fact the only state in our area that does not have a bobcat season. New Hampshire’s habitat is not so different that it would suggest that bobcats are in danger here, yet flourishing in Vermont, Maine or the province of Quebec. The truth is that there are likely more bobcats (and coyotes, fisher and foxes) now than in recent years. Anyone who spends much time out of doors or is a trail camera hobbyist knows that these animals are not scarce in New Hampshire. Yet, the commission is not proposing to increase bag limits for these species – they simply wish to keep them as they are currently.

Some who are protesting these seasons are no doubt concerned with maintaining healthy predator populations. However, with the wealth of money and literature that pours into our state from anti-hunting lobbying groups, you can bet that a major motivation is to throw a wrench in the works of the entire hunting/trapping season schedule. These people know that JLCAR has to approve the annual season dates and limits as a package. The debate around one small segment of this package effectively puts every hunting and trapping season on hold.

Tens of thousands of sportsmen and women who fund N.H. Fish and Game through license sales are awaiting the start of one hunting season or another so that they can use the licenses they’ve purchased in hopes of bagging game that will end up as food on their table, or in the freezers of soup kitchens and homeless shelters all across the state. A small yet vocal minority is willfully putting this entire process on hold with their politicizing of the issue of hunting and trapping.

And, since we’re talking about money and politics, isn’t it time to come up with a new way to fund N.H. Fish and Game? Neighboring states have fairer ways of funding their Fish and Wildlife departments. Here, as with our education funding crisis, New Hampshire proves itself to be unwilling to drag itself out of the Dark Ages. As a result, the dedicated men and women of N.H. Fish and Game have to struggle to do more with less.

I say make every lost hiker that Fish and Game rescues pay the total cost for said rescue. I say make the Fish and Game tent bigger and allow folks like Bosworth a seat at the table – just as soon as they are paying into the system as much as the hunters, anglers and trappers of the state have been for decades. Canoe and kayak registration fees, anyone?

(Dan Williams lives in Concord.)