Page 21 - May2011-Finall

Oklahoma Station Safari Trails – May 2011

Salute To Veterans—honoring those who have served…

(Mike Mistelske – May, 2011)

In the spring of each year, approximately 200 SCI directors and staff from around the world (SCI has chapters in 107 countries) assemble in Washington, D. C., for several days. Along with other business, we conduct approximately 170 meetings with individual United States senators and members of the United States House of Representatives, or with their staffs. These many meetings with our law-makers focus on issues critical to American hunters (and fishermen), such as combating current efforts by anti-hunting and anti-fishing groups to force the EPA to ban all traditional ammunition and fishing tackle containing lead…all of it.

Other issues which we discussed with our legislators this year ranged from protecting and expanding our hunting rights on U. S. Federal lands to bringing a more science-based approach to implementation of the Endangered Species Act (which is currently driven more by litigation than by sound wildlife management). These are important issues, as are the numerous “internal” matters we work on regarding how SCI can best accomplish its mission to protect legal hunting and to conserve wildlife… BUT THERE IS MORE…

Meeting in our nation’s capital city also enables two very special activities for a few representatives of SCI:

--A small delegation is given the honor of placing a wreath during a special ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

--Another small delegation is given the opportunity to visit ill and injured military veterans hospitalized at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

This year, I was asked and honored to serve as a delegate on each of these special missions.

Page 21 Page 21