Plenty of benefits to the DNR

Some of the great benefits of my old job and writing this col­umn is I get to meet some really nice people.

The most recent was Gary and Sally, who I’ve mentioned in a few of my past columns. And the other day, I met Randall Kocsis, one of Marion County’s two Natural Resource Officers.

Over the years I’ve been friends with some of the officers that have worked here and moved on. Marion County has had its share of good ones, that’s for sure, such as officers Brad McDougal and James Crawley.

In my opinion, DNR officers are a lot like policemen — they have a thankless job sometimes. In most cases, they don’t get a lot of love from the community but on some occasions this isn’t always true.

In a world of economic hard­ships, budgets and all that important stuff the Department of Natural Resources doesn’t have a lot of money. The monies
 from hunting, trapping and fish­ing license are what funds the DNR for the most part.

There’s the fun stuff the two must deal with but also a very wide spectrum of coverage — from hunting, trapping, fishing, boating, illegal burning and garbage problems like littering.

Officer Kopsas works with officer Jeremiah Clark as Marion County’s law enforce­ment team for the natural resources team.

I was impressed with Officer Kocsis’ presence; he seemed very knowledgeable and at the same time easy going and will­ing to do things to help the
 youth come in contact with the outdoors.

I only wish we could the archery in the Marion County school system. I wish someone that was an educator could step up and get it started here It’s sad that out of 267 schools that have archery in its school pro­grams in West Virginia, Marion County is not one of them.

Attention parents, teachers, principals and students, here is some information to get you started. If your school is not list­ed, have your PE teacher or coach go towww.wvdnr.gov/ archery or call us at 304-558-2771 to find out how to get start­ed in the AIS Program.

I think Marion County has a couple of real good DNR Officers in Kocsis and Clark. Just remember it’s up to us the user of the great outdoors to find out and know the laws before we proceed.

I suggest if you’re not 100 percent clear on an hunting, fish­ing
 or trapping question you bet­ter call the Farmington office and find out the answer.

Folks, it’s up to us to know and find out the facts. I’ll be the first to point out how the our state’s hunting and fishing regu­lations are written out.

For instance I caught a fisher and well you have to have a fisher, bobcat and beaver all tagged in just like a deer. Different animals go out at dif­ferent dates like the fisher closes on January 31, while all the rest go out on February 28 except beaver on March 31.

My question was when do I have it done? So I read the regu­lations and it said you have 30 days after the close of the per­spective season. Just make it plain and simple and say you have 30 days after the last day of fisher trapping season closes.

I think anyone can get that without a question ... just saying.


Email Danny Snyder at .

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