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45 °F Forecast | Road Cams Monday, December 13, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend October 21, 2004 Wildlife managers hope to alter permanent disability permits By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune While investigating a potential hunter trespassing case Saturday, Oregon State Police Trooper Janelle McFarland met her suspect along a rural Jackson County road. The pair walked two-tenths of a mile up the road while chatting about the elk-hunting complaint, then walked back to their parked vehicles. The man showed McFarland his hunting license, his Cascade elk tag and his permanent disability permit. The so-called PDP allows him to hunt cow elk during the bull season — even shoot from a vehicle parked off the road — because his doctor says he’s physically incapable of normal hunting. "His disability permit says he’s unable to walk, but he walked two-tenths of a mile both ways," McFarland says. "That’s the kind of thing we’re coming up against." And that’s the kind of thing state wildlife managers hope to change by altering the PDP system that some police, biologists and even permit-holders themselves say is rife with loopholes that allow abuse and subject some deer and elk herds to excessive harvest. Advertisement More than 16,000 hunters, or 6 percent of Oregon’s licensed hunters, legally can shoot cow elk and doe deer this fall, even in hunting units such as the Rogue, where there is virtually no unitwide cow or doe hunts because of concerns about herd health. Originally crafted in 1986 to help only the legally blind and others confined to wheelchairs, the disability permit system was rewritten in 1999 by the Oregon Legislature based on Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. At that time, only 600 Oregonians held disability permits. But the current requirements are so lax that a rifle hunter too weak to draw a compound bow — or even an obese hunter with a bad back who walks with a cane — can get a permit if his doctor signs a form. "When we first did it, it was for severely disabled people who couldn’t get off the road," says Ray Weller, a quadriplegic hunter from Stayton who helped write the original disability permit rules. "Now, it’s for people who are slightly less than perfect, very lightly impaired by comparison," Weller says. The pendulum, however, is starting to swing back. Based on recommendations from an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife committee that included Weller, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday adopted some changes to the permit program. The current "either sex" bag limit enjoyed by permit holders will revert to one buck or bull in hunting units without unitwide cow or doe hunts. Locally, that includes the Rogue and Evans Creek units, where ODFW Rogue Watershed wildlife biologist Mark Vargas says he has eliminated two local cow-elk hunts beginning next year in part to compensate for cows taken by PDP holders. The commission also ordered a committee to refine possible changes to the definition of disabled. Any changes, however, must be made by the Oregon Legislature. Commissioners also want more clarity in the definition of hunting from a parked vehicle. The changes are endorsed by the Medford-based Oregon Hunters Association, whose members are concerned that the PDP program has grown too large for its original tag format. "I don’t think there’s any question in our minds that it’s gotten way out of hand," says OHA field coordinator John Thiebes, a former ODFW biologist. "We’re convinced that, in many areas, the big-game populations don’t need antlerless harvest by thousands of disabled folks." No one has suggested the permanent disability permit isn’t worthwhile, nor that permit holders are somehow bad, says Thiebes, who helped craft the original rules while with the ODFW. In many cases, for instance, hunters find out they meet the lax requirements — such as cardiac condition, low lung capacity or a need to walk with a cane — and seek a permit simply as an added hunting opportunity. Police and biologists, however, say they routinely find hunters in the woods who supposedly are disabled yet seem to get around just as easily as everyone else. "Surely there are legitimate permit-holders out there," OSP Trooper Jim Collom says. "But it’s ironic sometimes that it’s not until the game warden drives up that a guy reaches into his truck for his crutch." McFarland believes some hunters kill cows and does, then get a PDP holder in their hunting party to claim the animal as his. "I think the disability permit allows people to skirt the law," McFarland says. Vargas says he’s seen instances of abuse or potential abuse as recently as opening weekend of the Cascade general elk season. Last year, Vargas saw a cow elk supposedly killed by a permit holder who had to hike two miles into the backcountry to kill it, he says. "I can’t question their disability," Vargas says. "That’s not my job." Weller says the 1999 revision was well-intended, but done without realizing the program would grow exponentially. Weller is pleased with the commission’s changes. He expects nothing, however, from the Legislature. When it comes to the ADA, public agencies are extremely wary of appearing to discriminate among varying levels of disabilities, Weller says. "No one in an open forum wants to say, ‘your disability isn’t deserving and mine is worse than yours,’" says Weller, who is confined to a wheelchair. "The spirit of this law is to get people with disabilities into the woods, doing what they loved to do before they were disabled," he says. "We need to come up with a new definition of disabled that really goes back to that spirit." Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. 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