In search for a truthful, honest candidate for the Colorado House 59th District, I would like to offer these:
When J. Paul Brown was La Plata County commissioner, he was instrumental in bringing Wildlife Services to the County. Wildlife Services is a program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and is charged with controlling marauding wildlife that is doing damage.
The organizations in La Plata County whose members benefit from these services pay a significant part of the cost. The Wool Growers, Cattlemen’s Association, Farm Bureau, ditch companies, Southern Ute Indian Tribe and La Plata County contribute to this fund. The USDA matches the contributions. Nationally, Wildlife Services has many responsibilities. Locally, in addition to assisting the agricultural community, it assists the Division of Parks and Wildlife with controlling bears, mountain lions, etc., in populated areas. In Colorado, we cannot use traps so the only option is to hire a professional hunter who can come in and kill all the animals in an area. The offending animal may or may not be taken. Livestock owners, statistically, lose between 10 percent and 30 percent of their crop annually. Wildlife Services is very careful to take only the offending animal.
Wildlife Services will not release the names or the numbers of people it serves because of privacy concerns. The ad’s claim that the service helped only J. Paul, his father and five others is a pure speculation. Finally, Wildlife Services does not pay anything for damages by the offending animals. The Colorado Division of Parks And Wildlife has a fund to pay for damages done by game animals. I would think that getting information from the state regarding payments is very difficult also.
Brown has had no opportunity to vote on any measure regarding this state fund. The information from Mike McLachlan’s campaign has been repeated for years by people who simply refuse to understand the situation, are not interested in the truth or who hope to do personal damage to J. Paul.
I will vote for honesty and integrity. I will vote for J. Paul Brown!
Tom Talley
Durango
