illegal feathers?

[osage outlaw]

I'm sticking with my safe and sound turkey feathers.  I figure if they can get a fat old gobbler up in a tree they can make my cane arrows fly good enough.

[TRACY]

I'm sticking with my safe and sound turkey feathers.  I figure if they can get a fat old gobbler up in a tree they can make my cane arrows fly good enough.

Glad you didn't say chicken feathers, cause that yellow dog wasn't  having any of it . You were kinda entitled to a few feathers and a drumstick for damages incurred

[Gus]

Yes Sir,

Do not keep Any Raptor Parts or Pieces.

Also watch your Backside out there,
 It is Illegal to gather Dead Wood in Many State/National Parks...   

Man I Love being the bearer of Good News...   

-gus

[sleek]

That's why there is something called night time gardening. Am I guilty of it? Let's just say I have carried sticks under the cover of darknesss in the past....

[Pat B]

I just posted the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act  for any and all to read. I'll sticky it as it moves down the page. This law was passed for a good reason. Plume hunters were wiping out many bird species so fashionable ladies could have flamboyant hats to wear. Read "The Wichery Of Archery" by Mourice Thompson. That is what he and his brother Will did after the civil war when Southerners  couldn't own guns so these two GA boys took up the bow and lots of cool adventures...one of which was plume hunting.

[PrimitiveTim]

I just posted the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act  for any and all to read. I'll sticky it as it moves down the page. This law was passed for a good reason. Plume hunters were wiping out many bird species so fashionable ladies could have flamboyant hats to wear. Read "The Wichery Of Archery" by Mourice Thompson. That is what he and his brother Will did after the civil war when Southerners  couldn't own guns so these two GA boys took up the bow and lots of cool adventures...one of which was plume hunting.

  Isn't that kind of irrelevant now?  People have forgotten about feathers and it's not really stylish.  Almost all of these birds would be easily poached for anyone that really wanted the feathers.  Could the plumage fashion come back if there was no protection?

[Pat B]

It doesn't really hurt anything having protections for most bird species and turkey and goose feathers, both of which are prime fletching, are exempted from the law.

[turtle]

Im from ohio and usualy use turkey feathers. But i have used goose and crow for a few arrows. If you know where there is a park or lake where flocks of geese hang out in the spring, you can gather a lot of feathers off the ground when they are molting.

[Pappy]

I agree with Twistedlimb for the most part,not sure on the  we belone to the land part [I truly believe strongly in property rights] , but completely understand the law, as long as Turkey /goose are ok ,I'm good,and Tennessee has a road kill law,[really ,passed it a few years ago] everyone was laughing but I love it, we can pick up road  kill, no problem. Great to live in a red neck state.  Still no Raptor feathers or killing snakes.
   Pappy

[BowEd]

Yep it's like they say it only takes a few bad apples in the barrel to spoil the whole barrel.That's just the way it is.

[Tetsuoh]

It doesn't really bug me that there are laws against hunting them.

What bugs me is that you can't claim molted feathers or roadkill. Its just plain wasteful, and the human people wastes far too much of everything as it is.

I believe I should be able to call an official, state that I'm on a road kill permit, and they be allowed to call me to clean up kills in my area and do as I please with it.

On that same note - they should be able to track who picks up what and have it on your license for them to see.

Molted on the other hand - is a he said she said deal. You could maybe submit a picture of where it was found, but that wouldn't hold much weight, so it wouldn't get passed as proof. On that note though, maybe a field gather permit would work if they added a clause involving officials and park rangers.

Primitive Archer Permit, stating what other permits you have and your record of gathers.

Yeah, I see how it would be too much work for them, and they would rather just let it go then. Sad, really.

[richardzane]

laws get tighter and tighter whenever any kind of abuse occurs.
assume guilty until proven innocent is becoming more and more the norm.
ranchers lock gates accessing BLM land -- gone are the days when you could assume public land could be enjoyed by the public.
One of the reasons I left New Mexico...always made to feel like a sneaking criminal hiking around.

[Thesquirrelslinger]

Dude, I do not even know it was a owl feather, it might just be a wierdo turkey.
I do not have it anyway.
Plus, there probably is a way to tell the difference between a molted and slaughtered feather....

[Pat B]

This federal law has been in existence since 1908. That is one hundred and five years. Its not like they just sprung it on everyone. 

[JW_Halverson]

What bugs me is that you can't claim molted feathers or roadkill. Its just plain wasteful, and the human people wastes far too much of everything as it is.

I believe I should be able to call an official, state that I'm on a road kill permit, and they be allowed to call me to clean up kills in my area and do as I please with it.

On that same note - they should be able to track who picks up what and have it on your license for them to see.

Molted on the other hand - is a he said she said deal. You could maybe submit a picture of where it was found, but that wouldn't hold much weight, so it wouldn't get passed as proof. On that note though, maybe a field gather permit would work if they added a clause involving officials and park rangers.

Primitive Archer Permit, stating what other permits you have and your record of gathers.

Yeah, I see how it would be too much work for them, and they would rather just let it go then. Sad, really.

Do you know how big the US Fish & Wildlife Agency is already?  Even so, my permitting agent takes a minimum of 6 wks to get around to rubber stamping any of my permit applications, she's told me that she trusts me implicitly and barely reads applications.  But there is so much work to do it takes her 6 wks to just do the rubber stamp.

Now we are going to add millions and millions of people submitting permit applications for feathers they wish to pick up?  I don't see that as a working part of the "smaller government" model.

I had a friend that worked in the National Park Service and he was injured restraining some joker from out east that was taking an axe to one of the giant sequoias in a National Park!  He claimed no one said he couldn't!!!  I figure about 99.99% of the folks in here wouldn't just go out and shoot a hawk for fletching if laws were repealed.  But those very few that screw everything up so badly make the protections so important.

Side note: Went out on a call for a downed bald eagle, today.  She was grounded and put up no resistance and I have her crated and ready for transport to a rehabber tomorrow afternoon.  She's beautiful.  Then this evening I get a call and cell phone pics of a golden eagle with a broken wing 2 miles up a hiking trail in the high elevations.  Looks like I will be heading out about 10:30 p.m. to find her.  I still gotta be at work at 9:30 a.m.  Better pack the .45 in case I get molested by a mountain lion!