Why Sunday Deer Hunting Is a Bad Idea
Dear Bay Weekly:
For the Maryland Conservation Council, I want to thank Gov. Parris Glendening for vetoing the Sunday hunting legislation.
Recent deer firearms seasons for herd management and reduction have run 13 days maximum. House Bill 9 expanded the season to a required 21 days regardless of deer herd reduction needs, and a House amendment left the season open-ended. This bill pretended to be a deer-management bill, but it did not control the deer herd through larger bag limits, antler-less deer season, etc.
Most important, the Sunday hunting legislation placed Maryland citizens at risk on the one Sunday during deer firearms hunting season that frequently coincides with the Thanksgiving weekend. Hikers, invasive plant removal crews, birders, equestrians and bicyclists would have been prevented from enjoying Maryland’s rural areas during that time. From lodging to meals to side-trip antiquing, travelers would have been inhibited from visiting our rural areas during that four-day holiday. Many legislators realized this and exempted their counties from the legislation.
The Maryland Conservation Council supports real deer-herd-management practices. If and when the legislative leaders decide to get serious, using science-based herd management, the Maryland Conservation Council will support that legislation. Until that time, we oppose and will continue to oppose any removal of the ban on hunting on Sunday.
—Mary P. Marsh, Arnold, President: Maryland Conservation Council
12 Ways to Better Schools
Dear Bay Weekly:
Here is an educational dozen to candidates for office in Anne Arundel County.
1. Fund an effort to get poverty parents to read stories to their pre-school children.
2. Traditionalize open-space schools. Put floor-to-ceiling walls around each classroom.
3. Air-condition the 47 schools without. When students in a non-AC school must take high-stakes tests, bus them to a school with AC.
4. Convert excess school buildings into academies for chronically disruptive students.
5. Put a lab of 35 computers into elementary schools serving students living in poverty.
6. Reserve space in elementary and middle schools for “holdbacks,” students who are retained in grades 5 and 8 until they test at grade level in literacy and numeracy.
7. Add a remedial math teacher besides the remedial reading teacher in each elementary.
8. Reduce middle school class sizes, as has been done in math at Old Mill and Severna Park and in language arts at Severn River. Chesapeake Middle has 73 oversized classes.
9. Let teachers photocopy as much as they need to compensate for poor textbooks.
10. Expand AVID, Ms. Parham’s effort to build skills of able but under-motivated students, so they can take Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate in high school.
11. Pay student fees for A.P. and International Baccalaureate programs. Pay teachers’ way to conferences about both.
12. Install International Baccalaureate at Severna Park H.S. for North County and at South River H.S. for South County.
—J.A. Hoage, Severna Park
Department of Corrections
David L. Clow shot the uncredited photograph of Big Money in last week’s story “Blues is …” by Brent Seabrook [Vol. X, No. 20: May 16].
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