Dear Friends/Family/Co-Workers and Past Clients:

As many of you know, over the last several years I have been involved in a dispute with the Colorado Division of Wildlife regarding the reinstatement of my hunting and fishing privileges. I would like to take a few minutes to tell you my side of the story and to request your help in resolving this matter.

Those of you who know me even a little know how important this issue is to me and to my family. But this is about more than just my own situation. I believe that the issues of Ethics/Fairness and doing what is Right highlighted by my own situation apply to everyone.

Here’s what happened:
In April of 2008, for opening day of Turkey Season, I drove down a private road to access Centennial Valley State Wildlife Area (SWA), and parked in a very large parking area, apparently reserved for State Personnel and Oil and Gas Workers. When I got back to my car I was met by a Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) Officer. I was given a 25 pt. ticket for Trespassing/Parking in a non-designated area.

I ultimately ended up with a penalty of 2 years of supervised probation from Weld County (probation dates: 12/2/2008 - 12/3/2010), which included as terms and conditions of probation, no hunting, fishing, or trapping. In addition to the Weld County penalty, the CDOW issued a 3-year Suspension (on paper -- in reality it's closer to 4 1/2 years) of my license-buying privileges for fishing, hunting and trapping. Nor can I apply for preference points for the same amount of time. Please note, the presumptive range on this suspension is 0 - 5 years. I'm almost at the maximum.

Please note that other than this incident, I have no criminal record and that this is my first wildlife offense in nearly 50 years of hunting, fishing and trapping.

The end result of these penalties is that I have not hunted or fished in Colorado since 10/2008 (or in the 30 plus other states involved with The Wildlife Violator Compact. I have appealed this with the Wildlife Commission/written letters to the Hearing's Officer and to the Citing Officer. All to no avail. It seems as though we have a very serious Public Relations issue on our hands.

Current suspension dates are May 6th 2010, to May 5th 2013. Apparently when the CDOW implements a suspension they don't go back to the last valid license/preference point application, which in my case would have been June 2nd or 3rd, 2009.

My last resort is you all.  Here’s how you can help:

In addition to signing my petition, a huge help would be to comment on my Facebook page as well as any/all suggestions as to how I get this out there. IE EXPOSURE to any/all who might sign on.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scotts-CDOW-Petition/132171766904154.

What's most important here is that this is fixed/done properly in a Fair, Ethical and Right way. In other words, reinstatement as of June 5th 2012.

My 77 year old father is coming to hunt with me for the upcoming 2012 hunting season and I wish to hunt with him as we have done since I was a kid, and as fathers and sons have done together for thousands of years.

Sincerely Scott Ashley Arnao DBA Scott's Remodeling serving the community since 1995  303-946-7861 e-mail mineralhunter@hotmail.com

Links