I'm a native Virginian now from Alabama. Still have lots of kin around Richmond. This story of the officials really sucks but look at the bright side, political officials here in Alabama would have gone on the trip too but would have taken officials from other states as well as all wives, kids, inlaws, outlaws and friends and would want us to pay to ship all trophies, souvieners, furniture. etc that they bought back home. Then when the story got out the head man would say we should be grateful to have such dedicated, hardworking state officials representing us overseas. And he'd say that to stop all the negative press he would reimburse the state fully for his part and hand over a check for $100.

actually the way i look at it is they will cover it up and as long as they dont change our season here its all good. we have one of the longest deer seasons stretching from oct.3rd to jan 1st. the only thing id like to see is to open sunday hunting and allow doe day all season like they do in some counties here. there are way too many deer and they will never get the numbers under control if the right amount of does cant be harvested. the average working man can only hunt saturdays and they wonder why so many people road hunt or hunt at night which sucks. but all i know is that every where i look i see deer and the number of does are staggering but the bucks are plentiful too. by thinning some of these does and scrub bucks va has the potential of being up there with the other monster producing states. ive harvested some 130 to 160 class bucks here and ill never pay to hunt deer anywhere.

Hey guys,

The saga continues.... Tuesday's Richmond Times-Dispatch had another article about our wonderful, honest, VDGIF officials.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet...=1045855934983

Butch A.

Just got this off another site, where a guy posted an article from the Roanoke Times here in Virginia. Man, the VDGIF is in some serious hot water!

--------------------------cut 'n paste--------------------------------

Getting the game department back on track

By Bill Cochran
ROANOKE.COM COLUMNIST

For the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, Christmas Day was anything but a time of peace, joy and good will toward men. On the front page of the Richmond Times-Dispatch was a report that the agency is under investigation to determine whether high-ranking DGIF officials improperly used state credit cards to pay for about $12,000 in expenses for a hunting expedition to Africa.

Charges of improprieties aren’t that uncommon in wildlife departments of many states, but this is a first for straight-shooting Virginia. I have covered the agency for 40 years, attending more board meetings, I believe, than any other person in its history. What I have observed for the most part is the finest organization in state government, one that has earned an amazing amount of loyalty and assistance from its constituents by serving them well.

Yet, the front-page story didn’t surprise me that much, because I have seen the DGIF leadership recently become increasingly autocratic. Old friends of the agency and even loyal and talented employees have been held at arm’s length as the department is controlled by an increasingly smaller circle of power whose members are offended when someone has a tough question or alternate viewpoint. The result is favoritism and cronyism that has caused some people to lose trust and resort to trench warfare.

Those who call the shots have said that they simply are moving the department forward and that there is a vendetta by people inside and outside the agency bent on preventing that. What I see is a grand old agency moving away from the grassroots that have made it a success; an agency that now exerts time trying to control people rather than involve them.

The original plan, according to the Times-Dispatch, was for the 17-day jaunt to Zimbabwe to be funded as a DGIF business trip to deal with global game management and conservation issues. The DGIF participants, according to the report, were Bill Woodfin, executive director; Dan Hoffler, board chairman and game wardens Col. Terry Bradbery and Maj. Mike Caison.

Woodfin became director in the mid-'90s after being appointed acting director by Gov. George Allen. Hoffler is a successful Tidewater developer who has hunted big game in a number of countries and is a major contributor to Gov. Mark Warner. He was appointed to the board by Warner and quickly became its chairman.

A couple of weeks before the four officials were to depart, W. Tayloe Murphy Jr., secretary of natural resources, ruled that the trip could not be financed with state funds, because it was not necessary to improve game management and conservation in Virginia.

When that occurred, Hoffler funded much of the trip. But $12,000 in state credit card expenditures already had gone for passports, shots, clothing, boots, cameras, gun cases, luggage and related equipment, according to a tip to the state fraud hot line. The Times-Dispatch said it received this information on the condition of anonymity.

A state internal auditor is investigating the hot-line tip. Murphy said he wouldn’t make a judgment until the report is complete. At this point, “No one has shown me any evidence of any wrongdoing,” he told the Times-Dispatch.

There certainly are things for Virginians to learn in Africa, but it was fuzzy thinking to consider justifying DGIF funds at a time when the agency has suffered major cutbacks in programs, services and personnel because of a budget crunch. It is the same faulty reasoning that has afforded the director annual bonus and soon-to-be salary increases while programs are being cut.

DGIF funds are provided by outdoor sportsmen primarily through hunting and fishing license sales and boat registration fees along with taxes on outdoor equipment.

They are intended “to manage Virginia’s wildlife and inland fish to maintain optimum populations of all species to serve the needs of the Commonwealth; to provide opportunity for all to enjoy wildlife, inland fish, boating and related outdoor recreation; to promote safety for persons and property in connection with boating, hunting and fishing.”

The quote above is the agency’s mission statement.

It is uncertain what impact this incident will have on the agency’s credibility, as it deals with the fast-approaching General Assembly, and as it moves toward a needed increase in hunting, fishing and boating fees. Will it receive the support that has been so generous and vital in the past?

It must if it is to survive, so let’s hope that just enough discomfort has been exerted to get the DGIF back on track.

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Thanks for the info on the safari, I mean, "official fact finding mission". I find it hard to believe that someone would pay $20.000 "out of his own pocket" to benefit the State of Virginia just because the trip was not supported at the last minute. Granted they would have lost the Game Commissions $12.000 already spent, but no one would have probably even said anything about it had they not went ahead with the trip. They claim the Commission has all the items they bought for $12.000 but some of the items are passports, luggage, and other things that I highly doubt is going to be used in the field. I'm thinking about a career change so maybe I can get a job with the Game Commission as they may have a few openings coming up. At least I'm honest and won't pee on you and try to tell you it is raining.

Here more to the story.... [:@] Fresh off the press of Washington Times:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/sport...1401-6549r.htm

Butch A.

now all i want to know is how in the hell can anyone believe that a hunting trip to africa has any concern of va officials about game management? the sheer numbers of animals in africa is nowhere close to ours for one and for two we are talking about no similar species. and also i juadt got my 2005 fishing license from walmart and it was on a printed out piece of paper. now how is that worth my 12 bucks? they are pinching pennies all over the dgif apperantly. oh well where there is wealth and power there are corupt people behind it. it really doesnt surprise me at all. if they were really concerned with game management then they would open sunday hunting up cause there are entirely too many deer in the state anyway. i still cant figure out what africas game management has to do with virginias but oh well i hope those guilty of it are ready for lawsuits. like my mother always said "if your going to be dumb you better be tough"

Well now, they were apparently pinching pennies to save up for a trip to Africa...Maybe we'll see Gemsbok and Lesser Kudu in the Shenandoah mountains pretty soon :]

Seriously though, it's ridiculous, and I hope they get their asses handed back to them and then some, and the entire department re-vamped top to bottom.

.....The saga continues. It seems the Virginia DGIF is doing some serious, uh, "damage control".... This is from today's Richmond Times-Dispatch:

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet...=1031780174897

Butch A.

That is bad, I can not believe that they could get away with it and not be caught until now. At least they were caught.