Not this malarky again. A South Dakota Searchlight news brief from Joshua Haiar, Blaze pink may become an official hunter safety color in South Dakota, reports in part:
George Vandel with the South Dakota Wildlife Federation supported the bill, saying the group hopes the effort will encourage more people, particularly women, to participate in hunting.
Apparently, George and the rest didn't catch Star Tribune outdoor columnist Dennis Anderson's deep lamentations in his early December piece, Hunting in pink legal in Minnesota, but makes some women hunters see red:
...Yet some six years removed from Hackbarth's colorful legislative triumph, most Minnesota hunters still prefer to don obnoxiously hued blaze orange clothing rather than the equally obnoxiously hued blaze pink.
Pheasants Forever, for example, headquartered in Minnesota, doesn't peddle blaze pink gear to its 135,000 members, and the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association offers only a small selection of blaze pink vests, caps and jackets.
"Did I think legalizing blaze pink would help recruit more women to hunting?" Hackbarth said the other day. "It wasn't really my goal. But I thought it might help."
It hasn't: Women still make up only about 14% of Minnesota hunters, a figure that has stayed the same for the past 10 years. . . .
Jeepers, who would have guessed? I'm not one to wear much pink, though I do wear the fine pink trim with bright pink laces Bushnell boots my neighbor gave me.
As for going hunting in blaze pink, I'd worry about a color blind fellow mistaking me for a doe. Not a joking matter: back in the days of hunter's red, another hunter's bullet grazed one of my maternal uncle's liver (not sure if the careless fellow was colorful, but family stories said the offender had been drinking.
From the South Dakota Searchlight:
Blaze pink may become an official hunter safety color in South Dakota
By Joshua HaiarPIERRE — A committee of lawmakers endorsed a bill Tuesday that would add blaze pink as a legally recognized hunter safety color.
The South Dakota House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee approved the bill in an 11-1 vote. It goes to the House of Representatives next.
Sponsored by Rep. Jessica Bahmuller, R-Alexandria, the legislation aims to provide hunters with an alternative to the traditional blaze orange. She said several fellow lawmakers have asked why she brought the bill forward.
“The answer is very simple: It’s safety,” Bahmuller said. “Blaze pink is not a color that occurs naturally in nature.”
In South Dakota, hunters must wear orange to increase their visibility to other hunters, thereby reducing the risk of hunting accidents. Game licensees (excluding turkey, mountain lion and duck) who hunt with a firearm must wear the color.
George Vandel with the South Dakota Wildlife Federation supported the bill, saying the group hopes the effort will encourage more people, particularly women, to participate in hunting.
The bill’s lone no vote came from Rep. Randy Gross, R-Elkton, who said, “I’ll be voting no because I think there is value in consistency,” referring to the current standard that all hunters wear orange.
I'm with Gross on that one, especially since the color option doesn't seem to bring more women out to the fields and woods.
This South Dakota Searhclight article is republished online under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Screenshot: From Dennis Anderson's column in the Star Tribune, Blaze pink may become an official hunter safety color in South Dakota
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