Scene from Leupold’s short video biography featuring Oregon outdoorsman James Nash. (YouTube, Leupold Optics)
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Oregon outdoorsmen and women were stunned when a state Senate committee declined to consider the nomination of a lifelong hunter and Marine Corps veteran to the state Fish & Wildlife Commission after environmental groups raised a fuss over the fact that the nominee had killed big game in Africa, and might have a differing viewpoint about wolf management.
According to the Portland Oregonian, “environmental advocates raised concerns over his history as a big game hunter and potential conflicts of interest.” Eight organizations reportedly sent a letter to Democrat Gov. Brown opposing her nomination of lifelong Oregon resident James Nash, a former Marine captain who received two Purple Hearts for wounds suffered in Afghanistan. The groups included Oregon Wild, Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Audubon Society of Portland.
Even more bizarre, a report in the Oregonian and at OregonLive revealed, “Environmentalists also took issue with his relationship to Todd Nash, his father, who serves as Treasurer of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, an industry group that frequently comes before the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to argue for looser restrictions on when wolves can be killed for attacking livestock.”
Oregon writer Bill Monroe noted in a column about this apparent outrage of political correctness, “Photos of his hippo and crocodile kills triggered an unfair rush to judgment of a man who, after medical retirement from the Marines, dedicated his life to the environment, river restoration, responsible range management and teaching others to hunt and fish.”
The crocodile was apparently a man-eater. The hippo was reportedly killed as it charged Nash.
Leupold Optics, which is based in Oregon, produced a short video about Nash and his experiences in Afghanistan, and as an outdoorsman in the Beaver State. The video may be found on YouTube, titled “Resilient to the Core: The Story of Captain James Nash.”
Veteran outdoor writer and editor Andy Walgamott, writing in Northwest Sportsman, observed, “Nash…drew the ire of environmental groups who poked around in his Instagram account and brought images to the attention of reporters, which resulted in puzzling headlines at the Willamette Week and The Oregonian as if it was wrong to have a hunter on the panel overseeing the management of the state’s fish and wildlife.”
Among some hunters, there was a suspicion that “social prejudice” played a part in Nash’s derailment as a commission member.
The nomination was not even considered by the Senate Rules Committee, chaired by perennial anti-gun Democrat Sen. Ginny Burdick of Portland.
When Willamette Weekly writer Nigel Jaquiss weighed in, he opened a report about Nash with this sentence: “James Nash is good at killing exotic animals.” He went on to explain that the environmental groups felt “betrayed” by Gov. Brown, because they had hopes that she would change the makeup of the commission.
But the real reason for their angst might be Nash’s voice when it comes to wolf management. Wolves are increasing in numbers in parts of Oregon. Jaquiss said environmentalists were concerned there might be “a specific conflict over the reintroduction of wolves into Oregon and, more generally, the question of whether hunters’ and ranchers’ desire to benefit from public lands should outweigh the wishes of Oregonians who favor the preservation of the state’s natural areas for wildlife habitat and recreational use.”
