It is nice to see it in writing, but I'm still not sleeping easy. That info might have come down from the top, but the top wasn't willing to put their name on it. What's scarier to me, is that there are way too many ways that this could still be a nightmare for us in AB.
There's going to be some p'od landowners out there when they find out the money just dried up, not all of them for sure, but there'll be a vocal minority, you can bank on that. Are they going to blame Uncle Ted? Maybe. SRD and gov't? Likely. Are they going to blame the hunters that vocally opposed the program? You better believe it.
Are Morton, Gates, Knopff and the core group of landowners that were behind this from the start going to throw their hands up and give in? Not friggin likely. More likely their already scheming the next program (can you say HFH?) that'll avoid the pitfalls that RAMP and Open Spaces stumbled on.
Depending on landowner reaction to the cancellation of the program and their funding, this thing could be spun numerous ways that won't be good for AB hunters, and in particular the relationship between hunters and landowners. Sadly, those that caused the mess will likely simply slip away into the night and let others deal with it.
We need to stay vigilant and stay on top of the "rumours". Hopefully someone will do that over at AO too, even if it means stepping on some toes, because almost to a man, everyone that was instrumental in fighting Open Spaces and bringing attention to it has been banned from that forum.
Waxy