I suppose the discussions around the net-utility of auction tags are tired ones, but I like to hear myself talk too much, so here's some things I think about.
-The ability of these funds to compromise a conservation org. Is it unreasonable to assume that organizations who accept such large amounts of scratch, or just reputation-building, will think twice about crossing those who give it to them, which is certainly something conservation orgs must do sometimes? There’s contemporary examples of this.
- It lets folks think a problem is being addressed when it’s not clear it is. Instead of relying on this kind of annual plutocratic theatre, we should fund conservation appropriately, or at least better, within public systems that exist or need to. I know slippery slope arguments are often bullshit, but one sheep tag ain’t that much and two wouldn’t be much more but would bring in twice the dough. Then three. Utah is a great example of auction tags gone off the rails.
- Is money the problem?
@Bambistew has made some pretty compelling takes over the years highlighting how it’s not obvious that more money brings the results we think it does.
-Lastly, for me it’s an erosion - a further abandonment of a tenet of the NAM, that if we held sacred, would simply quash a hundred of the problems and concerns of the vast majority of hunters – that being equal opportunity in the drawing process. If folks treated that premise with same zeal we treat others in the world , we could really get down to business.
A while back, Hal Herring’s excellent article on Jim Posewitz, “A Giant’s Shoes To Fill”, was making the rounds. When I read about a person spending tens, or hundreds of thousands of dollars for a f$@*ing mule deer tag, I hear Jim's quote, which was in reference to captive elk and deer, but for me, it fits here.
“The worst crime is that it prostitutes and trivializes both hunting and wild game animals.”
To be clear, I don’t have a lot of personal heartache over Montana’s auction tags. There’s bigger fish to fry, and of the hunting-related concerns I have they don’t break the top ten, just that if I were starting fresh I think I’d leave em out of the picture.
