Elk Camp 2012

[dmserpa]

Well if you we're not at RMEF Elk Camp in Las Vegas you missed a wonderful presentation by Randy to the whole congregation at Sat nite dinner. A full blown video with our OYOA message coming across to an estimated 1600 attendees. Randy hit a home run promoting the RMEFand OYOA and we can all be very proud!!!!!

 

[d-bone20917]

I wish I could have seen that. Great job Randy.

 

[Elkwhisper]

It was a pretty cool video that definitely drove home what a a great organization the RMEF is and how they not only preserve and protect elk habitat but also how much land they have opened up to public access.

If he can get it done, it would be great if randy could post a link to the video here.

 

[Elkwhisper]

Double post... Removed

 

[noharleyyet]

it would be great if randy could post a link to the video here.

Good idea whisper.

 

[Big Fin]

It was a pretty cool video that definitely drove home what a a great organization the RMEF is and how they not only preserve and protect elk habitat but also how much land they have opened up to public access.

If he can get it done, it would be great if randy could post a link to the video here.

I have a rough cut, but not the final version. I did not see it myself, until Wednesday night. I was asked on Thursday if I would get up on stage Saturday night and talk about the importance of access and how hunting and conservation are tied to such. Was kind of "winging it."

You never know how it sounds to the guy out in the audience, when you are ad libbing that way. You wonder if they are clapping because they like what you said; or because they are just glad you stopped talking; or out of courtesy as to no make you feel bad.

I will try to get a full version and post it. I thought it turned our really good. It was filmed when Critter and I were out wolf hunting. I want to thank him for letting me take a couple hours to do those ramblings. I know it was an imposition on our wolf hunt. But, he got to stand by and stoke the fire whenit was -0F, while I got to stand on the windy crest and flap my soup coolers.

If people knew how many hundreds of thousands of acres (636,000) RMEF has brought into public access, and how many hundreds of thousands more (not sure if anyone has that number) they have preserved access to, I suspect most every elk hunter would be an RMEF member. That is in addition to the 6 million acres that they have enhanced or protected for elk and other wildlife.

I risk sounding like the long-toothed blue-haired fogie in the the crowd by saying this, but many guys on this site are too young to be expected to know what access was going to be lost, until RMEF stepped in. I have watched it over the last 20+ years, and could tell story after story, just about areas in my neighborhood. Anyone who hunts the Madison and Gallatin Ranges is probably hunting on areas, or accessing via areas, that would have been lost to public hunting if not for RMEF.

Those two mountain ranges were nothing but checkerboards, prior to the Gallatin I and Gallatin II land exchanges. Those happened in the early and mid 1990's. When Plumb Creek sold to Big Sky Lumber, BSL started closing off the access across those private parts of the checkerboard. That cut off access to hundreds of thousands of the best elk hunting acres in the mid and southern Madison Range and the northern and mid Gallatin Range. RMEF was the leader that got those exchanges completed.

Yeah, we gave up the Yellowstone Club and Moonlight Basin. We gave up a lot of timber receipts on the north Bridgers and the land in the Bangtails. But, we consolidated the entire remainder of the Gallatin and Madison Ranges, from Taylor's Fork to the Flying D, and from Buffalo Horn to the Gallatin Face just south of my house.

Not sure how many acres that is, but it is a lot. Not sure how many hunter days are spent on those lands, but it is in the most popular place in our part of the state, the elk basket of the state. Not sure how many bulls are killed there each year, but it is a huge number, not to mention the black bears, deer, and now wolves that are hunted on those grounds.

Most of the MT guys on this site were not even out of college by that time, so it is hard for them to know the story of what was happening. It is hard for those poeple to even fathom losing access in those places where it is now secured forever. But, it was not always as we enjoy it today.

In 2004, RMEF and the Trust For Public Lands, did the same thing for Taylor's Fork. That had been bought by the owners of the 320 Ranch. It was grandfathered under the MT subdivision rules that passed in 1993, so it was plotted for 20 and 40 acre cabin sites. The USFS would not let the owners build a bridge across Taylor's Fork Creek, so one day they flew three cabins into these spots via helicopter to show they intended to develop the most cirtical wildlife migration corridor in all of the Madison-Gallatin complex.

It was hunters headed by RMEF, and TPL who got it done. The land was purchased and transferred to the USFS, now open to all of us for hunting, and putting to rest the possibility of elk having to migrate through a subdivision of cabins and other human activity.

It was hard to sit at the dedication and listen to politicians all take credit for that effort, only to be surpassed by the environmental groups clambor for credit. I suspect some needed physical therapy to treat their should problems created while patting themselves on the back. Meanwhile RMEF and TPL humbly thanked everyone for getting the job done, then went about their business of finding the next project.

The same can be said for the Paradise Valley north of Gardiner. Projects like OTO, Dome Mountain, Royal Teton, all have similar stories and all have the footprint of the Elk Foundation and their members. Yet, RMEF is not out there bragging about it. They are working on the next Taylor's Fork-type project.

RMEF tries to be humble and go about their work. That is to there detriment at times. If there was a RMEF logo at every trailhead where they have opened/preserved access, or made habitat conservation improvements, there would be a ton of them plastered around the Rockies.

They will be the first to admit that they are not perfect. Any of us who are, need to step forward and start walking across the water. But, their members are some of the most committed hunters you could ever find.

RMEF has adopted a new tagline - Hunting is Conservation. I could not agree more. Hunting IS conservation in this country. Hunting always has been conservation. Without hunting, we have no conservation.

Yet, without public access, for many among us, their is no hunting. And for many more, without public access, their is no conservation. Access is the hinge upon which hunting and conservation hang. No other way to put it.

I know I sound biased in my promotion of them. My first hand experience of watching what they have done to help us get projects completed causes me to feel that strongly about them. I can find no organization doing more for my kind of hunting, than the work done by Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

The video and my presentation that night was an effort to bring this work to the attention to elk hunters, to the media folks at the event, but mostly to thank the dedicated volunteers of RMEF. Many volunteers do not know the special work that comes from their efforts. Hopefully they know a little bit more about the work they have accomplished.

 

[dmserpa]

Nice to learn the history behind the RMEF. Its refreshing to see all the good they have done as we usually only hear the negatives on HT.

 

[mdunc8]

In 2004, RMEF and the Trust For Public Lands, did the same thing for Taylor's Fork. That had been bought by the owners of the 320 Ranch. It was grandfathered under the MT subdivision rules that passed in 1993, so it was plotted for 20 and 40 acre cabin sites. The USFS would not let the owners build a bridge across Taylor's Fork Creek, so one day they flew three cabins into these spots via helicopter to show they intended to develop the most cirtical wildlife migration corridor in all of the Madison-Gallatin complex.

RMEF will get a check from me if they were even partly responsible for this as they probably kept me out of prison. I was pretty close to tossing a stick of dynamite in each one of them before they got moved.

 

[Big Fin]

RMEF just put the video up on their Facebook page. Here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/RMEF1

If you like it and what they are doing for hunting access, I hope you will joing the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and become a friend on their FB page. Any positive comments on their FB page are very helpful for other sponsors to see when they show up on the RMEF FB page.

I heard big cheers from Federal about what they saw from all of you on their FB page last week. They were taking note.

I don't have video of the presentation from that night. They were filming it, but I suspect that will not make it to the web anytime soon.


If you are protesting FB and want to see it on You Tube here is that link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP_IPFGA93k&feature=youtu.be

 

[A-con]

I re-uped my membership at the door.
Nice talking with you.
Missed your speech that night, couldn't turn down an invitation to shoot a machine gun and eat a dry aged, prime steak.