When the pendulum swings hopefully a bill gets drafted that outlaws the sale/transfer of landowner tags?
Until we can count to 26 in the Senate and 51 in the House, and have the votes the committees, the only way to affect positive change on a large scale will be ballot initiatives.
For the years I lobbied (2009 - 2019), the Legislature was hostile to FWP & resident hunters. There were some good moments, and good work was done (The HB 140 licensing bill, WHIP, saving Habitat MT, etc) but by and large, we were on defense. The onslaught of bills ebbed & flowed, and '19 was looking like it would be a change in how the session operated in terms of listening to sportsmen.
2021 reversed all of that, and has made it like it was in 2011. There have been 3 chairs of House FWP that have been above board and honest in how they dealt with us. Kelly Flynn, Jeff Welborn & Ross Fitzgerald (current). The Senate gave us John Brendan, Jennifer Fielder, and now We have Steve Hinebauch, who recently ran a bill that would have made closing off county roads legal, and it would have gutted the stream access law (It died in committee quickly). He's also come out and attacked groups who work the legislature, and said that Habitat Montana (MT's LWCF) is a bad program. He ven opposed the amendment on 143 because the increased funds would have gone to Habitat Montana.
The Legislature likes to take swipes at FWP. Some of it is deserved, but when the people who are writing the laws that an agency has to live by only hand you shit-sandwiches, you either get used to the taste, or you starve.
FWP apparently has gotten used to the taste.
