Forced a listen to the whole podcast while doing my MT spring bear prep workouts. A few observations.
-Without context, Hank’s explanations sound halfway decent. With context, it’s about 80% blowing smoke.
-He repeatedly references landowner needs, wants, gripes, issues, and the mandate for his office to address these. When he references the same coming from public land hunters he cites reasons to discredit, discount, or delegitimize them.
-Some vocabulary words he uses don’t mean the same thing to him as they do to others. Ex, “access” to him means ease of well-connected and/or deep-pocketed hunters in getting bull tags for private ground.
-Odd logic trail. “We have to manage the elk where they are, not where we want them to be.” As a consequence of liberal elk tags and liberal seasons, many MT elk are pushed off public on to private sanctuaries. Therefore, changes to seasons and tags reflect 90% of landowner concerns if 90% of elk are on their land during hunting season. The public land hunter is an extreme minority stakeholder.
-Beats around the bush regarding the elephant in the room: You elected GG and knew what you were getting. If you want a different direction, elect different representatives.