Montana F&W Commission's great deals

[Irishman]

At the start of the month Pat Tabor (Montana F&W commission) spent several minutes explaining to me how horrible the Democratic Governors of Montana had been in attaining hunting access in Montana. He said it was because they weren't being accommodating enough to the big land owners. That he and the new Gianforte regime would do a much better job of working with the big land owners.
I just heard about the "great" deal that they have made with the infamous Wilks Brothers. The Wilks Brothers get gifted 8 bull elk permits, and get to choose who gets every bull elk permit. In return 16 people who are randomly drawn get a cow elk permit for the Wilks property. Next thing we will be hearing is how Tabor, Gianforte and Co have opened up access to all this private land. What a horrible deal this is. If this is the kind of deal Tabor and Co are going to be making, then the average hunter is in big trouble. Pretty soon all bull elk on private land will be killed by the landowner and his buddies, gifted by Gianforte and Co, while the public will be only allowed to kill of the excess cow elk.

 

[406dn]

In some regards this is already the situation on most private land. It is only areas where elk hunting is only by permit that there is a practical change. It sucks, but this philosophy has won at the ballot box.

It would have happened sooner but the last two governors sorta kinda held it at bay.

It is the way the world of big game hunting is headed. Most of the people in the country don't give two $hits about hunting, much less about a North American model.

I won't live long enough to see how it plays out over the next several decades, but I don't think the situation will reverse course.