No bender and no embarrassment! Too busy calving, sorting pairs and what not. I have no time for childish things such as benders and celebrating. I actually work for a living. The sky is not falling fellas! Hell.....Eric and I got blindsided by this ourselves. I’m not going to lie to you and say I don’t like it, but it’s not near as bad as some of you think. The talk of initiatives has been rampant.....which I figured it would be. In 2010 it was you folks that broke the trust agreement......not us! If you go back a few pages you will see one of your fearless leaders admit that. Just saying.
With all do respect Shooter, it was the outfitters that broke the deal. I was there the whole way.
So let me see:
Outfitters to Sportsmen: So if you agree to give us another 5500 tags that go to Outfitters only, they will be unlimited, but if we oversell then the next year prices will even out so only 5500 a year are sold. We will make sure that money goes into a fund that will open the door to massive amounts of lands to all, outright purchases, and leases. We will make sure that we keep the number of outfitters where they are today give or take, and we won't increase the competition on public lands.
So after a decade of this "Agreement" the Outfitters started to hire way more "Guides" than they had on hand in the beginning. For a fee, or hunting permission many outfitters were "Hiring" landowners as "Guides" working for them. Those "landowners" would make the money for guiding through the Outfitters license, and then either pay a fee or let the outfitter take clients on those lands.
Leased properties went through the roof in acreage and haven't left. Weird the tags are needed as both of you on this forum claim your booked.
Outfitters never joined in with sportsmen to acquire lands for "All" they never joined in with sportsmen, for the resource. They only showed up when it was time for a hand out, or when a restriction was possible, like limited entry tags. God forbid we raise the bar for wildlife vs some other special interest group.
So we tired of the "agreement" that was being abused yearly in over sales of tags leased lands blocking more access, crowding on public lands and decided to run the chance of an Initiative to do away with this OSL "Agreement".
I'm not sure what the next "Initiative" might look like, but I do know we are really not happy with MOGA a group that represents Outfitters.
The competition, and arrogance displayed towards the resident, and NR DIY sportsmen was on full display this session through MOGA. For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. Do you not agree?
You reap what you sow, and there's more seeds to follow this session. Underestimating the resident hunters resolve could have historic ramifications in todays political world. I'm half full.