Pay to Play

katqanna

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I got a call a wee bit ago from a fellow conservation hunter that was listening to the Northern Ag Network this morning, telling me I needed to turn it on, they were discussing elk shoulder seasons. So I got on online, listened to the two speakers - a land owner named Robert (dont know where he was from or how much acreage, I didnt catch the beginning) and a guy, Terry, who the host kept deferring to as having most of the answers and knowledge, I use those terms loosely.

Terry it turns out is Terry Anderson, from PERC, who has 20 acres up by Bridger Bowl area, he said. He said the average hunter needs to pay for hunting access, talked about $1000, said the hunters were driving around in $30,000 pickups with expensive rifles and such and can afford to pay landowners for the right to hunt. Terry said our licenses need to go up, but the increase should be dedicated to landowners, then spoke about going back to late season hunts to drop elk numbers down like before. The listeners where then referred to PERC's website for more information. PERC is a Bozeman based organization.

I went to PERC's site, typed in elk hunting in the search bar to find they advocate ranching for wildlife, specifically talking about the Texas Model,
"Texas has the flexibility and incentives for which ranching for wildlife strives. It is by far the leader in terms of the number of landowners who have instituted fee hunting. A study by Butler and Workman
(1993) found that 52 percent of the Texas ranches surveyed offered fee hunting. The result is a wide array of hunting opportunities and price ranges in Texas (see Figure 1)..."

"With the decline of quality hunting opportunities on public lands, however, more hunters are willing to pay for better hunting, and landowners are responding to this demand by offering hunting access for a fee. Through ranching for wildlife, state wildlife agencies can build on this foundation..."

"In other western states, ranching for wildlife provides many of the benefits found in Texas. In these states, much of the land is public and access has been traditionally free. Until recently, this free access discouraged private landowners from even maintaining habitat, let alone planting forage or building ponds to attract game animals. Landowners could not earn enough from fee hunting to justify the expense. With the decline of quality hunting opportunities on public lands, however, more hunters are willing to pay for better hunting, and landowners are responding to this demand by offering hunting access for a fee. Through ranching for wildlife, state wildlife agencies can build on this foundation."

They advocated longer seasons, "Because a longer season offers a better chance of harvesting trophy animals, more hunters are willing to pay landowners a premium for these hunts."

And of course, PERC advocates a transfer of federal public lands to the states. There were numerous papers there like Turning Wildlife Into An Asset, Wildlife in the Marketplace, etc.

This Sept., after the Skyline Sportsmen wrote an oped against elk shoulder seasons, PERC's Terry Anderson wrote a reply, in which he stated, "Colorado’s 'ranching for wildlife' program takes an even bigger step. It gives landowners more say in who can hunt and gives them some permits which they can sell at whatever price the market will bear in return for cooperating with the state’s wildlife agency on habitat management plans.

Put bluntly, opposition to shoulder seasons is driven by short-sighted self-interest. It is short sighted because it fails to recognize landowners, who control the best habitat in the state, as allies of hunters. It is self-interested because it fails to recognize that landowners bear the cost of providing habitat and asks them to provide a free-access lunch for hunters. To be sure, elk are public wildlife, but as Chuck Denowh, policy director for United Property Owners of Montana, put it, 'it’s time for the public to pay. The shoulder seasons are a very tiny step in the right direction.' "
 
Better wake up, folks.

Wait until you get a load of the next proposal in CO. I should be able to post about it in about 2 weeks when it becomes public knowledge. Another brick in the privatization wall being constructed between public hunters and wildlife....
 
Wasn't the guy that sat beside of Big Fin at the LWCF hearing in DC from that org?
 
Scary shit!

PERC has long advocated the sale of public lands. The rhetoric changed after they started receiving funding from Koch brother aligned foundations to match the rhetoric from ALEC & The American Lands Council to focus more on transfer. These people are all working together in a coalition to defraud the American public of their assets for their funder's gain.

Rob Bishop holds LWCF hostage, won't allow Interior funding to happen with out silly votes on confederate flags, etc while transfer proponents get on the air waves bemoaning the inaction of the evil fed to manage the public estate. It's a good strategy, especially with a public that doesn't pay much attention to the details.

This effort is well funded and choreographed. Everybody should be ready to put their boots to congress regardless of state and committee assignments their reps and senators have.

Here's a great read from TRCP on the issue along with a call to action:

http://blog.trcp.org/2015/10/26/bre...blic-access-to-hunting-and-fishing-heres-how/
 
PERC asserts that private land ownership results in better wildlife habitat through commercialization to financially support habitat ... while advocating for less revenues for federal agencies to adequately manage habitat ... then in turn criticizing federal land managers for not adequately managing public lands ... leading to the conclusion that then public lands should be transferred to private hands. Circuitous, self-serving ideology articulated by rhetoric which on the surface seems to follow a rationale. However, it is replete with flaws, ignores the important public wildlife history and successes ... and avoids the North American Wildlife Conservation Model like the plague.
 
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I found the audio for the two segments, most of which are advertisements, so y'all can listen for yourselves.
Segment 1
Segment 2

I just finished the first segment that I missed. Aaron Flint is the host (edit: Jon Arneson is now the host), he did an internship on Capitol Hill for Sen. Conrad Burns, hired by Sen Taylor Brown for this program.

Terry begins by saying that what happened with Stream Access in Montana is happening with hunting - he doesnt agree with stream access by the way and it is written in PERC's papers I went through as well.

He said the best habitat are the larger private parcels like Turner and the Wilks places.

Terry also said the public hunters are slaughtering the wildlife, the tragedy of the commons, that we need restricted access to protect wildlife.
 
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I just finished the first segment that I missed. Aaron Flint is the host, he did an internship on Capitol Hill for Sen. Conrad Burns, was recently hired by Sen Taylor Brown for this program.

Aaron was at VOM for about 6 years. He's now a staffer for the Gianforte (The guy running against Bullock) campaign,
 
Ben Thanks for the update, their email address to reach the host is still aflint@... Their blog for the program has Jon Arneson listed as the host now.
 
Better wake up, folks.

Wait until you get a load of the next proposal in CO. I should be able to post about it in about 2 weeks when it becomes public knowledge. Another brick in the privatization wall being constructed between public hunters and wildlife....

Heed the Oak.....

...what they really mean by Texas Model.
 
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I don't care who you are, if that cartoon does not make you chuckle, you have zero sense of humor. Great 'toon, Kat.
 

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