Emphatically questioning something I say does not provide an answer as to what you think has caused hunting to be on the trajectory it is on. Its a multifactorial cause, but I am saying that the media pushed to the NR hunter or new hunter has influenced more people moving here that ARE NOW resident hunters for which there is no quota for tags. Being here from 2013-2016? Man you have missed out on the golden years of hunting in MT, and also have not seen what it has been like here the past 2 seasons or so. Not only are you running into snowshoers and cross country skiers in drainages that used to have tons of elk and no people, but I am running into people who have just moved here and are hunting for the first time as a resident.
I wrote my thesis on how the extractive industry drove growth in the west, and how their is a statistically significant correlation between the discovery of mineral deposits and the formation of political boundaries. Example how the comstock load gave us, California and Nevada as we now no them.
I extractive industries caused growth in the west, secondary industries developed to support them and so on.. basically what happened in CA almost a century before. Remember, There will be Blood, it takes place in California.
So that’s growth. Hunting, well I don’t see a significant difference between hunting and any other outdoor industry. I’m sure someone out there is bitching about how the standup paddleboard world has gotten stupid.
I agree new resident hunters are the issue. Screwing with NR quotas you lose a ton of revenue for marginal improvements. 10-20% of hunters pay for 80-90% of the sport.
Resident quotas are necessary, there may be a time when residents don’t get to hunt elk every year. If that’s the case it will be the case even if you eliminate NR hunting.
You can’t limit Residents to 2 years or whatever, he’ll I can’t believe AKs rule hasn’t been challenged in court. I would argue it violates the 14th amendment. Further you get to vote when you move to a new place so newly minted voters could just vote out the law... and it still doesn’t address the issue.
Grow herds, improve access, learn to share. CO has enough elk that we can have a lot of hunters but if your all in the field at once it sucks, so we have 4 rifle seasons. Is what it is.
Yeah according to who you talk to we were all born to late or too early, I’m grateful for the opportunities I have had, and I hope others get to have opportunities as well.