Sorry for the last minute notice, packed for the month long stay in the tundra of North Montana and arrived, set up computer shop here, finally got the Forest Service Pat Tabor complaints scanned, so here they are.
Forest Service complaints pdf.
As you will see, the complaints cover the following: For years Mr. Tabor had been dumping manure from his corrals onto FS land, which was not only producing many noxious weeds (including Canada Thistle and St. Johnswort), but included a large amount of bailing twine, over 2 large garbage bags worth, near a riparian area. Swan Mountain Outfitters reportedly had a large cache stored in the wilderness up Lion Creek,; access to the trail is not user friendly to the public as it is almost exclusively used by SMO guides and clients with a negative attitude to the public; parking and stock containment minimal at best as students, guides, clients and employees of SMO dominating utilization; horse manure in the stream running into Pony Lake, the trail up to Lake heavily used with SMO wranglers stating a crew, in association with SMO "improved" the trail, widening it with stumps and trees sawed out of the way, rocks pried from the tred and narrow spots pulaskied back into the hill to make the tred wider at a site designated as proposed wilderness.
The FWP Citations cover:There are 5 FWP Game Warden citations against Patrick Tabor, license number 11300, for violations of MCA 37-47-344, 37-47-201 and ARM 24.171.2301 (1b) involving subcontracting business, utilizing State DNRC lands/waters without a commercial license (4 different dates) and failure to keep true and accurate reports. Lake County dismissed these citations without going to trial. Per a conversation with Warden Bowen, there were more Tabor violations than they issued citations for.
Tabor's appointment ended in October and is up for re-appointment, so I wrote
Governor Bullock,
Tim Baker,
Tracy Stone-Manning and
Stacy Otterstrom stating, As a president and as a Board of Outfitters member, I feel Tabor should hold himself to a high standard of ethics, an example to other outfitters and guides in Montana. Unfortunately, I do not feel that he has upheld this standard and is not worthy of re-appointment for the reasons above and included the pdfs. I feel that the Tabor citations (additional violations) and FS complaints show a pattern of viewing and utilizing our public lands/resources as private, rather than respecting them as public. Mr. Tabor's failure to keep true and accurate records is more disconcerting in view of MOGA's proposal to amend ARM to remove a variety of reporting data, one of which is proposed by Tabor involving operations plans and outfitter records. Re-appointing Patrick Tabor to the Board of Outfitting will not only reflect poorly on the ethics and standards the Board should be representing, but also give a black eye to this administration for the appointment.
The Board of Outfitting is meeting the 12th-14th. Click on the agendas to see the particular business. They are holding elections for the chair and vice chair, which Tabor has held, so I included the information to the
Board of Outfitting as well and
Commissioner Pam Bucy, Department of Labor and Industry.
Since changing a number of the Administrative Rules of Montana are being proposed, involving records reporting, I concluded - Mr. Tabor's failure to keep true and accurate records is more disconcerting in view of MOGA's proposal to amend ARM to remove a variety of reporting data, one of which is proposed by Tabor involving operations plans and outfitter records. Electing Patrick Tabor will reflect poorly on the ethics and standards the Board should be representing.
Additionally, these Tabor citations (attached) are a perfect example of why the Operations Plans and Outfitter Records ARM should not be amended to remove the required data. Public lands/waters and public resources (fish & wildlife biology data for example) are involved, requiring transparency and accountability, not increased privatization (of records). Records data, inclusive of hunting districts, species and sex, date, location of harvest data, client logs, contact information and outfitter operation plans should be freely available to FWP, DNRC, and federal agencies, such as US Forest Service and BLM.
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Remember that Outfitter map debacle, with the Board of Outfitters saying it was inaccurate, yeah, well we need that data reporting, not less reporting. At least in my opinion.
Hopefully, some of y'all will take a few moments and send public comments.
