Hey Buzz....
I put this out there in all sincerity -
I moved here about 32 years ago and have spent just about all of that time trying to make it a better place for the kind of folks in Montana that frequent this site. I sacrificed the opportunity to make a better living doing something else somewhere else because it is what I chose to do. Been largely a thankless and very frustrating task, but there have been rewards.
I way more often than not agree with the way of thinking you exhibit on here.
That being said, IIRC, you are a Montanan who moved away. You spend a lot of time bitching about the way things are here.
Again, I agree with the vast majority of what you say....
This home state could use more like you with the insights and experience you bring to the table.
Too bad you chose to leave and now cast aspersions from afar. They'd be much more useful if they came from within......
Wish you weren't watching your home come unglued from across the border.........
Again, I appreciate your input on here (way more than you really could know) - just sayin...................
By the way, your first sentence beat me to the punch...............
onpoint,
I have held elk tags in Montana every year since 1980 (until this year)...more years than you've lived in Montana.
As hard as you've tried to make it better, is about equally as hard as I tried to keep what we already had, and have since lost.
Elk management in Montana is a joke...from the EMP to the elk population estimates, to the harvest data, to the bull to cow ratios, etc. Take a look, AT THEIR NUMBERS and tell me how any of it makes sense? I'm not a biologist or a statistician, but even I know what it looks like to "cook the books".
I have been active in these issues for a long, long, long time in Montana, so given that I haven't sat on the sidelines, and still don't, I reckon I've earned the right to "bitch" if I want.
Take just this shoulder season crap. A majority of comments were opposed. What did the FWP do? They wrote a reply, posted it on their webpage, and essentially told everyone that wasn't in favor of a shoulder season we were "full of shit" and "didn't know what we were talking about". Its about the most biased, one-sided, belittling piece of government BS hatchet jobs I've ever seen written...people should lose their jobs over that kind of response.
In that response, many questioned the issue of this topic...Oh, no, that wont happen, nobody will charge for a shoulder season hunt...yeah, right.
So, what am I left to do as a concerned Sportsmen in Montana? My voice is squashed, biologists wont listen, you point out the "facts" they don't like that. The Governor and Director wont stand up to the Ag interests. The Director wont stand up to the Thompson, Vore, and Kujala's of the world...they in turn wont stand up for hunters OR wildlife. They also wont support their own biologists. IF a biologist dare support a hunter or wildlife, they're sent down the road like Ray V. was. Toe the mark or else...that's your job, not biology.
Maybe you just haven't seen what I've seen...good biology, science, and good people crapped on by the Department, Legislature, and Governors office...over and over and over again. All at the expense of Montana's wildlife, which 100% is what matters most to me.
It seems odd to me, that for whatever reason, I just don't believe that most of these "masterminds" behind things like shoulder seasons, every lose a second of sleep over these issues...yet I do.
Aint I just the dumbass...I should just blast my cow in August and continue to trust the Department is looking out for my wildlife and "doing what's best"...
Its a real inconvenience having a conscience and knowing better.
