Funny stuff, for sure. After last year's fiasco and knowing this was going to be a continuing saga, I did not even apply in the Durfees this year. I doubt I'll ever apply there again. It is great elk hunting. I've just decided to move on and find other places to hunt, though I hope hunters continue to hunt there.
Anyone think the Wilks would enter into a trade where they get promises in exchange for tangible assets (land) gone forever?
Really, how long do you think Farris and Daryl and Jimmy would entertain that idea before they rolled on the floor laughing at the person who made such a proposal?
If they want to open the Bullwhacker as part of a changed approach to their interaction with others, then I will be the first to thank them.
I met with them last summer. Farris seems like a very nice guy. He is professional, courteous, and respectful. He makes it very clear where he stands and does so in a manner that I appreciate his honesty of where he comes from and what his objectives are. If you have a meeting with him, you will understand why he has been a successful business person.
All that said, he got some bad advice on many fronts in 2014. First bad advice was that somehow the Anchor Ranch was worth a King's Ransom. They way overpaid for that place and now they realize it. That land is not worth much and is worth even less now that the BLM realizes they public can fix the Bullwhacker access in short order, both logistically and financially. Much of the money has already been pledged to the BLM to prepare an alternate route.
The other bad advice they got was to go and pitch a big fit when their first lopsided proposal got rejected by the public. It was at that time when I lost a lot of respect for their group. You can disagree with someone/group you negotiate with and still respect the objectives of the other party. Happens all the time in my world as a CPA.
Yet, either Farris himself or those advising him, decided it was time for a "We'll show you" event. They can do all they want on private land. It's their land. They can burn it, till it, destroy it, improve it, whatever. Just might want to remember that your actions are going to cause people to form impressions of you and your motives; sometimes good and sometimes not so good.
They have no right to encroach their fences on the public lands as they did on the west side and the north side of the BLM and did so in the most strategic elk crossing areas. They have no right to harass hunters who are legally accessing adjacent public lands. They have no right to run their bulldozer across the BLM land. If the public did any of those things to them or their property, the "fertilizer would hit the ventilator." I can assure you the Fergus County Sheriff would be in your face in a hurry if you did to them or their land, any of the things they did to public hunters and public lands.
When you do that, your respect with others you are negotiating with goes down the crapper. That past activity is very relevant to the discussion of these new promises. To think otherwise is foolhardy. You judge the character of people by how they respond when things go south. Things went south for them last year and they responded. Now, they come back with a more polished sales pitch, acting like nothing ever happened, and somehow all the past issues are to be forgotten.
Sorry, but I'm not that naive. I don't operate that way and neither do most Montanans. If there is one thing that is probably eye-opener for them, it is how Montanans have a different public land perspective than they would have, given they come from a state with very little public land. Montanans usually don't forget when you put a boot in their eye and I suspect the same of residents they would have dealt with in other states. Still dumbfounded why they listened to the "pitch a fit" advice that they had to know would be detrimental to the trust and respect needed for any future negotiations.
I'm not sure why the BLM is even talking to them after last year. I'm not sure why the BLM would even consider a trade that includes the Bullwhacker, when the BLM knows the Bullwhacker is all but fixed, both in terms of a route that could handle ATV/UTVs and the funding is already committed to do so. To combine the Bullwhacker and the Durfees is foolish. They are two separate parcels, both having different issues and both have different paths that could lead to solutions. Combining them only helps one party to this negotiation and that party is not the public.
Remove the Bullwhacker component and look at the remainder of the proposal. It's a laugher. Any public official who would approve of a trade like the remainder of that proposal should be dismissed. It is so lopsided that it doesn't even deserve consideration. Do you think Wilks and their agents would agree with the remainder of the proposal focusing on the Durfees? Not a chance.
They preface some of their comments and summary that this trade will help with some inholdings that make for difficulty in management of lands. Fine. Yet, this was not an inholding to the N-Bar Ranch, until such time that they made it that way by purchasing the Pronghorn Ranch to the south. This BLM land was adjacent to both those ranches and not an inholding to either ranch, until they bought every piece of property surrounding the Durfees.
If they find inholdings to be problematic, it is a self-created problem. They made it an inholding; a problematic situation. The public did not do this, they did. Now, they want the public to bend over backwards to try help solve this self-made inholding problem. Sorry, but my empathy meter has a hard time getting red-lined over problems people create for themselves.
And if inholdings are so hard to manage, why does the proposal not suggest cleaning up the other inholdings? Is it because the other inholdings are small enough that hunters will not fly into them, so those inholding are not "problematic."
If they were really interested in solving the "inholding problem," it seems they would put together a proposal to address all the inholdings, rather than just the inholdings that hunters can justify accessing via air. Given that omission of the other inholdings, it is hard to take them seriously about their inholding concerns.
Now, if they really came forth with a valid proposal that was not promises in exchange for real estate deeds, then we might have something worth discussing. Once these lands leave public ownership, the land is gone in perpetuity. Whatever is given in exchange for these lands must be something the public receives in perpetuity.
If they wanted to grant hunting or access easements, those are in perpetuity. A promise to enroll in Block Management is so lame, it is not even worth out time to consider. Perpetual rights for perpetual rights only seems like the fair starting point. That is what they would require if the tables were turned.
I don't blame them for bringing forth another proposal that is so favorable to them. That is part of negotiation. Doesn't make them evil. It makes them like most other business people; looking to get the best deal they can.
And they should not be surprised that the public is up in arms protesting such a lopsided proposal. That is how negotiations work. That is how it works in a system where you have trustees appointed to represent the interest of the public. Right now, the proposal is not favorable to the public interest.
The BLM will take a serious credibility hit if they agree to this proposal. Fortunately, enough people have been involved and know the reality of each path forward. If the BLM were to take one of the paths that they might deem to be the path of least resistance, they will create far more long-term headaches than they might alleviate in the short-term.
Until then, the public needs to keep holding the BLM accountable to get a fair deal for the public. If it is not fair, then walk away. Things were just fine in MT before the Wilks showed up. Things will be just fine the way they are today.
The folks who seem in a big hurry are the Wilks and a few of their home teamers. I'm in no big hurry. If I ever do draw a sheep tag for the Breaks, I can come in by boat, I can walk around the Anchor Ranch, I can fly in for less than $1,000, I can ask some of the other landowners who control different access points. And by the time I might someday draw a 680 sheep tag, the money to re-route a trail around the Anchor Ranch should already be invested in creating that route.
As for the Durfees, I know of over 200+ hunter days that were invested in that 3,000 acres piece. I suspect it is more than double that, due to the many guys who hunted it that I don't know about. Tell me another public land place in Montana where 3,000 acres can host that much elk hunting pressure with that high of success rates? There is none.
I hear them talk about "exclusive aerial access." Someone posted on this forum that those who hunt the Durfees are "elitsits." Really, now that's some funny stuff.
It costs about $700 per person to fly a helicopter in to the Durfees for ten days of hunting, when you divide by 3 or 4 guys. If you have your own aircraft, which many of the guys in Central Montana have, it probably is a lot less than what we pay to fly our crew in there.
If I drive to my favorite public land elk place down near West Yellowstone each weekend of elk season, it costs me about the same amount in gas for my truck over the course of elk season. I guess all those guys who drive down to Taylor's Fork, Hebgen Lake, Cabin Creek, Tee Pee Creek, and hunt every weekend of season are also the "elitists" of the hunting world.
Nothing about the Durfees is exclusive or elitists when you measure what the average hunter spends in gas to hunt elk each season in Montana. Yet, some who have their own agendas to see the public give these lands away for little more than some scrubby sage and grass like to use those terms to further their agenda.
So far, nothing in the Wilks' proposal has impressed me. Nothing they have provided in terms of promises (not perpetuity) is even worth interrupting me to lower the volume on Willie's Roadhouse to even hear what more they would have to promise. I hope those in charge at the BLM see it for what it is and represent out interest to get a far better deal than what is currently proposed.
Now, if Wilks want to get serious about it; if they want to trade perpetual rights for perpetual rights; if they want to really solve the inholding problem of all inholdings and not just the self-created inholding problem; if they want to separate the Bullwhacker topic from the Durfee topic, then I am all ears. Until then, I've got weeds to pull and broadheads to sharpen.
Thanks to them for opening the Bullwhacker. Maybe it is the start of a new day. I guess time will tell. If their repackaged proposal also gets rejected and the Bullwhacker stays open, then we will know this was a true gesture on their part. If the proposal gets rejected and they close the Bullwhacker, we will now this was merely a leveraging tactic to further their position in a business negotiation. Time will tell.
Having met with them last year, I would have given them the benefit of the doubt, until such time they threw their sucker in the dirt and pitched their big tantrum of last hunting season. With those actions to demonstrate their approach to negotiations, pardon me if I have some skepticism of their motives. I suspect they would have the same if in my shoes.