WY preference point increase

[BuzzH]

The small circle I'm friends with in my area around 90% are either out already or working their way out. Me included!

Thats awesome, because I wont quit until the States where I'm a NR tell me I can no longer apply.

 

[brownbear932008]

Thats awesome, because I wont quit until the States where I'm a NR tell me I can no longer apply.

Have a blast, I've had mine over the last two decades. Time to focus on transitioning into retirement and enjoying my own backyard more. It's still going to take me a bit to burn through some points. Some may end up being 30 point ewe hunts and just enjoying sheep country.

 

[Hawk Tuah]

The best way to deal with this increase is to move to Wyoming... Especially if you currently live in Idaho.

 

[Mattff200]

The best way to deal with this increase is to move to Wyoming... Especially if you currently live in Idaho.

Wyoming is full and we have no room

 

[Tyler1215]

I don't make a ton of money but I know come July 1st, ill be buying my points. We may lose a few people d/t the increase but I bet it doesn't offset the amount of new people getting in the game

 

[cgasner1]

I hope Im not eligible for points this year. Im in for the lottery win on this

 

[Wildabeest]

Wyoming is full and we have no room

Meh. The wind would just blow them back into Idaho within a year or two.

 

[Wildabeest]

As long as social media portrays it someone will try to live it.

New sig line candidate right there.

 

[Addicting]

New sig line candidate right there.

It’s why Jackson is so full of money folks who don’t actually live there.

 

[shootbrownelk]

Love it, agreed.

Wyoming is approaching this philosophy with their Special fee, but they stopped a bit short with the last increase to really test the limit of what the market will bear. Also, they have a blanket fee for all tags- they’d make more with a graduated special fee schedule dependent on region/unit demand.

If they can appraise each tag more appropriately (most of which should be priced much higher), they’d have a perfect system- allow for NR’s to still feed the points machine, and capitalize on those with more money than patience.

The Wyoming "Special" tag fee was ramrodded through the legislature by the Outfitters.

 

[Pucky Freak]

I think the paradigm of residents (only the hunters) being unaffected is no longer very defensible in this age. Everyone pays taxes and lives somewhere. Presumably those taxes and other local contributions of time and engagement are put to good local and national use, regardless of the ecological distribution of mule deer or elk. Every state has some resource that other out of state Americans may enjoy or use (beaches, forests, oceans, airports, parks, roads, ports, monuments, and yes wildlife). Treating the wildlife alone as such an exception, and as the currency to pay back residents (and only a minority of any state's residents at that) serves thin self interests (and is becoming more apparent to non-hunters) and thus more unsustainable every day. Threats to hunting from other residents and businesses grow every day (ballot initiatives, PETA, posting of properties, privatization of fed land, development and industrialization, etc) Better to raise all tags across the board and sell equally than to fall into this engineered paradigm if R vs NR when it comes to prices and quota. I don't ask for any particular benefit, but it is insane that this system is so egregiously off center, to the ultimate detriment of wildlife and hunting culture, I believe. NR are told loud and clear and (gleefully too often) we have no vote, no say, no influence. That is true, but doesn't HAVE to be true. We have deeply shared interests and love of wildlife hunting, history, and tradition and the beautiful states we don't happen to live in. By working towards exclusion, be it by location or economic status, and by celebrating the barriers to involvement and voices of NR on issues of wildlife and hunting, the deep reserves of allies amongst us is methodically partitioned, undermined, and weakened. When the time comes to support, fund, and defend one another, we'll simply be unable to muster a cohesive interest group, with ranks likely thinned, and discouragement and in-fighting at a peak.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hunt-quietly/id1631381367?i=1000613885656

Matt Rinella’s Hunt Quietly podcast #60 interviews Jim Shockey in 2023. Starting at 42:00 the discussion shifts to low-cost publicly-accessible hunting vs. privatization of wildlife.

Shockey: Jack up hunting promotion, land gets locked up in leases, hunt clubs, Land Trust, and recreational property. NR hunting fees skyrocket, and residents get booted off private land they had access to. Habitat is set aside for wildlife and is hunted only by the wealthy. Number of hunters plummets, and we celebrate the fall of public hunting since the government is corrupt, inefficient, and squanders away the dollars they take in.

Shockey’s Devil’s Advocate argument falls apart when you add the factor of support and buy-in from millions of people who hunt only because they have affordable hunting access. I think it is important to remember that broad access to hunting is not an absolute truth as the best path forward to ensure wildlife habitat remains for generations to come.