My question to Buzz is why does this matter to you? Your a resident and what he does has no effect on you. It seems as if your a little jealous of this situation. Kinda like the little kid that would rat out the kid next to him that got an extra dessert. I dont mean this to be personal but you seem to get involved in alot of issues that you have no real stake in. Always something you think another hunter should not be able to do because you cannot. From the looks of it you do OK... as a hunter why does this bother you? I am a non resident and personally on the fence. They are free to share their points however the law dictates. Your a resident who has no stake in the matter. Let the people who it effects decide what should be done
treedagain,
I'll answer all your questions then explain why I'm going to make recommendations to change the way the point averaging is done.
First of all, in case you weren't aware, the Wildlife in Wyoming is held in trust for the citizens of the State of Wyoming. The only reason that NR's are allowed to hunt WY's wildlife is because the States citizens are gracious enough to allow guys like you to do so. The same way that I'm allowed to apply and hunt for wildlife in your home State of Utah or the 49 other states that I'm a NR in. The Residents of those states are not required to even allow me any opportunity at THEIR wildlife and I'm grateful for any opportunity those states are willing to give me.
That alone should answer most of your questions, that I absolutely have a "stake in the matter" but I'll go further.
The reason that I care about this is because as a Resident, I have the ability to decide how my wildlife is managed...with that comes all things related to the hunting of that Wildlife and associated things like point systems, tag distributions, etc. Whether that is a NR point system or Resident point system is immaterial. It simply doesn't matter as by virtue of my Residency, it becomes my issue.
If you think this has anything to do with jealousy you would be 100% wrong. I've been much more than fortunate when it comes to hunting, in hours spent, drawing tags, success, and anything else that has to do with the sport.
Further, when I look at any kind of legislation or regulation in Wyoming, or any other State, I don't do so with my own self interest in mind. If that were the case, I wouldn't have sent letters, emails, etc. to Montana Legislators requesting that they withdraw the NR Native Hunting licenses that I benefitted from (paying $64 for a deer A tag, and $80 for an elk tag). In fact, 2 legislators thought I was off my rocker as they simply couldn't get their minds around why I would oppose something that benefitted me as a Native of Montana. I did so because it DID not benefit the MTFWP budget or the Wildlife of Montana.
When I examine regulations. rules, legislation, etc. I look at each piece roughly in this order:
1. Does the reg. leg. or rule do what's in the best interest of wildlife?
2. Do those things benefit the Department and residents?
3. Do those things benefit the NR DIY hunters?
4. Do those things benefit private enterprises?
5. Do those things benefit land owners?
6. Do those things benefit outfitters?
Finally, does the reg. legislation or rule do or is it doing what its intended to do?
In this case I have interest because IMO, this point averaging is bastardizing the intent of why the point system was implemented to start with.
The intent, that I heard in testimony by mainly the outfitters, was that there needed to be a "fairness" in how tags were distributed to NR hunters. There was essentially no discussion regarding point averaging, none. The only argument given was for INDIVIDUAL hunters having a better chance to draw for their years of applying. In other words, to distribute tags in a more "equitable" and fair way to those individuals who were unlucky in the draw. Heard the same thing in arguments for a Resident point system.
The point averaging was only given consideration because WY also allows party applications. The ramifications of NR point averaging was not even discussed, mainly because NR's did not show up to ask such questions.
However, this was much different several years ago with a Resident Point system was introduced via legislation. I fought that bill and ultimately it died...and one of the main reasons was because of the chit-storm that point averaging would cause.
I feel that the intent, and spirit, of the preference system in Wyoming for NR deer, elk and pronghorn is not being met. There are guys like jims that are putting the screws to other NR's that are waiting their rightful turn. I will argue all day long, that the intent was to help the individual hunter, not a party of hunters. The intent wasn't to allow a loophole where the unscrupulous jump over others for their own self-interest.
So, since I have much more influence to implement change, I'm looking out for the interest of ALL NR hunters, and not those that are looking for a way to kick other NR's to the curb by gaming the system.
Also, since I feel that a Resident Point system may be on the not so distant horizon, I like to stay in front of the issues and correcting the problems with the NR system now, will only make getting the Resident point system right from the start easier (if one is implemented).
The point averaging within the preference point system is doing the exact opposite of the intent...to create a more fair way of distributing tags to the individual NR hunter. For those reasons, I will be doing what I can to correct this problem.
I would love to have a snowballs chance of drawing another tag.
