Maybe this is common knowledge, but the contents of this bill came directly out of a Mtn Pursuit presentation, available here:
"Resident hunters and outfitters share a common goal … Decrease the number of DIY Nonresident Hunters in Wyoming"
There you have it; it's officially us hunters vs them hunters. Fortunately WYOGA doesn't actually see it that way, yet(?)
Seriously? I know that quote is in mtn pursuits presentation, but like most any other source, when they make absolute comments like that...are you really dumb enough to believe it?
Its also safe to say that I don't know a single resident hunter that would like to decrease the number of DIY Nonresident hunters. I would like to see every single NR hunter be a DIY guy. I have no sympathy for and don't owe outfitters a thing.
I also don't believe for a second that WOGA wouldn't want to force every hunter, R or NR, to be required to hire a guide. If they thought they could get away with it, they would do that in a second.
What Shaul seems to miss, and that's a problem when you don't listen and you're too busy with your agenda, is that Resident hunters are not opposed to DIY guys, they're just wanting a bigger piece of the available tags. In other words, what the Resident hunters want is 90% of the available tags, which is consistent with what I experience as a NR hunter in most all the surrounding states.
Jeff and I had a long conversation with Shaul several months back, and we flat told him that there would be ZERO support from Residents for an outfitter set aside, and also that the bill would have to be revenue neutral. We also made it 100% clear, that if Residents demand a 90-10 split for the additional tags, then the revenue gap needs to be made up for on license fee increases to RESIDENT hunters. In other words, having a higher percentage of tags should have to be paid for by Residents.
Of course, true to form as I would expect from someone new to the process, he didn't listen. And, the price he and Hicks paid was a total flop of a bill.
What wears me out is the NR's that continually whine cry and complain, when they've been afforded some great opportunities, crying that Residents shouldn't want to adjust tag splits that favor Residents more.
In particular when a vast majority of deer tags are region wide and the 90-10 split would be of no consequence to a single one of those tags. When there is a cap of 7250 full price elk tags, and the remaining 6,000ish NR elk tags they receive is either leftover and/or cow calf tags. Pronghorn would just see a shift in WHERE nr's drew, wayyyyy more than the total number of pronghorn tags they would draw. Meaning, the NR hunters that are savvy, would find more opportunity in mid-tier units being available from the Residents that were drawing a higher percentage of tags in higher demand units. It would essentially be a shift, not a reduction in NR's hunting pronghorn in Wyoming.
Its also my opinion, that sheep, moose, goat, grizzly, and bison tags should be NO more than 10% going to NR hunters since we have massive numbers of Residents that want that opportunity.
Its a lot of NR crying over hardly any lost opportunity to hunt Wyoming.