Arizona Game and Fish - Pays Influencers - Newberg cancels contract after backlash

[deerhunt1988]

Earlier in the year folks discovered what many of us already suspected: that state game and fish agencies were paying influencers to advertise hunting in their state. Which doesn't sound too bad until you start losing hunting opportunities because of it. In Arizona's case, they cut out over the counter archery deer tags in a few units. AZ hunters were not happy, and started voicing their concerns. A petition was started below:

2,525 people signed and won this petition

AZGFD: Stop Paying Influencers

chng.it

The petition was just updated stating that Newberg reached out to the petition organizer and stated that he was cancelling his contract with AZGF. See below:








Newberg isn't/wasn't the only influencer being paid by state game and fish agencies/license sales dollars. This new era of "public land influencers" can have very real negative effects on public land hunting opportunity while they hide behind the guise "But we need more hunters! More license sales = more money for agencies!"

Another popular white-tail/turkey hunting group, that has a bigger following than Newberg, has also been paid by multiple state agencies (AZ being one of them) through license sales dollars. And people flock to the areas they hunt, like the sheep we are. Some of these states are now also reducing public land turkey hunting opportunity on a massive scale.

This is just a heads up on some of the things that go on behind closed doors. It ain't all rainbows and unicorns with your favorite influencer. And something to think about before you "Hit that like button and subscribe!"

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

There was a whole thread on this less than a month ago. Randy is a member here and responded there.

 

[Pro953]

Yawn… still trying to find the great crime here.


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[conley417]

I'll take the contract. They can pay me to come hunt there

 

[deerhunt1988]

I'll take the contract. They can pay me to come hunt there

I'm sure some of other YouTuber will be chomping at the bits to get a piece of it.

 

[browning2480]

Yawn… still trying to find the great crime here.


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Someone lost their honey hole Duh!

 

[HuntHarder]

Newberg wasn't in the wrong, but I do feel that he understands the impact this could possibly have. When hunting opportunities are being lost every new draw cycle, most can see that changes need to be made. There are lots of different reasons for the loss of opportunity and no doubt this was just another small piece of the puzzle. Non- Az residents will have a hard time understanding this, but the amount of Non- res now on the the Dec- January OTC deer hunts is pretty amazing. I have to say, Randy is pretty stand up and I applaud his decision. It is a small step in the right direction.

 

[Goodtimekiller]

I would hate to build a reputation as a great hunter and conservationist then actually get paid to hunt good public land areas to help spread hunting.


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[dieselchessy]

Seems weird to call chasing Randy away a win.
You’d think the goal would be to get AZGF to stop spending money on advertising.
Short of that goal, I don’t see how chasing away a reputable contractor to just be replaced by a less reputable contractor is a win.

This all rings of Matt(?) Rinella’s anti 3R campaign.

As opportunities decrease we’ll all fight each other for the last crumbs.

 

[TheTone]

Seems weird to call chasing Randy away a win.
You’d think the goal would be to get AZGF to stop spending money on advertising.
Short of that goal, I don’t see how chasing away a reputable contractor to just be replaced by a less reputable contractor is a win.

This all rings of Matt(?) Rinella’s anti 3R campaign.

As opportunities decrease we’ll all fight each other for the last crumbs.

Isn’t it great when recruiting new hunters leads to pushing out those you had and wanted to retain…

 

[Bassman]

Here is the original thread on the topic. Randy discussed the details of his contract there, I'd encourage folks to read it if they have not. I think it's pretty stand-up he was transparent

AZ game and fish paying influencers

Sorry if this has already been discussed, but just came across this on LinkedIn, of all places. Sounds like AZ game and fish has been paying influencers to boost revenue generated by non-res hunters. Sounds like the battle cry across YouTube and other places to "hunt your public lands for...

www.rokslide.com

 

[deerhunt1988]

This all rings of Matt(?) Rinella’s anti 3R campaign.

As opportunities decrease we’ll all fight each other for the last crumbs.

Yup, I think they played the anti 3R stuff off as a joke. But here we are! And I don't see it getting better.

 

[FLATHEAD]

Been going on quite a while.
Follow the $$$$.
I've always subscribed to the theory that the places the "influencers"
are pushing are the places to NOT apply.
Thats just me.

 

[tdhanses]

Newberg wasn't in the wrong, but I do feel that he understands the impact this could possibly have. When hunting opportunities are being lost every new draw cycle, most can see that changes need to be made. There are lots of different reasons for the loss of opportunity and no doubt this was just another small piece of the puzzle. Non- Az residents will have a hard time understanding this, but the amount of Non- res now on the the Dec- January OTC deer hunts is pretty amazing. I have to say, Randy is pretty stand up and I applaud his decision. It is a small step in the right direction.

So how do you feel about AZGFD becoming a rokslide sponsor with their unallocated advertising dollars now?

Is it less detrimental for them to just directly advertise? Or maybe it is time to petition that they no longer advertise as it isn’t needed, to me that would be the only win for residents. Might even be worth petitioning them to remove their website from the web and require everything be done on paper or in person for draws or tags. Take it back to the 80’s technology for the dept, I bet if they did this you would see a sharp reduction in NR’s.

 

[ManyBullets]

Had to explain this to my wife the other night -
People don't tell you where to hunt or fish because if everyone hunted the same spot it wouldn't be good. Obviously I'm not talking about the once in a lifetime tag like the Henrys where everyone knows to go 1.42 miles up lime creek, park in the turnout, then head .89 miles west up Navajo Ridge toward Whack-a-mole peak and glass the burn to the west 987 yards below the peak.

It's supposed to be difficult to find good places to hunt. It's part of the deal so when you just tell people where to go and there's lots of game, they show up! Everyone wants things to be easy now - like they're entitled to it. I get as irritated as anyone else when I'm burning time and energy looking for new places to hunt, but it's part of the deal and I just deal with it.

Randy's a good guy and probably got bitten by his own success in promoting public land hunting a little too well. I'm not an AZ resident, but I'd be pissed too if the units I'd hunted forever got shutdown b/c some guy went and told everyone to come hunt there. Maybe some of these "influencers" could do us a favor and stop pimping out diminishing resources for a few dollars. It's not supposed to be easy! That's part of what makes it rewarding when you're successful. AND we're obviously not running out of hunters. We'll run out of ammo before we run out of hunters at this rate.

 

[BuzzH]

So how do you feel about AZGFD becoming a rokslide sponsor with their unallocated advertising dollars now?

Is it less detrimental for them to just directly advertise? Or maybe it is time to petition that they no longer advertise as it isn’t needed, to me that would be the only win for residents. Might even be worth petitioning them to remove their website from the web and require everything be done on paper or in person for draws or tags. Take it back to the 80’s technology for the dept, I bet if they did this you would see a sharp reduction in NR’s.

Not going to happen, technology of all sorts isn't going back in the bottle.

This board and others like it are just, if not more, responsible for the huge demand for tags in the West as well as OTC opportunities.

To blame where people get their information on ONE guy or ONE department is all BS. Lots of other things make hunting easier.

Wasn't that long ago, I was applying for NV, MT, WY, CO, NM, AZ with a paper application, because that's all there was. You had to put a lot of effort into staying on mailing lists, fronting the entire tag fees, researching through phone calls to departments and other people you knew.

Now, its fire up the computer, no fronting money, every application is an online form, research can be had with a google search, you don't have know a single person to find all the information you want.

That's the ease of just drawing a tag.

Once that's done you have archery gear that allows you to shoot 80-90-100 yards, rifles that make a 4-5-6 hundred yard shot pretty darn easy. You have GPS, google earth, ATV's, UTV's spotting scopes that allow you to see the size of an animal at 2-3-4 miles. Light weight hunting clothing, packs, tents, sleeping bags, stoves. The ability to hunt further into the backcountry, nowhere is "too far" anymore. Plus, there's just a lot of people that take hunting a lot more seriously due to the scarcity of tags and the amount of money they've invested to pursue it.

What's driving demand is not one influencer, its an entire industry that provides an "easy" button from stem to stern on every hunt.

If we were REALLY serious about preserving the experience, we would not allow sights on bows, trigger releases, maybe not allow compounds at all. Might not allow more than a 4 power rifle scope, or optics of ANY kind over 10 power. Might make more and bigger areas foot/horse access only.

Its ridiculous to say a paper application or not paying for advertisement is going to do ANY good to slow the number of people hunting the West...laughable really.

 

[BuzzH]

Isn’t it great when recruiting new hunters leads to pushing out those you had and wanted to retain…

Just curious how you learned about the hunting opportunities in AZ that you've enjoyed the last several years?

Also curious if you're no longer intending to hunt there and if you've been "pushed out"?

 

[tdhanses]

Not going to happen, technology of all sorts isn't going back in the bottle.

This board and others like it are just, if not more, responsible for the huge demand for tags in the West as well as OTC opportunities.

To blame where people get their information on ONE guy or ONE department is all BS. Lots of other things make hunting easier.

Wasn't that long ago, I was applying for NV, MT, WY, CO, NM, AZ with a paper application, because that's all there was. You had to put a lot of effort into staying on mailing lists, fronting the entire tag fees, researching through phone calls to departments and other people you knew.

Now, its fire up the computer, no fronting money, every application is an online form, research can be had with a google search, you don't have know a single person to find all the information you want.

That's the ease of just drawing a tag.

Once that's done you have archery gear that allows you to shoot 80-90-100 yards, rifles that make a 4-5-6 hundred yard shot pretty darn easy. You have GPS, google earth, ATV's, UTV's spotting scopes that allow you to see the size of an animal at 2-3-4 miles. Light weight hunting clothing, packs, tents, sleeping bags, stoves. The ability to hunt further into the backcountry, nowhere is "too far" anymore. Plus, there's just a lot of people that take hunting a lot more seriously due to the scarcity of tags and the amount of money they've invested to pursue it.

What's driving demand is not one influencer, its an entire industry that provides an "easy" button from stem to stern on every hunt.

If we were REALLY serious about preserving the experience, we would not allow sights on bows, trigger releases, maybe not allow compounds at all. Might not allow more than a 4 power rifle scope, or optics of ANY kind over 10 power. Might make more and bigger areas foot/horse access only.

Its ridiculous to say a paper application or not paying for advertisement is going to do ANY good to slow the number of people hunting the West...laughable really.

Exactly, the tech train has more to do with it then anything.

 

[TheTone]

Just curious how you learned about the hunting opportunities in AZ that you've enjoyed the last several years?

Also curious if you're no longer intending to hunt there and if you've been "pushed out"?

I learned from friends, a visit to southern Arizona, and researching opportunities in the area

I haven’t been pushed out, but have seen an increase in the number of people as well as the number of leftover tags go from a bunch to a few. My guess is within a year or two it won’t be 100% draw any more

 

[HuntHarder]

So how do you feel about AZGFD becoming a rokslide sponsor with their unallocated advertising dollars now?

Is it less detrimental for them to just directly advertise? Or maybe it is time to petition that they no longer advertise as it isn’t needed, to me that would be the only win for residents. Might even be worth petitioning them to remove their website from the web and require everything be done on paper or in person for draws or tags. Take it back to the 80’s technology for the dept, I bet if they did this you would see a sharp reduction in NR’s.

Like I said in my post before, this is a small part of the problem. As for them advertising to NR, as of right now the way AZ structures their OTC, there is no need to advertise as the 20% of total harvest is being hit by bowhunters in lots of units, hence closing them off. What needs to happen and what will probably end up happening is OTC will be a thing of the past. I think it might be a little before that hits, but it will hit at the rate we are going. Closing 15 hunts in Dec, just puts more pressure on the hunt units that did not close.

I doubt since some units are closed, that less guys will be in the field. What will happen is, those guys will just move to the next unit that remains open. Then in a year or 2, that unit will hit the 20% harvest threshold and it too will close. Limiting NR OTC is the most logical next step. AZGD limits draw hunts to 10%, I see no reason not to limit OTC as well. I hunt in plenty of other states and feel the residents of those states should get priority.