This is kind of a funny take on the situation in my opinion because quite frankly, a state could give 50% to NR and I really dont think they would show up to help. The most generous state in the west to NR asked for people to donate to CRWM to help fight the wolf and lion issues. There was a thread started about it and the first post was someone bitching and asking why they should help when they dont give tags? This state gives out over double the percentage of most other western states and has for decades. It wasnt enough. How many do they have to give out before people will send 5 bucks? What about 10?
I live within an hour of two borders and have helped with a handful of projects. One nonresident has showed up to help with those.
I really just don't buy it.
If NR want more tags, the number one thing you should be doing is supporting habitat and projects to help increase herd sizes. 10% of 100,000 is still double 10% of 50,000. The single biggest loss of hunting opportunity in Utah has come from tag cuts. We are down nearly 75% of deer tags in less than 40 years. If we could get back to giving out even half those tags, nearly all NR that applied for a 2023 general season deer tag here would have drawn.
@Schoolhousegrizz, if you want your kids to be able to hunt all over the west, the split isnt what will prevent them from it. The loss of tag allocation is what will do it. I have ran the numbers for average Utah general season deer units. If we dont change the trend we are on, and you have a kid that is between about 0-5 years old, you can all but count on them not getting a general season rifle deer tag before they are 21.
The biggest battle NR are always going to fight within most western states is, there isnt enough tags to supply residents with what they want, let alone NR. You are looking at someone that lives there, and saying "you should wait a little longer so I can come hunt your state and you should be thankful for that." Good luck.
These threads are always interesting and every time I read them, I generally think that the part that isnt being said out loud is that we all recognize things are not looking up for hunting regardless of where we live. Between legislative attacks and tag numbers, its probably not getting better and the solution we have all silently decided is to get what we can, while we can.
Maybe what we should be talking about instead of the split, is how do we increase the pie as a whole? Changing the split doesnt benefit everyone, increasing the pie does. Changing the split is nothing more than taking 20 bucks from your left hand, putting it in your right and thinking you are richer. But the simple truth of that is, it would take effort on every ones part and people would have to spend some time and/or money. Its easier just to bitch.
