Wyoming to discuss transferable tags

[wapitibob]

Landowners can draw every available tag for a unit.

 

[Bighorner]

There is a public comment section at

Wyoming Wildlife Taskforce - Public Input

Submit comments for the Wyoming Wildlife Taskforce below. Public comment provided to the taskforce for consideration prior to each meeting can be found on the "Meeting Materials" page. Comments received by 5 p.m. MST on November 7, 2022 will be provided to the Taskforce for the November 18, 2022

sites.google.com

I think if you feel strongly about this, the commission needs to hear it!

 

[tdhanses]

Currently landowner tags do come directly out of area tag allocation. If 100 landowners pick up tags in a unit that has 120 tags avaible, only 20 tags will go into the draw for the average hunter. Not the 120 proposed on the face of the regs. This is a dirty little secret that dosent get much attention in low draw odds areas.

So mainly in LE units would be the most beneficial or detrimental for some.

So if they drop NR from 20 to 10%, that’s a change from 24 to 12 tags, now say of the 120, 100 go to LO then NR would get 2 tags in the draw but have an opportunity at the 100 LO tags?

 

[tdhanses]

There is a public comment section at

Wyoming Wildlife Taskforce - Public Input

Submit comments for the Wyoming Wildlife Taskforce below. Public comment provided to the taskforce for consideration prior to each meeting can be found on the "Meeting Materials" page. Comments received by 5 p.m. MST on November 7, 2022 will be provided to the Taskforce for the November 18, 2022

sites.google.com

I think if you feel strongly about this, the commission needs to hear it!

Already did.

 

[Bighorner]

So mainly in LE units would be the most beneficial or detrimental for some.

So if they drop NR from 20 to 10%, that’s a change from 24 to 12 tags, now say of the 120, 100 go to LO then NR would get 2 tags in the draw but have an opportunity at the 100 LO tags?

I think that is yet to be ironed out, but I could see it going to that extreme. Which I think is pretty damn scary for everyone not willing to pony up for a transferable tag.

 

[Bighorner]

Already did.

Good deal. No matter where someone stands on these issues, it s worth their time to speak up. If you are not at the table you are on the menu!

 

[mtwarden]

this gets bantered about every legislative session in Montana in some shape or form; fortunately sportsmen and women have spoken very loud and clear each and every time and have shot it down

hopefully Wyoming can as well

 

[tdhanses]

I think that is yet to be ironed out, but I could see it going to that extreme. Which I think is pretty damn scary for everyone not willing to pony up for a transferable tag.

Think of it this way, for a general tag this year if solo it took 3pts to draw the special elk tag at $1300, then add to that the previous investment of $150 for points, this years elk tag cost $1450. Now that’s for a general tag, now lets say I could buy a LO tag in a general unit for $2500 and have better access possibly and also the ability to hunt private and every year, cost doesn’t seem to bad.

Now let’s say it was that LE unit with 120 tags of which 100 go to LO’s, in the future NR would only be able to get that tag in 15+ years of paying points and actually in reality it’s more like 30 years. But that tag will cost a NR $2,050 if they go through the draw in 15ish years without any price increases, say the LO tag costs $5k, again not a horrible deal to hunt an area that a NR will only have a chance once in their life, same for a resident, they’ll just have to compete with the NR market for a LO resource. Now I would also assume if LO‘s are getting 100 out of 120 tags that there isn’t much public access as well, hence the high percentage of tags going to LO’s.

The more expensive tags get and more opportunities removed from the NR makes this more appealing in the grand scheme for NR’s when you really look at it, it also creates a better opportunity for R willing to pay more then resident fees. Maybe we only do it once or twice but it opens up opportunities, before we know it general tags will be every 5 years anyway especially once those in the LE unit game realize they’ll never draw after the reduction goes into place and jump into the Gen tag game.

 

[Bighorner]

I can certainly appreciate your position. The assumption that there is not much public land is not always correct. In alot of cases it is smaller private holdings controlling access to large chunks of public land. These are large units and it dosent take many ranches to eat up this LO tags in a hurry. I can appreciate your view as a non resident in this fictious unit, but as a resident I would sit by watching elk all year, that belong to the state, and never have a chance to hunt them because I resuse to pay top dollar for access to a public resource. I would feel the same way if park service started to auction off passes into our national park to reduce crowding.

 

[tdhanses]

I can certainly appreciate your position. The assumption that there is not much public land is not always correct. In alot of cases it is smaller private holdings controlling access to large chunks of public land. These are large units and it dosent take many ranches to eat up this LO tags in a hurry. I can appreciate your view as a non resident in this fictious unit, but as a resident I would sit by watching elk all year, that belong to the state, and never have a chance to hunt them because I resuse to pay top dollar for access to a public resource. I would feel the same way if park service started to auction off passes into our national park to reduce crowding.

Quick question, do R have access to these land locked public areas now? If the LO transfer program required access to LO property this would open up more areas to hunt. Even if you could draw the tag now you may be competing in a small sliver of public with 120 others vs a few while the rest hunt other areas previously unavailable to hunt.

I can understand that point of view as well, but the more of a push to reduce NR opportunities the more I feel less sympathy for R. The R want it all, the LO feed the wildlife and the public is owned by all unless it’s state land, while the wildlife is the states they don’t eat on state owned lands always. R already have amazing opportunities for hunting and hunting cheap, just seems like it’s never enough and all this boils down to is trophy hunting and not the opportunity to hunt.

Some think WY should be more like other states but most other states give out 2-3x the amount of tags to NR, but WY R don’t want that because then there will be more people in the woods. I think maybe WY should consider bumping the NR Gen allocation to match what MT does if it’s looking to match the NR/R tag allocations, this would bring in vast amounts of revenue, reduce point creep and increase opportunities especially if 50% of NR LE tags go away and really say for elk that would only be an increase of 10k NR elk hunters.

 

[Bighorner]

I appreciate the discussion. In general a resident would have the same access to the guide or landowner that controls the access to the public that is otherwise land locked. As a resident I also spend a lot of time looking at legal access that is physically demanding to get into these areas. There are some areas that will let people in for cow elk once their paying clients have left. Which does bring up the fact that opportunity for cow elk is still high for both residents and non residents.


I completely sympathize with the NR seeing opportunity continually decreased. I personally would much rather see the 80/20 remain intact over the possiblity of transferable tags. I can certainly see where you are coming from. I do feel like the resource is starting to get too much demand. I truly do wish there was more opportunity for everyone to enjoy high quality hunts in low pressure areas. In alot of ways hunting private/guided land is alot like what an average hunt for and average guy was like 20 years ago.

 

[wapitibob]

There is a public comment section at

Wyoming Wildlife Taskforce - Public Input

Submit comments for the Wyoming Wildlife Taskforce below. Public comment provided to the taskforce for consideration prior to each meeting can be found on the "Meeting Materials" page. Comments received by 5 p.m. MST on November 7, 2022 will be provided to the Taskforce for the November 18, 2022

sites.google.com

I think if you feel strongly about this, the commission needs to hear it!

What's the commission going to do?

 

[jmez]

this boils down to is trophy hunting and not the opportunity to hunt.

.

Correct. Glad someone else sees it.

Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

 

[wildwilderness]

There should be a sensible way to benefit everyone and wildlife.

These are my thoughts

First- the quota system needs to change where the tag allotments are divided between public/unit wide tags and Private Land only tags- guarantee public draw

Second- That also implies that the Landowner tags will be good on Private Land only, or more restricted to the particular property only.

This would incentivize Landowners to tolerate wildlife and help the herds stay healthy, and maybe put more pressure on Private lands for game dispersion onto public.

 

[AroaniaPass]

Wouldn’t this be similar to what happens in CO? Really I don’t see the big issue as it does open up more opportunities but they usually come with a cost, it doesn’t reduce the opportunities for the normal tag process.

While I voted No, I’m not sure what harm comes from it.

It will bring about bookies, middlemen...They will do whatever they can to get whatever tags and increase the price for hunter... Its def not a good idea.

 

[Bighorner]

What's the commission going to do?

At this point it is up for discussion by the task force. Their next meeting is September first. Now is a good time to submit a comment if it is something you have an opinion on. Or any other wildlife topic for that matter.

 

[wapitibob]

LO tags would be decided by the Legislature, same as 90/10.

 

[Bighorner]

LO tags would be decided by the Legislature, same as 90/10.

I believe that is correct, but the task force was assembled to bring solutions to this topics to the legislature. I do believe their recommendation will be taken very seriously. Of course there is no guarantee.

 

[wapitibob]

Send comments to the task force, not the commission.

 

[tdhanses]

What's the commission going to do?

Believe they will follow the task force recommendation and take it to the legislature.