anybody interested in HB274

[howler]

it seems to revamp a lot of the guide and outfitter requirmets, it is flying thru the legislature with out much resistence ???

 

[Elk Parker]

it seems to revamp a lot of the guide and outfitter requirmets, it is flying thru the legislature with out much resistence ???

Howler,

HB 274 does far more than revamp license requirements, it basically de-regulates the outfitting industry by eliminating most if not all reporting requirements. It also greatly reduces or even eliminates common sense requirements of outfitters such as "familiarity with the area hunted". My blood pressure rises rapidly every time I see some of the provisions they want to eliminate. I see it passed the labor and industry committee and is now in the Appropriations committee. Not sure what that means. Cut and paste the following link to read the bill.

http://laws.leg.mt.gov/legprd/LAW0203W$BSRV.ActionQuery?P_SESS=20131&P_BLTP_BILL_TYP_CD=HB&P_BILL_NO=274&P_BILL_DFT_NO=&P_CHPT_NO=&Z_ACTION=Find&P_SBJT_SBJ_CD=&P_ENTY_ID_SEQ=

They are claiming this bill eliminates needless paperwork and unnecessary regulations. It was drawn up after meeting with various state boards and committees with no input from sportsmen or even FWP. The wardens tried to at least get an amendment requiring some reporting so they could find out a little bit about potential violations.

FWP or the Board of Outfitters would receive little or no information from outfitters and there would be at best very minimal oversight. They also want to end the reporting of the number of acres leased by outfitters which is a personal peeve of mine.

During signature gathering for I-161 MOGA's executive director gave interviews to the Montana Sportsman's Journal, the Montana Standard, an online paper which is now defunct called New West and at least one other newspaper claiming outfitters only leased 3.2 million acres. Eventually we learned they actually leased just over 6 million acres.

This was a huge bone of contention and great embarrassment to MOGA when the facts got out. It provided us with a lot of both signatures and votes. Needless to say MOGA is apparently not the least bit embarrassed by this latest attempt to appropriate the public's wildlife.