Cabelas in deep doo-doo

BuzzH

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Looks like Cabelas has decided to get greedy and squash the people that have made their business successful.

The MWF has entered the fray...I say a few more letters by all sportsmen may influence Cabelas to quit selling out MT, etc.

Letter from the MWF to Cabelas:

May 30, 2007

Mr. Dennis Highby, President & CEO
Cabela's
1 Cabela Drive
Sidney, NE 69160

Dear Mr. Highby:

The first words on the website of CABELA'S TROPHY PROPERTIES, under the
question: What is Cabela's Trophy Properties? Read: "For over 46 years,
sportsmen have trusted Cabela's."

Regrettably, we now come to the conclusion that we sportsmen of Montana
can trust Cabela's no longer.

Montana Wildlife Federation (MWF), Montana's oldest and largest
organization of 7,000 hunters, anglers and outdoor enthusiasts, and with
23 affiliate sportsmen groups from throughout the state, have a
substantial stake in the future of our diverse natural wealth: diverse landscapes, diverse wildlife, diverse waters, diverse fisheries, and
diverse outdoor recreation opportunities. Our natural wealth has made
Montana a wildlife, hunting and fishing paradise that we have fought long
and hard to maintain.

The MWF Executive Board find that Cabela's is trading on its trusted
reputation as a merchant of sporting goods to engage in a real estate
marketing activity that is calculated to subvert and destroy the very
system of North American wildlife conservation that has provided Cabela's
with the hunter-and-angler markets that gave your company life in the
first place.

Many MWF members have come to live in Montana precisely to escape the
results in other states of such "recreational land marketing" that
squeezes out hunters and anglers of ordinary means from access to publicly
owned wildlife that is located on private lands. Please be informed that
many thousands of Montana hunters and anglers are dedicated and committed to preserving our heritage of democratic public hunting and fishing. Virtually all of us have purchased sporting goods from Cabela's at one
time or another. You cannot expect us to continue as your patrons if at
the same time we are financing the loss of our hunting and angling opportunities.

Access to hunting opportunities is an issue of vigorous public debate in
Montana and has been for many years. You cannot expect to escape the glare of public scrutiny and possible public policy change that will logically
result from your campaign of marketing "trophy hunting properties."

We recommend a substantive discussion of this matter between the
management of Cabela's and the leadership of Montana Wildlife Federation.
We recognize that previous experience in marketing real estate as hunting
properties may have left you uninformed of how strongly this practice is
opposed by hunters and anglers in Montana. We still respect the great
merchandising service that Cabela's has provided. We would hope that a
discussion could be respectful and constructive.

In the absence of a discussion, however, this issue will not lie unattended.

The history of controversy over management of public wildlife on private
land in Montana is too extensive and complex to fully relate in this
letter. We will provide knowledgeable people to discuss this with you at
your request. In brief, however, we in Montana have not surrendered rights
of equitable opportunity to hunt wildlife on private lands as have the
hunters and anglers of many other states.

We certainly continue to respect the private property rights of
landowners and recognize many contribution's they make to habitat and
hunting management. For these reasons we have engaged in extensive efforts to help financially and legally with managing the interface of hunters,
game animals and private property.

The management scheme you facilitated for the 29,000-acre Weaver Ranch in Petroleum County, Montana is completely destructive of everything we have tried to accomplish in landowner - sportsman relations in this state. The North American Fish and Wildlife Conservation Model cannot survive this
kind of management scheme.

We await your response. In the meantime we will proceed to protect our
Montana heritage of democratic public hunting and angling.

Craig Sharpe
Executive Director
Montana Wildlife Federation
(800)517-7256
(406) 458-0227
 
I would think if Cabelas keeps 29,000 private acres under one management plan that would be pretty good wildlife management. Are they not doing that?

What's the problem?

Here's one problem with the mountain states FW and hunters, they have the worst record of all areas of the US in reqruiting youth hunters, the future of hunting.

See table 4 from preliminary results of the lates US Fish and Wildlife National Survey being compiled, as we type, a 9% drop from 1990 to 2005 it says.

http://library.fws.gov/nat_survey2001_recruitment.pdf

That's not good, it dropped all over but the mountain states are the worst, it looks like.
 
Tom,

Sub-dividing a 29,000 acre ranch into 60 acre ranchettes with a house on each parcel?

Real good for the sportsmen of Montana.

The NWF is the best thing for Public Lands hunters/fishermen/outdoor recreationists in all the western states...in particular at the state level in Montana, Wyoming, etc.

As for recruiting hunters...no need to recruit hunters if they have no place to hunt.
 
Bambi,

I agree...but they may have stepped on their own peckers on this one. Not a good idea to bite the hand thats feed you.
 
They will be a hunter at least every 60 acres maybe, that's probably too many. Montana should pass a law, its against the law to build a house where there is no house, eh?

People are free to buy multiple tracts of 60 acres, right? They don't have to build a house, right? Where's the link for what this property is like, what the management plan is like, is there a uniform management plan for the property?
 
Buzz,

I was in Lewistown on Saturday for my daughters softball tournment and you should see the fliers Cabelas has around town!!! They are opening a reality office Lewistown as well.

The real sad thing with the Weaver Ranch is that it was all in Block Management until Cabelas bought it. Another lost hunting opportunity for the average Joe. I guess Tom only cares about wealthy hunters.

Nemont
 
Buzz, I totally agree with you....what an example of disregard for customer base.
 
Nemont,

I heard they opened a real-estate agency in Lewiston with 8 agents. I also heard they're going door-to-door asking if people want to sell their ranches.

Unbelievable slap in the face to sportsmen around the country. I mean you expect it from developers...just not from a company that makes its money from the sales of sporting goods.

I belong to the WWF...let me MWF membership slide. Time to get back in.

On a side note a high school buddy of mine that lives in Piedmont, South Dakota told me that Cabelas is doing the same type of thing around Mitchell. He told me 5 years ago he had just about unlimited access to hunt birds around there. Apparently Cabelas is buying up and leasing just about everything around there now...squeezing out the locals. So bad, he's thinking of not even bothering to hunt birds there anymore.

Cabelas needs a wake-up call/boycott of their business by anyone and everyone that hunts and fishes.

Funny how Jim Zumbo is burned at the stake for thinking an AR-15 doesnt belong in a hunting camp...but Cabelas gets a pass for destroying wildlife and wildlife habitat as well as hunter opportunity.

Unbelievable.
 
Yea that sucks... Getting stabbed in the back!.....That makes the situation worse, But its no doubt this land would have been developed by the greedy developer anyway.... Cabelas does have a duty to that almighty R.O.I.

Sad! thats what it's come to... the corporate
"sellout"
 
Nemont:
How much were those ranchettes going for?

We should get Moosie to buy one and rent it out. :)
 
That sucks about loosing that much Block Management land. I know the price they are asking for a 'ranch' in No UT is way beyond reasonable. Some of the locals would love to have it, but the asking prics is about 4X what anyone there would pay.

I guess one is born ever minute...I just hope I didn't get the 6:30 pm one. ;)
 
Buzz, someone was gunna buy it. Would you be opposed if they bought it and didn't split it up and sold hunts on the land instead ? I understand that they are cutting their throat on this one, but I'm jsut wondering if the hunting idea would make you jsut as mad ?
 
Moosie, I can't speak for Buzzh and others but as a "hunter"..... its a matter of "trust"...... If Cabela's wants to go into real estate then fine....yes it would have been sold anyway..... but what does Cabela's stand for?, Profit over Mission and purpose....or both?

Hell with them they have every right to do what they want... I have the right not to shop there..If enough people say screw them... then "boycott" works... if not they win.....they will win in the end in my opinion..... everyone
caves to the $$$$$
 
They should have created another assumed name and went under that, and then they would have fit into corporate America a little better with out many being the wiser
 
It sounds like Montana should have some law pretty quick to force some good wildlife management plans on big places when they become fragmented. Like somebody pointed out, the recreational value of land is way more than its productivity value. Well, wildlife management has recreational value.

If there is a hunter every 60 acres it won't take long to get shot out, without some management plan. Maybe Cabelas has one? I guess the state manages by how many tags they give out also, eh?

With 8 realtors offering families money, there might be 50 ranches like this pretty quick. Montana must have some restrictions on this? If not, good luck.

The people had is under block management, but sold it. Maybe block management doesn't pay much, eh?

What the heck do you expect to happen Buzz? They need a wildlife management plan, if they don't have one, if there is no law against selling and subdividing. I'm sure Cabelas would love to have that, a good wildlife management plan for the properties. Does Montana help people with that?
 
Tom, not that I'm even going to try to follow your logic, what makes you think that the owners of these 60's even hunt? And as far as "shooting out" all the game, I would think that the CC&R's these ranchettes adopt won't allow much in the way of shooting on the properties. I mean 60 acres (rectangular) would only be 660yds across- doubt they'd want too many hunters popping shots from parcel to parcel.
 
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