Gerald Martin
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2009
- Messages
- 8,636
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With out fail, if I am talking to a landowner within 3 weeks of the end of the season at some time during the conversation I am going to hear "I am sure glad hunting season is over". Doesn't matter if the landowner is leased, or allows some form of access. The one quot that I will not forget was from a now departed old timer. " I use to look forward to hunting season, now I hate it as much as winter and hunting season lasts longer". The truth is after 12 weeks of hunting landowners are just worn out from dealing with hunters. The result is many landowners turn the management of hunting over to a third party so they can get back to the management of the ranch. Stuffing more and more hunters into a unit is not going to help.@antlerradar - As a landowner impacted by the proposed changes, and someone who probably sees an increase in fall traffic year after year, what's the general feeling of where FWP wants to head between you and your neighbors? I'm perhaps being presumptuous that you've spoken with them about this or that it is a topic of discussion at all, but I'd just be curious as any of these changes would impact your family and your neighbors more than a guy like me who passes through on occasion. Positives and negatives would be nice to hear.
Thank you for the honest feedback, @antlerradar. That was my expectation as well. Regardless of how polite, sincere, or respectful any of us are in our engagement with ranchers, you can sense the "fatigue" from a lot of them.With out fail, if I am talking to a landowner within 3 weeks of the end of the season at some time during the conversation I am going to hear "I am sure glad hunting season is over". Doesn't matter if the landowner is leased, or allows some form of access. The one quot that I will not forget was from a now departed old timer. " I use to look forward to hunting season, now I hate it as much as winter and hunting season lasts longer". The truth is after 12 weeks of hunting landowners are just worn out from dealing with hunters. The result is many landowners turn the management of hunting over to a third party so they can get back to the management of the ranch. Stuffing more and more hunters into a unit is not going to help.
The landowners that stand to gain from the current proposal are the big ranches that lease or have owners that currently have a hard time getting tags.
The smaller landowners are going to lose, They will still have to deal with elk issues, but because elk are mobile and there is no guarantee that there will be elk on any given day the lease value will be much lower.
Ranchers that depend on public land grazing leases have the most to lose. For the most part these landowners are land poor and cattle rich. There are of course exceptions. Take for example Otter creek in the middle of the Custer, Most of those ranches own the creek bottom and graze on the Custer, The value of the elk hunting on the ranch is low when compared to someone that owns 20 sections of elk habitat. They are also the ones that will see the most impact from the increase in hunters. For example no hunters were complaining about over grazing in the droughts of the late 80's and early 90's. It wasn't because there were fewer cows, there was more. It was because in the 80's and 90's you could hunt the Custer and see lots of deer and if you put any effort in you would find a nice one. Now that deer are few and nice ones are all but gone hunters are complaining. The same thing is happening with elk. Stuffing more and more hunters onto the Custer is not going to help. I firmly believe that there is room for both a healthy population of elk and cattle grazing on the Custer. Keep loading up the forest with people we could end up with nether.
A ton of us do just that, I can’t reasonably hunt the breaks every weekend and I enjoy hunting out my back door with an open evening or weekend. What do you think would be accomplished by not allowing me to do just that? If the breaks are overcrowded I leave early and hunt somewhere that isn’t overcrowded, making me stay in the breaks doesn’t allow us to spread out and not crowd fellow hunters. No way in hell can anyone spread out hunters better than we can spread out ourselves.I also liked the idea of restricting people to hunt only the unit the permit is good for like mule deer permits. If you draw a limited permit for an archery only season for unit X, you have to hunt that unit only. How many resident bowhunters get a breaks archery tag, hunt it for a week, then every weekend they're hunting their home units.
Your right a ton of you do do this exact thing and it is one of the major problems contributing to the overcrowding and over subscription of these hunts in the East. Sportsman like yourself have to realize this ain’t the same old Montana it used to be. Demand and population are increasing at a rapid pace. Some opportunity is going to have to be given up if we want to maintain some semblance of hunt quality. It’s time to decide if you are going to go have a destination hunt or are you going to hunt at home. Everyone’s not going to be able to do both and maintain any level of hunt quality on the limited public lands that exist in the East. Redside is spot on and you are the problem. Look in the mirrorA ton of us do just that, I can’t reasonably hunt the breaks every weekend and I enjoy hunting out my back door with an open evening or weekend. What do you think would be accomplished by not allowing me to do just that? If the breaks are overcrowded I leave early and hunt somewhere that isn’t overcrowded, making me stay in the breaks doesn’t allow us to spread out and not crowd fellow hunters. No way in hell can anyone spread out hunters better than we can spread out ourselves.
That’s the same line FWP has been peddling for decades and it’s bullshit. The only way you can effectively manage many hunting districts in a way that makes sense biologically is to limit people to a district or group of districts.No way in hell can anyone spread out hunters better than we can spread out ourselves.
I’m not even drinking tonight.Did say manage?
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Another win for me.I’m not even drinking tonight.
This is about as spot on as you come for the area. I have flown the area during hunting season and the elk are always in the same places, large ranches.With out fail, if I am talking to a landowner within 3 weeks of the end of the season at some time during the conversation I am going to hear "I am sure glad hunting season is over". Doesn't matter if the landowner is leased, or allows some form of access. The one quot that I will not forget was from a now departed old timer. " I use to look forward to hunting season, now I hate it as much as winter and hunting season lasts longer". The truth is after 12 weeks of hunting landowners are just worn out from dealing with hunters. The result is many landowners turn the management of hunting over to a third party so they can get back to the management of the ranch. Stuffing more and more hunters into a unit is not going to help.
The landowners that stand to gain from the current proposal are the big ranches that lease or have owners that currently have a hard time getting tags.
The smaller landowners are going to lose, They will still have to deal with elk issues, but because elk are mobile and there is no guarantee that there will be elk on any given day the lease value will be much lower.
Ranchers that depend on public land grazing leases have the most to lose. For the most part these landowners are land poor and cattle rich. There are of course exceptions. Take for example Otter creek in the middle of the Custer, Most of those ranches own the creek bottom and graze on the Custer, The value of the elk hunting on the ranch is low when compared to someone that owns 20 sections of elk habitat. They are also the ones that will see the most impact from the increase in hunters. For example no hunters were complaining about over grazing in the droughts of the late 80's and early 90's. It wasn't because there were fewer cows, there was more. It was because in the 80's and 90's you could hunt the Custer and see lots of deer and if you put any effort in you would find a nice one. Now that deer are few and nice ones are all but gone hunters are complaining. The same thing is happening with elk. Stuffing more and more hunters onto the Custer is not going to help. I firmly believe that there is room for both a healthy population of elk and cattle grazing on the Custer. Keep loading up the forest with people we could end up with nether.
I see where you’re coming from, but I disagree about these people contributing to overcrowding. The locals in my area complain about overcrowding on one hand, and on the other hand they complain about western Montanans drawing permits in our area. The person from western Montana that comes and hunts for a long weekend contributes to crowding a lot less than the local that can hunt every weekend.Your right a ton of you do do this exact thing and it is one of the major problems contributing to the overcrowding and over subscription of these hunts in the East. Sportsman like yourself have to realize this ain’t the same old Montana it used to be. Demand and population are increasing at a rapid pace. Some opportunity is going to have to be given up if we want to maintain some semblance of hunt quality. It’s time to decide if you are going to go have a destination hunt or are you going to hunt at home. Everyone’s not going to be able to do both and maintain any level of hunt quality on the limited public lands that exist in the East. Redside is spot on and you are the problem. Look in the mirror
Most of the locals that hunted my area on public quit. The quality of the hunt is honestly that bad. Furthermore a big group of the “destination” crowd comes at the start of the season and leaves when they kill an elk or at the end of the season. Those are the big changes I have observed.I see where you’re coming from, but I disagree about these people contributing to overcrowding. The locals in my area complain about overcrowding on one hand, and on the other hand they complain about western Montanans drawing permits in our area. The person from western Montana that comes and hunts for a long weekend contributes to crowding a lot less than the local that can hunt every weekend.
It says you can comment until Jan 14. How is that considered 30 days when their actual proposal isn't even available yet on their website?
I see the in person meeting in Helena is only 3 days off. We don't even have the full proposed regulations in our hands yet and the meeting is on Monday. Is this a hurry up and sweep this under the rug operation before too many people notice?
Is the 30-day comment period statutorily required or is it just a department policy?I think it's important to show up and say this out loud at the closest meeting to you.
Is the 30-day comment period statutorily required or is it just a department policy?