Population Growth and Hunting in Rocky Mountain States

[Deleted member 28227]

Some folks should just be thankful they’re state has only grown by 400,000 (Montana) the last 50 years. California has grown by 20 million during that same period. I’m sure just about everyone who was born and raised in a western state, me included wants it to go back to the way it was 30-40 years ago, but it ain’t gonna happen.
Should we argue about who’s family has been in America longest now? My wife’s family on both sides have been in Pennsylvania since it was a British colony. I’m sure they could bitch about all the Ellis Island newbies using some folks logic?
When Mr “my family has been here in Montana since the late 1800’s” served in the military, did your uniform have a Montana name tape or US whatever service?
Just curious cause my uniform had US Army on it, and if my memory serves me right, Montana is a US state, correct me if I’m wrong?

Exactly, I’m far more interested in who someone is as a person and what they’ve done with their life then where their great grandfather was born.

Does anyone give a chit, that on my mom’s side I can go back 7 generations in Texas and then 3 more before that in Virginia?

No literally no one.

Also I’ve noticed that much to my chagrin often transplants know a lot more about a place then locals since they have had to recently figure it out.

 

[MTTW]

I moved to Montana from Illinois at the age of 2 in 1964. If I moved back to Illinois I could get me a Illinois Native bumper sticker and tell them that their hunting season is too short and they don't know how to grow corn. Would anyone there give a shit what I think?
No, literally just like here.

 

[Nick87]

I moved to Montana from Illinois at the age of 2 in 1964. If I moved back to Illinois I could get me a Illinois Native bumper sticker and tell them that their hunting season is too short and they don't know how to grow corn. Would anyone there give a shit what I think?
No, literally just like here.

But you've got it backwards we know how to grow corn and deer season is way too generous.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

Montana HR 1066: Peerage system, henceforth the members of the Senate will be limited to five generational Montanans whose families own no less than 50,000 acres and shall be know hereto-for as the House of Lords, congress shall be for all the trash that moved here and deemed the House of Commons for they are common and unimportant folk.

 

[TOGIE]

hell, my moms side goes back generations in wyoming, we used own a massive ranch butting right up to elk mountain in carbon county at some point on that family line

my dad is like a 3rd gen denver native or something

so like duel residency right?

all you fuggin wyomingites can kiss my technically native ass

 

[Deleted member 16014]

hell, my moms side goes back generations in wyoming, we used own a massive ranch butting right up to elk mountain in carbon county at some point on that family line

my dad is like a 3rd gen denver native or something

so like duel residency right?

all you fuggin wyomingites can kiss my technically native ass

If you had that ranch today you'd spend all day long turning NR tractor trailers back to right side up ha.

 

[TOGIE]

Also I’ve noticed that much to my chagrin often transplants know a lot more about a place then locals since they have had to recently figure it out.

this is very true

all the guys and gals i met from texas and georgia were super fun to hang out with when i was single and living in denver. they brought a fresh level of stoke to everything i took for granted. they knew all the yummy restaurants too when all i did was go to popeyes on federal and 44th and occasionally hit up little caesars

 

[Nameless Range]

Over a year ago there was a thread titled, Well There Goes Idaho, about the rapid growth of Idaho and other places in the face of the mass exodus from California that was occurring even pre-covid.

I have a tendency to be a cheesy guy, so being dramatic about the loss of place is a matter of course. I believe strongly that loving a place or a culture and loving individual people are analogous, and so drastic and significant changes that occur rapidly have the ability to rock your world, or even break your heart.

I am transplant - over 30 years ago my father moved us here the day he retired from the army when I was 6. I will be forever grateful.

I wrote this comment on that Idaho thread, and for me it still holds. My concern with the massive influx is chiefly the changes to the land and its makeup, as they are functionally irreversible. But as this thread heads toward cultural differences, it is easy to poopoo those, as they often seem shallowish, or at the very least lack self awareness that in some way we are all newcomers, and in another (and more important IMO) way we are all family.

If it means something to be an "an" or an "er", whether it is a Montanan or Westerner or American, and I believe for better or worse it does, what we are witnessing is the rapid dissolution of identity. It doesn't feel good, and goes against 600,000 years of physical and cultural evolution, and I feel it and it feels out of control.

The OP is about what this all means for hunting. Though a tough question, it is only a subset of the bigger question of what it means for living, which in turn is tied to the biggest question of all: What does it mean for self-identity?

Maclean wrote, "The problem of self-identity is not just a problem for the young. It is a problem all the time. Perhaps the problem. It should haunt old age, and when it no longer does, it should tell you that you are dead."

And so it is true for both earth itself and the human beings upon it.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Now you empathize with Sitting Bull, Chief Gall, and Crazy Horse and understand why they were prepared to lay it all down in the Battle of Greasy Grass!

 

[Mtnhunter1]

The title of this post,"Population Growth and Hunting in Rocky Mountain States".

I have not read through all of the 15 pages of replies of this post. All that I can say is that people are flocking to my home state, Montana, in record numbers. But that can be said for all the Rocky Mountain States. Driving along the "Front" in Colorado or Utah and you'd think that you where in L.A., bumper-to-bumper and just crawling along. Same, to a lesser extent, can be said while trying to pull out onto a main drag in any of the major Montana cities.

My wife and I visited our two kids in Missoula this past weekend. I was shocked that the first four hotels where sold out when we rolled in late Friday night. I figured that it was "Grizz" football related but the hotel's front desk attendant said that they had been seeing "summer time" business since the middle of March. It was good to see that some group had cleaned up the homeless encampment on the south side of the Reserve St. bridge but the pile of trash bags need to be hauled off. Trying to pull out of Sportsmans-WH was frustrating along with the 30 minute wait to eat breakfast at Ruby's.

Yes, change is happening in our Rocky Mountain States. I think that COVID and the events in the more populated parts of our great country have increased this change...exponentially!

 

[Deleted member 28227]

I have to wonder what the allure of western mountain states would be without Youtube, instagram, etc. People have "sold" western big game hunting through these platforms to the rest of the country. Bigfin moved to MT and has probably made a good portion of his living off of selling hunting through TV shows, podcasts, a brand, etc. and consequently has done very well at disseminating the idea of MT and other western states. Then he starts a thread on a forum about "how are we going to deal with increasing population and hunting pressure?" Bozangeles, MT has become the Hollywood of MT for people to move to from out of state and to start posting selfies and starting podcasts and recruiting followers. These "followers" who are flocking here in the last 3-4 years and other self-proclaimed "hunting celebrities" in the "industry" are who I am distinguishing from native Montanans. If you came here thirty years ago, to me you're a Montanan. If your job moved you here in the 90's you're a Montanan. The beef I have is if you moved to Bozeman two years ago and post 80 posts a day on a social media platform about your yuppy products or how you're hot shit because you hiked 20 miles into the backcountry and shot an elk. Also have beef with the people who worship these "celebrities". You all are recruiting more people to western states and you are the cause of the problem that sparked the original question for this thread. How to solve the problem? Quit displaying you're entire life on social media. The commercialization of hunting is what will ruin hunting and limit opportunities. Again, just my opinion and my observations. Maybe I'm out in left field, but I know that the people who I have been hunting with for the past 25 years feel the same way

GD influencers

 

[idelkslayer]

I view the recent transplants much like we view new members on internet hunting forums who are asking for help with a specific unit, with skepticism. Just because you moved here, and like to hunt, doesn't mean that we are best friends now. I'm not going to take you hunting to my favorite places. I'm not going to reveal all the best fishing times and locations. I've got decades of work into figuring that out and if you want that knowledge, you can get it the same way I did and 3 decades from now you will know what I know.

 

[Misguided]

Westerner by choice, not chance. No apologies here.
Spent 35 years as a tradesman in industry. Followed by 10 years taking care of dad. Made the move in ‘19 after he passed and feel like this is where I belong. Prior to the move I’d been coming out for 25 years chasing bulls,bucks and bears. Like the people and love the country.
Not a fan of social media and understand that point.
Was born a hunter and will die one, like all of you, and that’s what drew me out.
I relate pretty well to the ranchers, cowboys and hunters that I’ve met and respect their lifestyle. This is home.

 

[MT Bound]

I view the recent transplants much like we view new members on internet hunting forums who are asking for help with a specific unit, with skepticism. Just because you moved here, and like to hunt, doesn't mean that we are best friends now. I'm not going to take you hunting to my favorite places. I'm not going to reveal all the best fishing times and locations. I've got decades of work into figuring that out and if you want that knowledge, you can get it the same way I did and 3 decades from now you will know what I know.

No truer words have been spoken, Amen!

 

[BucksnDucks]

All this talk reminds me of the scene in Dances With Wolves " Kicking Bird: How many? "Like the stars"

 

[TOGIE]

All this talk reminds me of the scene in Dances With Wolves " Kicking Bird: How many? "Like the stars"

put that into a video meme with edited subtitles for bozeman, denver, or boise and you'd get so many medals on reddit

 

[BucksnDucks]

put that into a video meme with edited subtitles for bozeman, denver, or boise and you'd get so many medals on reddit

....I tried, my computer skills are seriously lacking.

 

[1_pointer]

that's a funny comparison, definitely the beginning of the end in some aspects, especially for the native Crows in this area. Its interesting to read about the plethora of wildlife that they (both L&C and my Crow ancestors) saw everywhere in the area that I live in and to compare it to what wildlife currently exists today. Extrapolation of that trend further into the future from now with the influx of people from today's influencers does not look real good for our wildlife

Also interesting to read about the huge scarcity of game in many areas. Though I realize it's controversial, might want to look up Dr. Charles Kay's work on that topic.

 

[idelkslayer]

GD influencers
View attachment 180514

Proving that the displacement of Indians in North and South America was merely a continuation of human movement that had occurred for thousands of years and no more brutal than the cultural warfare and migrations of humans throughout Europe, Asia and Africa and even Pre-Colombian America. Human migration is not always violent but it often is.

How long does a group of people have to occupy land for it to become theirs or for it to be sacred? As an example, the Sioux only occupied the Black Hills from 1776 to 1876, after they had been kicked out of Minnesota by the Ojibwe. That's less time than the United States have occupied the same area. The Sioux took it from the Cheyenne, The Cheyenne took it from the Kiowa who only occupied it after the Pawnee, Crow and Arikara. I doubt any of those takeovers were very peaceful either. Who gets to claim ownership, the first occupants or the most recent conqueror? In either case, it's not the Sioux. It's no different than the last 2,000 years of warfare and genocide in Europe.

The current influx of people to the western states is nothing more than a slower and more peaceful form of conquest. It's the same thing that humans have been doing for thousands of years, but I don't have to like it.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

put that into a video meme with edited subtitles for bozeman, denver, or boise and you'd get so many medals on reddit

Like the Stars...