David58
Well-known member
Yes, the legitimacy of the landowner tag program in NM is precisely what I call into question.“Some states make them non-transferable beyond family
“ Would be totally fine if they went away completely, and definitely think you shouldn't be allowed to sell them.”
Why don’t you give your expert analysis of this quote taken from another post on this very subject.
Exactly what is it you think this man is saying?
I left Oregon because of the politics of the state and I found a better job elsewhere (here in NM). But one thing that was done right was allocation of landowner tags - they are based strictly on acreage, and there is a limit (up to 14 if you own 160,000+ acres) for a landowner. They cannot be transferred outside of the family. They are not unit-wide, but are limited to the registered acreage. And, they are available based upon the Management Objective - if the herd is below MO in that area, there are fewer tags.
As a citizen of New Mexico, the elk on Jim-Bob's property where you go hunt belong to me. And to every other citizen in the state. They do NOT belong to the land owner. For a landowner to be able to in effect give someone a tag in exchange for money and not cut me and other New Mexicans in on that transaction is wrong. And for the State to declare that tag good for an entire unit, not just the landowner property, is pure-dee-wrong. And for the State to crow about some 90-is % of tags going to residents is a lie, since the landowner tags are in largest part sold to out of state hunters.
Yes, I would be totally fine if landowner tags totally went away. Increase the number of tags available to residents in the draw, and maybe toss well heeled nonresidents a couple of bones, too. I think non-transferrable, and limited, landowner tags would be fine, and is preferable to their elimination (tho elimination is better than where we stand now). To top it off, the number of landowner tags needs to be published and available to the public to peruse, based again on acreage.
If NM really wants outfitter tags, they NM should have an above-board lottery for them, too. But the $$$ brought in by outfitters is limited, does not benefit the herd nor the state beyond any small amount of sales taxes collected, and as far as I am concerned the outfitters should be guiding folks that drew their own tags (and there are many that operate that way).
I am glad for you, at least for the time being, that you can bathe in the glow of your cash money and ability to buy a hunt. But the system that allows you to do that here in NM sucks.
David
NM