Bullshot
Well-known member
I am here “out west” as I type this now. Grateful to be chasing elk again. They are bugling and the aspens are turning and for those moments when I don’t have cell service, all is still right with the world. Then I hit town, get service, and get quickly reminded how people big and small, and their task forces, bureaucrats, and administrators seem to trying their dead-level best to accelerate the ruin of something that I and many others love and have taken rather for granted until recent years.
With luck, I may still have many DIY hunts and trips yet to come, but more and more I feel like we could modify the Jimmy Buffet lyrics to “yes I am a hunter, 25 years too late, rifles still thunder, for those rich with their plunder, but I’m an over 40 victim of fate.”
In truth though, and ironically somewhat sadly, I am “rich” enough with my plunder to pay this drastically increased fee.
An increase that just screams “Because We Can!”
An increase that is so unnecessary, except to advantage a tiny slice of the hunting “industry” and which will do much harm, and essentially no good for the things that matter most.
Will the new fees increase game population? No. Will they unlock more access? No. Will they encourage youth? No. Allow families and friends to more frequently and easily create memories and attachments to travel, public forest lands and conservation? No. Will things be better (for residents, let alone non-residents) in 5, 10, 25 years as a result of these types of decisions? No and HELL No!
Part of me wishes that fees are raised so high I can finally be forced out, just to be able to stop feathering outfitter nests and over-budgeted and bloated administrative departments. But I am weak and addicted and so I’ll pay for now and be part of the problem until my knee, or hip, or life gives out. But here’s why, and it’s more than just the fact that I love it. It’s because it’s slowly coming to an end, NR western DIY hunting that is. We are all playing music on the deck of the Titanic. I won’t say we “let” it happen, per se, since the power of “divide and conquer” is formidable and NR voices are not so popular these days (but much thanks to those R who see the bigger picture and try to hold back the tide) but history won’t be wrong to acknowledge we didn’t “not” let it happen either. And all in all I’m really not sure there was anything that could have changed this, once technology, modern marketing, and timeless greed took over.
Enjoy and pay while you can, if you can. Nothing lasts forever, even things that should.
With luck, I may still have many DIY hunts and trips yet to come, but more and more I feel like we could modify the Jimmy Buffet lyrics to “yes I am a hunter, 25 years too late, rifles still thunder, for those rich with their plunder, but I’m an over 40 victim of fate.”
In truth though, and ironically somewhat sadly, I am “rich” enough with my plunder to pay this drastically increased fee.
An increase that just screams “Because We Can!”
An increase that is so unnecessary, except to advantage a tiny slice of the hunting “industry” and which will do much harm, and essentially no good for the things that matter most.
Will the new fees increase game population? No. Will they unlock more access? No. Will they encourage youth? No. Allow families and friends to more frequently and easily create memories and attachments to travel, public forest lands and conservation? No. Will things be better (for residents, let alone non-residents) in 5, 10, 25 years as a result of these types of decisions? No and HELL No!
Part of me wishes that fees are raised so high I can finally be forced out, just to be able to stop feathering outfitter nests and over-budgeted and bloated administrative departments. But I am weak and addicted and so I’ll pay for now and be part of the problem until my knee, or hip, or life gives out. But here’s why, and it’s more than just the fact that I love it. It’s because it’s slowly coming to an end, NR western DIY hunting that is. We are all playing music on the deck of the Titanic. I won’t say we “let” it happen, per se, since the power of “divide and conquer” is formidable and NR voices are not so popular these days (but much thanks to those R who see the bigger picture and try to hold back the tide) but history won’t be wrong to acknowledge we didn’t “not” let it happen either. And all in all I’m really not sure there was anything that could have changed this, once technology, modern marketing, and timeless greed took over.
Enjoy and pay while you can, if you can. Nothing lasts forever, even things that should.
