Every hunter dreams of bagging a monster mule deer. We salivate over photos of bucks in the velvet before archery season opens. We spend countless hours, days and weeks tracking a specific deer that has caught our eye. We spend our volunteer hours rolling up fence and helping improve wildlife habitat on both private and public land. We build relationships with our landowner neighbors and become friends in the process of looking for a place to hunt.
We work with our Fish & Wildlife biologists, wardens and administrators to set seasons and even restrict opportunity in order to produce some of Montana’s best mule deer hunting. We do this not for our own benefit but for the benefit of all.
We also share a concern that our hard work is being thrown to the wayside in favor of a quick buck, both literally and figuratively.
We appreciate that it takes money to manage these critters. Our collective groups have been supportive of the Governor’s tags bought at auction. 90% of the money is returned to the department of MTFWP for the better management of the species. 10% goes back to the organization that spends countless hours and dollars advertising the tag in the hopes that it sells for enough so they can recover their costs.
The problem lies in the way some of these auction license hunters go about filling that tag. While some auction tag holders hunt hard to get their critter, others try and take short cuts. Recent events have clearly shown some people in the Bitterroot Valley and across Montana would rather buy their animal instead of working for it. Offering a trespass fee or bounty to be paid only after a large buck has been harvested is not what Montana hunting is about.
We understand the allure of a special tag. We fought like hell to get limited entry permits in HD 270 and HD 261 so that our mule deer could get beyond the forkie in the back of the truck on the last day of the season. What chaps our hide, though, is when some are willing to throw all the hard work and dedication of our agencies and volunteers to the side and attempt to purchase, as in this instance, a big deer.
Montanans jealously guard our access and our publicly held wildlife. While it may seem innocuous to offer a reward for helping find the biggest, baddest buck in the land, it really sends a message that it’s okay to privatize wildlife. It says that the average hunter, who puts in hours of volunteer time to help responsibly manage wildlife for all, is a chump.
That should be unacceptable to all Montanans. Our wildlife system in Montana has some warts, every public process does. But it’s the warts that make it beautiful. Currently, there is no agency that is more involved with the public than FWP. That’s because Montanans long ago knew the real value of wildlife: it is a treasure that the people will not relinquish to those who would simply buy their way to the front of the line.
Making money in America and being successful are good things. It’s that ability to prove our mettle in the business world that has created the greatest nation in the history of the world. But history shows us that when the wildlife is concentrated among the few, all citizens lose out. We don’t want our hunting heritage to go the way of Texas, Germany or other nations where wildlife is no longer held in trust for the people. That, to us, is the antithesis of what we live in Montana for.
Perhaps it is time for the Legislature to consider eliminating these tags, if they are to be used against the resident hunter.
Tony Jones, President, Ravalli County Fish and Wildlife Association
John Gibson, Public Land and Water Access Association, Billings
Jeremy Garness, President, Great Falls Archery
Robert Wood, Montana Sportsmen Alliance Leadership Group (Hamilton representative)