Post by Woody Williams on Nov 16, 2005 20:35:29 GMT -5
It's no myth: Big game hunting finds frustrating
obstacles
Charlie Meyers
Denver Post Outdoors Editor
16 Nov 2005
The Hydra of commercial big game hunting in Colorado
just keeps sprouting new heads, each one uglier than
the last.
Consider the experience of two Colorado hunters during
the current rifle season. Let's start with Bruce
Bissett of Littleton, who describes his experience
hunting with his family in the second hunt segment in
what for them was a new area, The Bears Ears northeast
of Craig.
"We walked 50 miles (according to the GPS) during
seven days all over the area trying to find the elk
herds," Bissett related. "We ran into countless
frustrated hunters. Many recounted similar stories of
seeing groups of five-plus gunless horseback riders
pushing elk herds down to private property.
"One said he had personal experience of once belonging
to a hunting club just south of the Bears Ears area
that would put the ranch hands out all night long on
the fence posts with lights and noisemakers to keep
elk from jumping out of personal property."
Bissett said he had previously hunted a less popular
area in southern Colorado for 20 years and that the
visit to the elk-rich northwest came as something of a
shock.
"This year was a real eye-opener to see how much money is being made off the public elk herds, and often at the expense of the general public. There is something very broken in the management of this resource," said Bissett, who said he has no problem with guides who sell their hard work and talent to those willing to pay.
"But when the system itself makes elk hunting less
available and more difficult to the general public,
and more of a controlled inheritance of the wealthy,
then something is wrong."
Bissett's plaint came on the heals of a phone call
from Joseph McClure, a Kremmling resident who related
a similar incident the day before the start of the
second season near Rand.
"Ranchers were going up and down on 4-wheelers driving the elk down. That sort of thing goes on all the time around here," McClure complained. "They do that stuff and then sell the tags for $5000. It's isheartening
as heck."
These examples pinpoint the basic issue of creeping
commercialism in big game hunting, particularly as it
relates to the present proliferation of exclusive
landowner vouchers. Under a law passed three decades ago by a sympathetic legislature, landowners presently receive 15 percent of the most desirable deer and elk licenses before they're offered to the public.
Vouchers then are sold or transferred through what has
become a lively brokerage, complete with Internet
bidding ranging into the high four figures. Not
content with wat amounts to free money at the expense
of the average hunter, landowners keep pressing for a
larger slice of the pie.
When the Division of Wildlife recently responded to
this continued push with a proposed pilot program for
a limited expansion--five private and five public bull
tags in game management unit 10--landowner groups
predictably clamored for more.
Finding no sportsmen to oppose them at the meeting of
the Colorado Wildlife Commission earlier this month,
ranchers besieged the policy-making body for a
dramatic expansion. As so often happens, the
commission caved in, instructing DOW staff to
investigate a plan that might include every game
management unit requiring five preference points.
A proposal to give eastern Colorado landowners 10
percent of all antelope tags for family members
mushroomed to include deer. These issues come up for
a second reading at the commission's Dec. 8 workshop
in Silverthorne, with a possible resolution in
January.
But when it comes to more licences for landowners, no
decision ever is final. It's just another crack in
the dam.
obstacles
Charlie Meyers
Denver Post Outdoors Editor
16 Nov 2005
The Hydra of commercial big game hunting in Colorado
just keeps sprouting new heads, each one uglier than
the last.
Consider the experience of two Colorado hunters during
the current rifle season. Let's start with Bruce
Bissett of Littleton, who describes his experience
hunting with his family in the second hunt segment in
what for them was a new area, The Bears Ears northeast
of Craig.
"We walked 50 miles (according to the GPS) during
seven days all over the area trying to find the elk
herds," Bissett related. "We ran into countless
frustrated hunters. Many recounted similar stories of
seeing groups of five-plus gunless horseback riders
pushing elk herds down to private property.
"One said he had personal experience of once belonging
to a hunting club just south of the Bears Ears area
that would put the ranch hands out all night long on
the fence posts with lights and noisemakers to keep
elk from jumping out of personal property."
Bissett said he had previously hunted a less popular
area in southern Colorado for 20 years and that the
visit to the elk-rich northwest came as something of a
shock.
"This year was a real eye-opener to see how much money is being made off the public elk herds, and often at the expense of the general public. There is something very broken in the management of this resource," said Bissett, who said he has no problem with guides who sell their hard work and talent to those willing to pay.
"But when the system itself makes elk hunting less
available and more difficult to the general public,
and more of a controlled inheritance of the wealthy,
then something is wrong."
Bissett's plaint came on the heals of a phone call
from Joseph McClure, a Kremmling resident who related
a similar incident the day before the start of the
second season near Rand.
"Ranchers were going up and down on 4-wheelers driving the elk down. That sort of thing goes on all the time around here," McClure complained. "They do that stuff and then sell the tags for $5000. It's isheartening
as heck."
These examples pinpoint the basic issue of creeping
commercialism in big game hunting, particularly as it
relates to the present proliferation of exclusive
landowner vouchers. Under a law passed three decades ago by a sympathetic legislature, landowners presently receive 15 percent of the most desirable deer and elk licenses before they're offered to the public.
Vouchers then are sold or transferred through what has
become a lively brokerage, complete with Internet
bidding ranging into the high four figures. Not
content with wat amounts to free money at the expense
of the average hunter, landowners keep pressing for a
larger slice of the pie.
When the Division of Wildlife recently responded to
this continued push with a proposed pilot program for
a limited expansion--five private and five public bull
tags in game management unit 10--landowner groups
predictably clamored for more.
Finding no sportsmen to oppose them at the meeting of
the Colorado Wildlife Commission earlier this month,
ranchers besieged the policy-making body for a
dramatic expansion. As so often happens, the
commission caved in, instructing DOW staff to
investigate a plan that might include every game
management unit requiring five preference points.
A proposal to give eastern Colorado landowners 10
percent of all antelope tags for family members
mushroomed to include deer. These issues come up for
a second reading at the commission's Dec. 8 workshop
in Silverthorne, with a possible resolution in
January.
But when it comes to more licences for landowners, no
decision ever is final. It's just another crack in
the dam.