Post by Woody Williams on Aug 24, 2005 8:45:28 GMT -5
Legislative committee to hold hearings on allowing outfitters early access to deer hunting permits
BY JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star
When it comes to buying deer permits, state law has always given resident hunters first crack.
But some outfitters who cater to wealthy out-of-state hunters want to change the law.
On Aug. 30, the Legislature's Natural Resources Committee will conduct a public hearing in Valentine to gather input on the idea of providing a limited number of deer permits to outfitters. The committee will hold a second interim study hearing on the issue the next day in Kearney.
While some outfitters say they need the permits so they can guarantee hunts to clients who want to book well in advance of the season, some rank-and-file sportsmen oppose the idea. They say providing permits to outfitters represents another move toward making the sport unaffordable for the average hunter.
At present, no detailed proposal exists, said Jody Gittins, a staff member of Sen. Ed Schrock of Elm Creek, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee. The purpose of the hearings is to gauge public reaction to the concept of outfitter deer permits.
"(Schrock) thinks it could be good for Nebraska," she said, "but he really wants to know how people feel about it."
John Koller, owner of Hunt Nebraska, a commercial hunting business in Arapahoe, thinks the state is way behind the curve when it comes to selling hunts. When Koller gets calls a year before the season from clients willing to pay $3,500 or more for a guided deer hunt, he tells them he can't guarantee they'll get a permit. Most reply with a "no thanks," and call an outfitter in another state, he said.
Under Nebraska law, resident hunters get first chance to buy deer permits, usually starting in April. Nonresidents can start buying permits in late June. Other western states, however, provide permits to their outfitters to package with hunts.
"We're not competitive," Koller said. "But as far as I'm concerned, Nebraska is famous for not being competitive."
Koller also favors a system in which landowners would be able to buy multiple deer permits based upon the acres of land they own. Under such a scenario, the landowner should be allowed to do what he pleases with the permits — sell them to an outfitter, to the highest bidder or simply give them to friends.
"I think a landowner or outfitter should get a certain number of permits just because we're trying to develop economically," he said.
Under the current system, nonresident hunters have a high degree of access to deer permits, said Kit Hams, big game program manager for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
The state puts no residency restrictions on archery or muzzleloader seasons, meaning a nonresident has the same access to those permits as a Nebraskan.
In 2004, the commission sold 115,000 deer permits, of which nonresidents bought 7,000, a number on the rise over the past two decades. But last year, only five of the 40 management units for the rifle season sold out to residents before nonresidents got a chance at them, Hams said. The five units that sold out were Statewide Buck, Elkhorn, DeSoto and two early units at Boyer Chute.
A closer look at the numbers shows that about 53,000 of the permits were sold during the November rifle season. During the period in which only residents could buy them, about 25,000 were sold, meaning more than half of the state's rifle deer permits were available for nonresidents.
From Hams' perspective, the current system provides permits for everyone and doesn't need to be changed.
If anything, the commission needs to reduce the overall number of permits to reduce poaching and trespassing during the rifle deer season, said Andrea Voss, manager of the Box L Hunting and Lodging Company in far northwest Nebraska.
"I would have to say in our area, we don't need" outfitter permits, Voss said. Her clients simply don't have a problem securing a permit to hunt deer in the northern Panhandle.
Hunters who oppose the concept not only see outfitter and transferable landowner permits as unnecessary, they view them as whittling away at the system that manages and conserves the public's wildlife, said Wes Sheets of Lincoln, one of two state directors for the Izaak Walton League of America.
Conservationists banded together in the early 1900s to outlaw market hunting because it was wiping out entire species of wildlife. Ever since, state conservation agencies have been given the mission of managing wildlife as a renewable natural resource that belongs to the public, Sheets said.
"If someone takes my resource and profits from it, that's commercialization of a public resource and that's plain wrong," he said.
While sportsmen are indebted to landowners for providing habitat for wildlife, Sheets still finds the concept of a transferable landowner license objectionable. To him, it sounds similar to the European model, where royalty own the game on their land.
In 1999, a bill that would have set aside outfitter permits died in the Natural Resources Committee. Whether or not the interim study hearings result in new proposed legislation, they will give committee members a chance to hear what hunters and outfitters think.
Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.
BY JOE DUGGAN / Lincoln Journal Star
When it comes to buying deer permits, state law has always given resident hunters first crack.
But some outfitters who cater to wealthy out-of-state hunters want to change the law.
On Aug. 30, the Legislature's Natural Resources Committee will conduct a public hearing in Valentine to gather input on the idea of providing a limited number of deer permits to outfitters. The committee will hold a second interim study hearing on the issue the next day in Kearney.
While some outfitters say they need the permits so they can guarantee hunts to clients who want to book well in advance of the season, some rank-and-file sportsmen oppose the idea. They say providing permits to outfitters represents another move toward making the sport unaffordable for the average hunter.
At present, no detailed proposal exists, said Jody Gittins, a staff member of Sen. Ed Schrock of Elm Creek, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee. The purpose of the hearings is to gauge public reaction to the concept of outfitter deer permits.
"(Schrock) thinks it could be good for Nebraska," she said, "but he really wants to know how people feel about it."
John Koller, owner of Hunt Nebraska, a commercial hunting business in Arapahoe, thinks the state is way behind the curve when it comes to selling hunts. When Koller gets calls a year before the season from clients willing to pay $3,500 or more for a guided deer hunt, he tells them he can't guarantee they'll get a permit. Most reply with a "no thanks," and call an outfitter in another state, he said.
Under Nebraska law, resident hunters get first chance to buy deer permits, usually starting in April. Nonresidents can start buying permits in late June. Other western states, however, provide permits to their outfitters to package with hunts.
"We're not competitive," Koller said. "But as far as I'm concerned, Nebraska is famous for not being competitive."
Koller also favors a system in which landowners would be able to buy multiple deer permits based upon the acres of land they own. Under such a scenario, the landowner should be allowed to do what he pleases with the permits — sell them to an outfitter, to the highest bidder or simply give them to friends.
"I think a landowner or outfitter should get a certain number of permits just because we're trying to develop economically," he said.
Under the current system, nonresident hunters have a high degree of access to deer permits, said Kit Hams, big game program manager for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
The state puts no residency restrictions on archery or muzzleloader seasons, meaning a nonresident has the same access to those permits as a Nebraskan.
In 2004, the commission sold 115,000 deer permits, of which nonresidents bought 7,000, a number on the rise over the past two decades. But last year, only five of the 40 management units for the rifle season sold out to residents before nonresidents got a chance at them, Hams said. The five units that sold out were Statewide Buck, Elkhorn, DeSoto and two early units at Boyer Chute.
A closer look at the numbers shows that about 53,000 of the permits were sold during the November rifle season. During the period in which only residents could buy them, about 25,000 were sold, meaning more than half of the state's rifle deer permits were available for nonresidents.
From Hams' perspective, the current system provides permits for everyone and doesn't need to be changed.
If anything, the commission needs to reduce the overall number of permits to reduce poaching and trespassing during the rifle deer season, said Andrea Voss, manager of the Box L Hunting and Lodging Company in far northwest Nebraska.
"I would have to say in our area, we don't need" outfitter permits, Voss said. Her clients simply don't have a problem securing a permit to hunt deer in the northern Panhandle.
Hunters who oppose the concept not only see outfitter and transferable landowner permits as unnecessary, they view them as whittling away at the system that manages and conserves the public's wildlife, said Wes Sheets of Lincoln, one of two state directors for the Izaak Walton League of America.
Conservationists banded together in the early 1900s to outlaw market hunting because it was wiping out entire species of wildlife. Ever since, state conservation agencies have been given the mission of managing wildlife as a renewable natural resource that belongs to the public, Sheets said.
"If someone takes my resource and profits from it, that's commercialization of a public resource and that's plain wrong," he said.
While sportsmen are indebted to landowners for providing habitat for wildlife, Sheets still finds the concept of a transferable landowner license objectionable. To him, it sounds similar to the European model, where royalty own the game on their land.
In 1999, a bill that would have set aside outfitter permits died in the Natural Resources Committee. Whether or not the interim study hearings result in new proposed legislation, they will give committee members a chance to hear what hunters and outfitters think.
Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com.
