license and tag fee's-what are we paying for?

[Don Fischer]

In another post here, Lawdog mentioned the escalating fee's on non-resident fee's. He's got good concern's but each state has a right to set their own fee's just as you have a right not to buy their license's and tag's. I'm not real sure what this money is spent on; near as I can tell, to support a government agency and help it grow.

Consider Oregon. We've gone thru the failed Redleg partridge program, had those Black pheasants introduced to the Willamette valley on private property. We've had Big Horn sheep planted on the Deschutes river that left. Then fish & waste spent thousands more trying to re-round them up on private property and move them back to where they just left! Fish & waste did some habitat improvement here locally. They cut down a bunch of juniper tree's and threw them in Antelope creek calling it cover for spawning trout. Took about a month and cost to much. Now they want to plant Mountain Goats in the Columbia gorge. They've already done that twice before and it was a miserable failure, what's gonna change this time and for what purpose these transplant's? Follow the money.

They have a program in this state where Large landowner's can have landowner preference tag's, no draw required. But resident's in the same area must take their chances on a draw, loosing out to to many non-area and alien non- resident's. Then to make matter's worse, large land owner's also get damage control tag's for elk, weather they grow crop's or not. Those tag's, for bull's, can be traded in for cow tag's at the rate of two for one and the season run's until April 15th. I know a guy that has a hunting license and has only applied for one deer tag in the past 10 yrs and no elk tag's that got two of these elk this year, the last was two day's ago! He's not even a land owner but a friend of one.

Fish & Waste has that great report a game thief program to convince you that you really need them. They report to you of the problem that is no where as great as they claim it is.It cost's money to run those program's and where do you think that money come's from? License's and tag's and  non-refundable draw fee's ect.

Let me tell you one more thing about this damage control deal. The last elk this guy got, he got off a huge well known ranch owned by a non-resident alien that is run by a religious group. They grow no crop's. Neither does the owner who live's in Montata and make's his money in mining and railroad's. Would you like to get one of these tag's that Fish & waste have reserved for certain people's? To bad those aren't available.
suposeably publicly owned animal's living on private land not available to the public that, for what ever reason, is not only reserved for special individuals but they are also given a season that extends to April 15th and the right to let, so it appear's,  whoever they wish to hunt them even though they grow no crop's. Your non-resident alien tag's may go up again soon. Colorado and Arizona have priced some out of it and they'll be looking to Oregon. Follow the money!

[longwalker]

Having traveled from east to west and west to east again, I can tell you some places are better than others. We pay for land the ability to hunt and the ability to have some access to game. This is not cheap and it's for a relatively small group of people. Us ! When budgets get cut and taxes are cut, the money available for our recreation is bound to be on the block. The only way to turn this around is to spend your money on politicians. They understand people with cash. So you can have their ear for a while, or we pay for the privilege with fees. I say do both. The reality is we are the ones that want to hunt and fish. If we want to continue to to so we are going to have to pay. If we don't then the only people that will be able to will be the ones with deeper pockets than ours.

I know the money I spend every year on hunting and fishing licence buys me lots of access to land I could not afford to own.

[Redhawk1]

The way things are going, soon there will be guides and outfitters out of business, because a lot of people will not pay to hunt if the prices keep going up and up. Some times it not just about the money but the principle of being over charged and priced out.

The hunt for Elk for myself and 4 other, we canceled due to the price gouging of non-resident hunters. We decided to go back to Alaska and do another drop hunt for Caribou, and still have a lot of cash left over to get our trophy mounted for the price of a Elk hunt in AZ.

You are correct, it comes down to what we are willing to pay. I am not going because I can't afford it, I just don't think we are really welcome there, so why spend our money there.

I guess the only way we can change things are with our money. When there is no more demand the price will drop.  :-)

[Elwood]

:-D   Cool!
One more resident gets a tag.
Elwood P. Dowd

[Don Fischer]

I'm not so sure that it's cool or not. Both side's have probally got a point. I think residents should come first. And yet all non-residents are not overbearing bums like certain California,,, well forget that. The problem is that the government agencys controlling it seem to be more interested in making money and justify their own existence than actually managing the fish and game. In the end those of us that hunt end up at odds with each other and the fish & game departments hide in a corner. We got guy's actually trying to justify what these people do.

That's it, would someone please check my grammar.

[Redhawk1]

Don what I have noticed is the almost all the people that have problems with non-residents are from Western States.

I don't see people from Eastern States bashing non-resident hunters. I am sure there are some that don't care for it, but they don't make it a big issue.

I for one welcome non-resident hunters, because I become a non-resident hunter when I travel to there State.

I just think we all resident and non-resident deserve to be treated with respect.  :-)


Elwood, you prove my point.

[Redhawk1]

:-D   Cool!
One more resident gets a tag.
Elwood P. Dowd

I wish all non-resident would boycott AZ. Then when your resident tags go up to where the resident can't afford to hunt in there own State, you will wish you had the non-residents there helping to pay for the wildlife in your State with our money from non-resident fees.      Real cool "right".

[SLAVAGE]

around here we dont mind them much as long as ther not a smart ass an that they buy the first round lol

[Redhawk1]

SLAVAGE, I would buy the first round.  

We see a lot of hunters from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia here in Delaware. Not once did i run into one that I didn't  like.

I would rather talk to a fellow hunter no matter where he is from, than an anti-hunter.    :-D  

[Don Fischer]

Without getting a handle on the fish & game department's and bringing down everyone's cost's we're just gonna keep fighting among ourselves over this issue. Myself as much as anybody. Why don't we just leave this issue alone? ALL the fee's are to high because fish & game dept's are to expensive and wasting money on program's designed to make us think they are doing us a big favor. How about we just quit this?

[Redhawk1]

Without getting a handle on the fish & game department's and bringing down everyone's cost's we're just gonna keep fighting among ourselves over this issue. Myself as much as anybody. Why don't we just leave this issue alone? ALL the fee's are to high because fish & game dept's are to expensive and wasting money on program's designed to make us think they are doing us a big favor. How about we just quit this?

I could not agree more with you Don.