So show me on person who comes here to hunt that the license is not one of the cheapest aspects of the hunt? Even at regular prices the lic is one of the cheapest aspects of the hunt. Given fuel is up, etc. it is still one of the cheapest aspects of hunting WY.
Talkin DIY, the NR licence can be one of the most significant parts. More than food, more than my bow or gun, more than my ammo or arrows, more than my backpack or tent. Collectively, no, of course not, but its a silly comparison. Some of those things last season after season and are used on many hunts.
Comparing the licence cost to my vehicle, is also silly. I use that 365 days a year for work, getting groceries, hauling kids, etc. So of course I use it for hunting too.
Why would I compare an elk tag to the cost of gas? Are they indexed to oil in literally any way?
Look, NR tags are tremendously expensive these days already, to say otherwise is foolish. But they are not a necessity per se. Even call it a “luxury” if you want to lay it on thick (my hunts are nooooo luxury, trust me). So a person who spends his last survival dollar on a tag would be foolish. But just about as foolish as someone saying one owes more money (arbitrarily) on product B because they already spent a bunch of money on product A.
Would it be any more sensible to ask Wyoming for a personal break if I hadn’t spent other money anywhere, I’m already in deep elsewhere and kinda strapped this season? No.
Tag prices should reflect 1) the contributory cost to manage and provide the resource and 2) a component of supply/demand 3) but keep space for recognition that market pricing to whatever the top payer could bear may not reflect the social contract between hunters and State / society generally.
Maybe they do all of the above and this currently is the equlibrium point. The zone of tension. Etc. I’m fine if it is. If NR were singing and dancing, the price is too low. But I don’t personally hear much of that. Desperation, resignation, a little defiance, well yeah. But maybe thats because class warfare seemingly wins in the end and the rich shall inherit the earth (that indeed is pretty much whats happening I yield). Feels weird to have those R hunters championing that, at the literal expense of their erstwhile bretheren.
#3 in that list was also likely the hardest to establish in tandem with the N.A. model, doing something different than the King’s deer and all, and seems like once its lost a whole LOT of bad things might happen to hunting as we know it, and support for hunting generally. Finally, as NR goes, so too one day will R. You may find you are no more than the money someone can squeeze YOU for. Better make sure your left pocket is empty or they may just be morally “justified” in taking whats in your right. People (and government) don’t change. Thats a fact.
So give thanks to the middlingly “rich” NR. After all, You WANT us on that wall. You NEED us on that wall! When we are knocked off that wall and in pieces, good luck putting us back together again. LOL