>Stoney,
>
>You can try to polish a
>turd all you want...its still
>a turd.
>
>You arent going to convince me
>that NM's tag allocation is
>anything more than a welfare/give-away
>program.
>
>I'm thankful I live in Wyoming
>everytime I look at that
>goat-#$@k of a tag allocation
>system that New Mexico has.
>
>
>How about the pronghorn situation? Ranch
>assignments and you cant even
>hunt accessible public land outside
>the ranch assignments. Absolute joke.
>
>
>Only 6% of the available tags
>are good for those not
>wanting to use a guide.
>
>
>But, of course, 10% of the
>available tags go to those
>that are forced to use
>an outfitter.
>
>Why not make 16% of the
>tags available to NR's and
>let them decide if they
>want to use a guide
>or not. Could it be
>that the welfare outfitters wouldnt
>be assured business? I guess
>a "free market" and "no
>goverment" is better for owners
>of businesses other than outfitting
>businesses??? Bigger joke.
>
>Then theres the transferable landowner tags,
>welfare all the way for
>the landowners and the outfitters.
>
>
>I can see why, as an
>outfitter, you'd be happy with
>the crap system NM has.
>Between the outfitters controlling a
>full 10% of the tags
>out of the gate, and
>probably another 20-25% via transferable
>landowner tags on the side,
>outfitters are assured a great
>revenue stream.
>
>Wyoming has a great system, no
>transferable landowner tags, no outfitter
>guaranteed tags, and 20-25% of
>available tags go to NR's.
>Those NR's that draw are
>free to hire a guide
>if they want, and they
>arent assigned to a ranch.
>
>
>You can keep your "fair system"
>that favors outfitters, landowners, and
>high paying clients over the
>DIY average guy.
>
>You cant make chicken salad out
>of chicken chit...
BuzzH,
I continue to be amazed at your biased and uninformed assumptions about NMGFD's wildlife and conservation management.
The average resident sportsmen have it pretty good.. They get 78% of the bull elk public draw licenses, 100% of the public draw cow elk licenses, residents only (all species) hunts on the NMGFD's Wildlife Management Areas WMA's, 78% of all public draw antelope licenses and deer licenses.
Residents can also purchase landowner tags for both elk and antelope as well as go over the counter for deer licenses to hunt private property with permission, as well as residents can apply in the 10% outfitter pool of licenses.
As far as the elk E-Plus and the antelope A-Plus landowner system
this is more of a compensation program because legally the NMGFD cannot pay for wildlife depredation. It has been a win win situation for all sportsmen of NM because of the wildlife stewardship and incentives for these landowners to keep the many miles and miles of pipelines/drinkers and dirt tanks operational so that our wildlife can proliferate.
The landowner program has enable our elk herds to grow from almost nothing to 90,000 now and they are still expanding out everywhere in NM.
The landowner permit system has opened up almost 800,000 acres of previously posted lands that were't available to most sportsmen and also much of this newly opened private land controlled much access to the public land that was never there before.
Private land is just that, private land. The antelope in NM are almost entirely on private lands with some checker boarded State, BLM & Forest. Ranchere have developed and maintain almost entirely throughout the state all of the antelope water sources.
Outfitters are a major player in bringing in hunters from all over the US and world to help participate in the publicly owned wildlife management programs. They have a strong relationship with many ranchers and landowners and now many of these landowners have removed much of their livestock to make more room for the wildlife they help propagate and thus it has increase the numbers of wildlife and those numbers move out and spend much of their time on public lands especially in the fall during hunting seasons.
Resident hunters enjoy a great amount of opportunity at these publicly owned wildlife and are "subsidized" (using your terminology)to the tune of $106 resident hunting and elk license versus $845 non-resident hunting and elk licenses. Non resident angler and hunters make up about half of all license sales in NM amounting to over $10 millions dollars.
Resident hunters enjoy another "subsidy" in that according to the NAM, wildlife belong to the residents of that particular state and these wildlife spend much of their time on the private and public lands of the Forest Service and BLM