Link: http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2006/03/23/breakingnews/10bison.txt

For any of you Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks types and Federal Officials that are involved in this "lunacy" (see article linked) I am now upping my offer to $1,000.00 for a Bull Buffalo tag for this area!
Thats right I will PAY YOU $1,000.00 and then you cretins can waste the money after that in any way your little hearts desire!
Now I am sure that for the other 939 Buffalo that have been captured (and most of them killed!) I could also find "paying" customers for those "tags" as well!
Income or outlay?
Is it tough for you bureaucrats to solve the "tough" questions?
Sheesh!
Long live the Buffalo!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

VG, you should be blaming the MT Dept. of Livestock for this cluster. They are the one's who initiated this slaughter since the beginning. Maybe the folks in MT who hunt need to call their state legislators and let them know the MT FW&P should be allowed to control the bison leaving the park with tags, than let the state Dept. of Livestock slaughter these bison as they see fit.

I'm sure the FW&P would love to hold a hunt.

MG

Madgoat is right on with the Dept of Livestock at the top of this cluster. Right next to Gov Schweitzer. If I recall correctly, FW&P originally proposed 250 buffalo licences, and the Gov cut it back to 50, then reserved 25 of those for Indians. The folks in Helena were afraid that allowing hunters to harvest 250 buffalo would raise too much of a public outcry and hurt tourism in Montana. Trucking the buffalo to slaughter in Idaho is OK. Only hunting is bad.

VarmintGuy, I'd also offer $1000 for a Bull Buffalo tag. We're not alone there either. If I also recall correctly, there were over 3000 applicants for those 25 buffalo tags last year. Let's see, the state and Feds have paid to haul roughly 1000 buffalo to slaughter this past year at cost of $??????? If instead FW&P were to have sold 1000 buffalo tags at $1000, there would be the same 1000 dead buffalo, and FW&P would have a $1,000,000 better budget.

I'll take one at $3000 or two at $2000 each (I want a volume discount). Sadly, in light of the current policies in Montana, there are people out there who would pay double or triple what I am offering. For instance, I believe the auction tags for Utah's Henry Mountain hunt have historically raised $7,000 plus. An outfitted hunt in BC, Alberta, The Yukon or NWT can run from $5,000-$9,000 USD! Montana is missing the boat here BIG TIME.

JMHO,

John

buffybr,

Please correct me if I am in error, but I read 16 were allocated to the Natives and 10 were given to hunters who had drawn the year before and had their hunt cancelled due to the political pressure. I also believe 6177 people applied for the tags. True or no?

Thanks,

John

John, You could be right on the 6177 number of applicants. I was writing from memory, its been several months since those figures were in the news here. Also the original plan was to have two hunt periods of 25 hunters each, with half of the tags reserved for Indians. I checked FW&P's webpage, but they haven't updated it with all the stats from last year.

Regardless of the exact number of applicants, my point, as was VarmintGuy's, was that FW&P could easily sell buffalo bull tags to sportsmen instead of having the Dept of Livestock, etc., wasting tens of thousands of our tax dollars catching the buffalo and trucking them to slaughter in Idaho.

I think the $1,000 bull tag figure originally posted by VarmintGuy would be reasonable to more hunters than FW&P being greedy and trying to charge auction prices.

quote:

Originally posted by buffybr:
I think the $1,000 bull tag figure originally posted by VarmintGuy would be reasonable to more hunters than FW&P being greedy and trying to charge auction prices.

Maybe, but what would be better for the species? What could the wildlife department do for Bison in Yellowstone with three, four, or five million dollars? How much exta habitat could be purchased outright? I say allocate half of the surplus animals to a drawing at the low montana fee of $750 and the put the other hunts up for sale at $3000 on a first come first served basis. If it looks like they won't all sell, then simply lower the price.

JMHO,

John

No they just need more wolves in the park. Once they have eaten all the elk then they might start on the Bison, and poof the problem is gone!

I hope the feds don't read this! The stupid mutha-f*ckers will do it!

It is my understanding that some, if not all, of the "Native American" set aside tags went unused. Evidently, they had enough bison of their own already on the reservation(s).

I think the gov could be on to something if the state and feds buy out the grazing leases of the ranchers in the possible "contamination" areas. That might get the thugs from Dept of Livestock out of the picture. We can only hope.

John The Greek: I apparently am a "piker" when it comes to paying the going rate for a nifty big Bull Buffalo tag!
That $7,000.00 auction offer from Utah and your offer sure makes me look cheap!
Anyway the point is the Department of the Interior and various Montana state agencies could be bringing in a BUNCH of money instead of paying to have the Bison rounded up, corralled, trucked, euthanized, skinned, butchered, wrapped and then that processed meat distributed to needy folks!
I would gladly do all that myself AND distribute half of the meat I would have processed myself to the needy!
Again, all at my expense.
The deep underlying horror that I see in this bureaucratic screw-up is not so much the waste of money (our tax dollars!) but the deceitful policy of the feds and the state government types going so far out of their way to avoid using the traditional HUNTER to harvest an obvious overabundance of Game Animals!
This type policy and deceitfullness does not portend well for the future of tarditional Hunters under this "GREEN" agenda!

Madgoat: I now have the Montana Department of Livestock on my permanent address list. Thanks for the heads up.
They will be contacted.

FEAR the greens as they are dishonest, deceitful and bold! They also have sport Hunting and sport Hunters in their sights as target #1!

Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Varmintguy,

I agree with you completely! As an economist though, I have a tough time watching Montana accept FAR less than the market rate for a bull like this. Guys out there pay $3K or more for some corraled "trophy" bison so it stands to reason that the general public would pay far more for a free roaming, Boone and Crockett eligible bull. I also believe license fees in Montana are half the rate in Utah and one fourth the rate in Arizona. Would application revenue fall substantially if Montana doubled the license fee? NO WAY...certainly not enough to offset the increased revenue from actual license sales. Policy reccomendation: Increase the actual license fee (until the Marginal cost of doing so equals the marginal benefit) for the GOOD OF THE SPECIES! The fact that the state is PAYING to move animals that could be hunted and produce revenue is just plain criminal.

Maybe the two of us need to start a company..."Bison Control Inc."! It's a lot of work processing these animals but I sure wouldn't mind doing it (at least for a few months).

JMHO,

John

I went to the FW & P's office here in Billings to apply and I asked how many tags were to be drawn. Because I picked a late season hunt, my name would be drawn from one of the 12 tags available.

I believe the natives didn't hunt because they have so much buffalo meat handed to them free paid for with our tax dollars.

Greatly disapointed with this cluster!

John The Greek;Folks here in Montana dont make anywhere near the wages paid in other states.That is why licenes for hunting and fishing are lower than some other states.w/regards

Gopherhunter,

Actually, per capita income in Montana is higher than Utah while tag prices are DOUBLE there. Really, Montana could do right by its citizens by keeping prices low for a large allocation of drawn tags and then simply put the rest out for bid by either residents or non-residents.

JMHO,

John

quote:

Originally posted by gophershooter:
John The Greek;Folks here in Montana dont make anywhere near the wages paid in other states.That is why licenes for hunting and fishing are lower than some other states.w/regards

I will call Bullshit. Folks in Montana don't make as high of wages, but cost of living is a HELL of a lot less then most other parts of the country (Have you ever seen taxes in NJ or NY). That more than evens it out. Plus Folks in Montana always don't want to work. I know that because I worked there for 4 years. I was a fly fishing guide in the summer and worked part time the rest of the year. I had a job that let me "get by" and give me plently of time to hunt and fish. I had a bunch of friends who did the same thing. Work on Fires in the summers, and then maybe be a ski instructor for the winter if they were short on cash or work at a ski mountain. I can name off about 20 friends right now who still do that. So don't play Poor Montanan because most of them I know don't have jobs where they are working 50 weeks out of the year with only 2 weeks vacation. They work 30 weeks out of the year with 22 weeks of vacation.

Sierra Bravo;The rude and ignorant post you made about Montana and its people speaks volumes of how littleyou know about the subject.To paint this state with such a broad brush is beyond moronic.
Montana is incredibly unique and diverse from one end of the state to the in terms of how people make a living and what they are paid.
I live and work in a rural part of Montana on a ranch full time for 6 months, sometimes daylight till dark.The rest of the year I do daywork on 12-14 different ranches.In my spare time I break colts and train cowdogs.Most of my friends that dont have their on places work 7days a week at 2-4 different jobs throughout the year.The ilk that you hung out with that wouldnt work probably says as much about you as them.
What you know about Montana must have been learned in a Starbucks in Missoula,its damn sure not first hand.Get off the Interstate sometime.You might learn something about this great state and its people.
Do you actually think babysitting dudes as a fishing guide is a job? w/regards