I'm for it.

Is anyone willing to put up with all the spam to register so we can see a cut and pasted version of the whole article?

I hate to "register" on sites like this... It's a guarantee of spam forever.... <sigh>

$bob$

This article was in the Nov. 10, 2004 Chicago Sun Times. It is just about impossible to get a deer hunting spot anymore.


Non-residents drive bowhunting boom

November 10, 2004

OUTDOORS e-mail: dale@DaleBowman.com





We should be talking about big bucks. It's that time of the year. Instead, it's big bucks. Maybe it's inevitable. In Illinois, dollars and deer have been on a collision course since the mid-1990s.



On Tuesday in Springfield, Judge Jeanne Scott did not grant an immediate injunction against the cap on non-resident archery deer permits, which Downstate outfitters sought in a lawsuit. But she has "taken it under advisement.''

Illinois Department of Natural Resources director Joel Brunsvold increased the cap on non-resident archery deer permits to 15,000 this year. Despite a $225 price tag, they sold out on July 10, the day sales opened.

In 2002, non-resident permits were capped at more than 12,000 as a compromise by then-IDNR director Brent Manning. He planned to use the money to increase public hunting. That never happened.

Two years ago, it took four weeks to sell out fewer non-resident archery deer permits than sold out within hours in July. That's how hot deer hunting in Illinois is.

Last year, hunters harvested an Illinois record of 163,675 deer (a record archery harvest of 57,802 and a firearm harvest of 105,873). Total harvest didn't top 100,000 until 1991 (18,155 archery, 82,130 firearm). In the 15 years since 1988, the archery harvest in Illinois has increased sevenfold. In 1995, archery permits jumped by more than 60,000 to 223,028.

Much of that was fueled by non-resident hunters. The impacts were passed on to resident hunters. Private land became less open to hunters or more expensive to lease. That pushed hunters out of the sport or to limited public sites.

And we are talking a lot of resident hunters. Forest wildlife program manager Paul Shelton estimates the number of firearm hunters at 190,000 to 200,000 and the number of bow hunters between 120,000 and 130,000. "There is considerable overlap between the two,'' he said.

We are far from done with this issue.

I'm fed up. Outfitters want a piece of the action? Make them pay for it. They want to take us down the road of legal action? Milk 'em for every cent we can. How about a $10,000 annual deer outfitters fee? And earmark the funds for acquisition of deer-hunting land. My guess is the market would bear doubling the price of the non-resident archery deer permits.

Frankly, I would sooner talk about the rut.