HB288 Wyoming fee increases

Buzz...will these newly increased fees start in 2018? Thanks for keeping us updated on WY state of affairs. I'd comment, but I'm already too embarrassed about MT trying to tell WY how to manage their elk herds.

Yes...I believe so.
 
Saw the writing on the wall in recent years and confirms some decisions I made along the way: Dumped my 8 sheep points to avoid paying the $100 nonrefundable fee which only was going up, now $150. For a tag I had no mathematical chance for on the preference side - Check; Cashed my moose points back then as soon as I could, scored a bull. Got out of that $75/yr nonrefundable game afterwards - Check; Burned my 7 elk & lope point for regular price tags in 2013, and applied on the "special" side since then while I had something to gain. But at $1,266? No thanks - Check; Been applying for bull bison the last ten years at around $1,200. But at $4,400? No way. I'm kinda glad they made that a very easy decision for me. One of my thoughts on making these moves was that I was, and still am, convinced WY will water down previously sold points by shifting the quota from 75/25 to 50/50 pref/random. But this price shakeup serves the same purpose.

So in summary, I'm out of the WY sheep, moose & bison games permanently; I'll burn my elk points next year in a mid-tier unit I want to try, then afterwards shift to general tags in the regular price draw pool. For me the price to marginally improve hunt quality just won't be a good ROI any longer. Strategy set. Now just need to stay healthy & move forward.
 
Too bad you haven't met me in person, I really am a nice guy :) I'm willing to bet that if you or anyone else that I'm disagreeing with on the forum about Colorado's funding would happen to meet in the field, we'd probably get along just fine.

And just a little FYI, I have taken the kid across the street duck hunting, my wife's co-workers kid pheasant hunting as well as let my own kids bring their friends hunting & fishing. As Doc Holiday said "There! now we can be friends again!"

That didn't work matthews, next thing Holiday did was stab him!
 
Saw the writing on the wall in recent years and confirms some decisions I made along the way: Dumped my 8 sheep points to avoid paying the $100 nonrefundable fee which only was going up, now $150. For a tag I had no mathematical chance for on the preference side - Check; Cashed my moose points back then as soon as I could, scored a bull. Got out of that $75/yr nonrefundable game afterwards - Check; Burned my 7 elk & lope point for regular price tags in 2013, and applied on the "special" side since then while I had something to gain. But at $1,266? No thanks - Check; Been applying for bull bison the last ten years at around $1,200. But at $4,400? No way. I'm kinda glad they made that a very easy decision for me. One of my thoughts on making these moves was that I was, and still am, convinced WY will water down previously sold points by shifting the quota from 75/25 to 50/50 pref/random. But this price shakeup serves the same purpose.

So in summary, I'm out of the WY sheep, moose & bison games permanently; I'll burn my elk points next year in a mid-tier unit I want to try, then afterwards shift to general tags in the regular price draw pool. For me the price to marginally improve hunt quality just won't be a good ROI any longer. Strategy set. Now just need to stay healthy & move forward.

Agree with your strategy. I can scratch the checks if the value is there. Value is suspect, especially if winter kill whacks deer and pronghorn herds. Trust is falling with WY. Hard to deny the likelihood there will be more games in the near future, perhaps with non-resident allocation. The WY bull bison hunt harvest rate made me pause before but a 3x hike makes that easy to abandon. Another person with a different set of priorities may have no issues with the WY changes and that is great. Non-resident hunting is not a cheap date.

Watching the cost of non-resident hunting in the West go up faster than inflation is annoying since I know this aces out Joe SixPack from chasing that dream tag. When there are fewer Joe SixPacks non-residents, you get more Richie Rich hunters to fill the vacuum and that is how SFW (Karl Malone was their ambassador with his 18 wheeler PR) gets a pile of money to wine and dine for more auction tags and transferrable landowner tags and other things that ace out opportunity for Joe SixPack residents as well. The real pain shows up at the ballot box when fewer people have hunted or know a hunter so traps get outlawed then hounds chasing predators then bait for predators. WY was the state that slowed getting wolves delisted for all the West so do not expect a lot from WY anyway when it comes to leadership.
 
Thank the Wyoming Outfitters and guides association for the tiered licenses and preference points...including the fees associated with same. Their pig, their farm...let them know how you feel.

While on the horn, ask Lee Livingston why he opposes preference points for Residents, but supports them for NR's...seems odd, until you think about it.

Contact info here:

http://www.wyoga.org/index.php

Phone: 307-265-2523
 
Correct, but likely to increase the popularity of those permits and make them tougher to draw.

No doubt. It seems like the natural progression of things. Not good. Very discouraging to people looking to go west for their first adventure. At least I have had my time in the mountains over the years.
 
What a crock...$4 increase for a RES and $54 for non RES. It's time to use up the last of my points and call it a day for WY too now...I'm not poor by any means, but hunting is really starting to be a rich persons sport.
 
not happy hearing about this as a non-resident!!I will have to revamp my "best bang for the buck" options and consider my options,,,Wyoming may get less of my non -resident moneys,as well as there gas stations,motels,eating joints ,ect,,,ive spent a lot of money there in the past,but this seems like a big jump and a big f--- --- for the non-resident hunter that wyomings been dependant on us non-residents for some time for there funding.
 
But I am opposed to paying more for my hunting tags so the CPW can stock more 10" trout in every creek and pond, and everything else unrelated to the tag I'm buying.

This. I want Fish and Game stocking urban ponds for kids to fish. I want Fish and Game managing Wolverines, something I will NEVER see. I want research being done on Sockeye salmon in the Upper Salmon River, something I know I will never be able to catch.

I also want Fish and Game driving new 4x4 PU's, reliably, so that they can catch poachers wherever they are, and, I want their employees to be well paid, well trained. We have had our Fish Cop's shot and killed, so they deserve everything a regular cop gets in training and tools.

And there you have the two competing visions of resource management.

Tragedy of the Commons

BTW all those fishing license that get bought to catch those 10" hatchery trout go toward elk management. Two way street.
 
This all sucks. Is there a way to get a refund for my moose points that I bought in the past if I turn them in??:cool:
 
I wouldn't bitch if it was going towards game and fish,but if its going for there general fund I have the right to bitch,,,milking the non-resident for substantially extra is not sitting well.
 
I wouldn't bitch if it was going towards game and fish,but if its going for there general fund I have the right to bitch,,,milking the non-resident for substantially extra is not sitting well.

It isn't going toward the general fund. The general fund is just no longer funding the game and fish the extra 4 to 6 million that the legislature approved for a two year period in 2014. As far as I can tell there is no "footnote" to this bill taking anything away. In order to keep the money coming from the general fund it would have taken a budget authorization from the legislature.

Evidently they didn't think additional money was needed to be funded to the game and fish department from the general fund due to the fee increase.

They are somewhat tied together, but none of the fee increase is going to the general fund.
 
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I feel it's a privilege to be able to hunt in a state that does so well in their game management and is so hunter friendly. I hunt antelope just about every year and deer in the near future. I have also been getting moose points towards a cow hunt in a few years. So, I guess I have to pay to play as a NR, and have no room to complain.
 
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I feel it's a privilege to be able to hunt in a state that does so well in their game management and is so hunter friendly. I hunt antelope just about every year and deer in the near future. I have also been getting moose points towards a cow hunt in a few years. So, I guess I have to pay to play as a NR, and have no room to complain.

Quit being an a$$ kisser....lol
 
Nonresidents have every right to complain when they provide so much of the funding for the Game and Fish Departments. That said, I can't complain about Wyoming yet. I feel I've gotten my money's worth each time I've hunted there. What they are looking at for points and the archery license is pushing it, though.
 

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