Nebraska makes changes for 2014

mr_steve

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EHD hit Nebraska bad in 2012 and they are working to improve the population. See article below for detailed changes. One I noticed a the elimination of the NR Statewide Buck tag.





Commissioners Adopt Changes to Big Game Regulations

Posted by: Jerry Kane March 21, 2014



LINCOLN – Regulations designed to help deer herds grow in much of the state were adopted by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commissioners at their meeting March 21 in Norfolk.

In 2012, a drought and an outbreak of epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) killed off an estimated one third of the state’s whitetail population. Regulations created to help recover the populations began last year and continue in 2014. The regulations that should allow deer numbers to increase this year include:

– remove 18,420 antlerless deer bonus tags from 12 units;

– remove 950 buck/either-sex deer permits in the Elkhorn, Platte Whitetail, Pine Ridge and Sandhills units;

– shorten the Late Antlerless Deer Season by nine days to Jan. 1-15. Game and Parks’ goals are to allow whitetail herds to rebuild slowly in most units and to allow mule deer herds to grow in all units. Other changes to deer regulations include:

– increase the River Antlerless (areas of highest deer densities) permit quota from 5,500 to 7,000;

– eliminate the Nonresident Statewide Buck permit (restricted statewide buck permits are available to residents and nonresidents);

– close the Pine Ridge Unit to antlerless mule deer harvest, except by those with landowner permits;

– create a quota in which nonresidents are allocated no more than 8 percent of the Frenchman Mule Deer Conservation Area (MDCA) permits;

– add 200 Frenchman MDCA permits with bonus tags for an antlerless whitetail;

– add 300 antlerless whitetail bonus tags to Frenchman West permits. Among other big game regulation changes are the addition of 10 late season Box Butte East Unit antelope permits and removal of 15 bull elk permits from the Ash Creek, Bordeaux and Hat Creek units. Nebraska’s big game (deer, antelope, elk and bighorn sheep) regulations will be summarized in the 2014 Big Game Guide, available later this spring where permits are sold and at OutdoorNebraska.org.

During the meeting, Commissioners also:

– designated undeveloped portions of Sherman Reservoir State Recreation Area as an addition to the Sherman Reservoir Wildlife Management Area for use as a pheasant management area;

– created fees and a cash fund for the new Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Outdoor Education Center in Lincoln, which will open to the public this spring. The shooting sports recreation center also will include Game and Parks’ education offices; — approved a permanent easement crossing the Cowboy Trail in Holt County so the county may replace a bridge over the Elkhorn River.
 
That is not too bad. It looks like they are at least trying to make some intelligent decisions. I think they should also kill the two buck limits. No one needs to kill two bucks in one year.
 
That is not too bad. It looks like they are at least trying to make some intelligent decisions. I think they should also kill the two buck limits. No one needs to kill two bucks in one year.

+1. Get rid of the second buck tag. Make Resident buck tags good for all seasons. Basically more like Kansas.

Limit the number of NR mule deer tags in the Pine Ridge area. These folks seem to show up every year and shoot the first forky they see. We need to give the mulies a break. Again do what Kansas does and have a mule deer drawing for the folks who have whitetail tags already. Give everyone a fair chance to draw a limited amount of mule deer tags.

Increase the NR tag fees. $150 for an antelope tag and $200 for a deer tag is too cheap. Some of the lowest NR tags in the country. Look at the surrounding states who charge $300-$600 for deer tags.

Stop threatening game and parks with reduced funding if they dont stop the mountain lion season. Pretty stupid to undue what took intelligent people years to accomplish because of some political nonsense.
 
Back in the day when I went to Chadron State, we hunted the Pine Ridge CWD unit...we killed a mess of mulies. In hindsight it probably wasn't wise to kill 11 anterless deer between 4 guys. The meat fed a load of college students though.
 
+1. Get rid of the second buck tag. Make Resident buck tags good for all seasons. Basically more like Kansas.

Limit the number of NR mule deer tags in the Pine Ridge area. These folks seem to show up every year and shoot the first forky they see. We need to give the mulies a break. Again do what Kansas does and have a mule deer drawing for the folks who have whitetail tags already. Give everyone a fair chance to draw a limited amount of mule deer tags.

Increase the NR tag fees. $150 for an antelope tag and $200 for a deer tag is too cheap. Some of the lowest NR tags in the country. Look at the surrounding states who charge $300-$600 for deer tags.

Stop threatening game and parks with reduced funding if they dont stop the mountain lion season. Pretty stupid to undue what took intelligent people years to accomplish because of some political nonsense.

Why is the answer to always increase NR fees? What do us NR have to do with the current outbreak of CWD that's effecting the deer herd? What does increasing NR fees do to alleviate what CWD has done to the deer?
 
Why is the answer to always increase NR fees? What do us NR have to do with the current outbreak of CWD that's effecting the deer herd? What does increasing NR fees do to alleviate what CWD has done to the deer?

I wish I had an answer for that one. Most of the states are doing it and it will hurt recruitment of new hunters IMO. But when there is a push it always begins with the NR, but don't worry they have all that public land.........John
 
Why is the answer to always increase NR fees? What do us NR have to do with the current outbreak of CWD that's effecting the deer herd? What does increasing NR fees do to alleviate what CWD has done to the deer?

If you think that fees should be decreased feel free to make that argument. Nobody is stopping you. Would decreasing NR fees be a good idea in your opinion? If so why?
Is $200 too expensive for a deer tag? What does CO charge NR's?
Is $150 too much for a NR antelope tag? What does CO charge NR's?

I think when you look at the pricing structure for Nebraska tags it will be obvious that the pricing is not in line with surrounding states. Nebraska is the "Costco" of big game hunting. Things get more expensive over time and literally every surrounding state charges more for tags.

Nothing. Same as residents. It just happens, it's not like residents caused this either. Not sure I see your point on this one. :confused:

Nothing. Fee increase should have nothing to do with CWD outbreak. I am not aware of anything that can be done to alleviate what CWD does to deer, if you know of something please let us know.

What raising fees would do is give game and parks additional funding which they desperately need. They were just forced to stop the mountain lion season because of political pressure and threats to remove funding for the department. It would also get our fees more inline with the surrounding states which are all much more expensive and in some cases more than double. No reason to charge $150 for an antelope tag when everybody else is charging 300+. No reason to have a $200 deer tag when the surrounding states are 300-600. Is there a cheaper mule deer tag in the country? I am not aware of any. The antelope in Nebraska are just as valuable as those in South Dakota IMO. Also no reason to sell people 2 buck tags, even for residents IMO.
 
I have always felt like Nebraska should be in step with what surrounding states charge for NR hunting. It angers me that someone from another state can come in and pay around half of what I pay in that state. I have no problem with MOST of the NR hunters and in fact, helped two bow hunters from Colorado by allowing them to park on my property to hunt public ground. NR hunters are not, and should not, be the issue. The only issue is the parity in prices charged.
 
OK, so because other states charge more, Nebraska should too? That worked well for Montana and other states out west that raised their NR prices and saw a decrease in hunting numbers now and an increase in unsold licenses. And I would hazard to guess that if prices were increased, your CPW would be squeezed even harder and wouldn't see the extra revenue brought about by the higher license fees. Also, if NR fees are increased, are residents willing to pay more as well?
 
OK, so because other states charge more, Nebraska should too? That worked well for Montana and other states out west that raised their NR prices and saw a decrease in hunting numbers now and an increase in unsold licenses. And I would hazard to guess that if prices were increased, your CPW would be squeezed even harder and wouldn't see the extra revenue brought about by the higher license fees. Also, if NR fees are increased, are residents willing to pay more as well?

John,

I answered every one of your questions. If you want to answer mine we can have a discussion.

Feel free to compare Nebraska tag pricing for Residents and NR's to surrounding states. Here is a link to the Nebraska pricing.
https://ngpc-permits.ne.gov/NGPC-PS/faces/public/welcome

Deer NR=$209 ($521 for statewide) R=$30 or ($73 for statewide)
Elk NR=$458 R=$159
Antelope NR=$155 R=$35
Turkey NR=$91 R=$24

Let us know how that compares to what residents in Colorado pay for 2 deer, 1 elk, 1 antelope, and 2 turkeys. I come up with $345 because 1 of my buck tags is usually statewide, with 2 regular deer tags it's $302. For a NR I come up with $1,213 for the same tags. How does that compare to Colorado? My guess is that the cost of those resident tags is on the high end for surrounding states, I know it is much more than what my family in MT pay for their tags which If I remember correctly is only about $100 for elk, deer, etc... So to summarize I think that the resident tag prices in Nebraska are already where they need to be compared to surrounding states but if for some reason they wanted to charge a bit more I would still buy them. The NR pricing is the cheapest in the region by a wide margin. A slight increase in tag pricing would not affect sales IMO like the drastic increase you are referring to in Montana that did hurt sales.

If you think that charging half what other states charge for a tag is fine then send a letter to your Colorado politicians and see if they will cut the prices. I personally don't think the big game in Nebraska is worth half of what they are in other states.
 
Sounds like a lot of boohooing to me. What is the purpose of raising prices in NE? Just to make it fair? Well, crap lets just keep rasing them till only the rich can hunt. Raising prices will hurt your state. My family won't even come to hunt with me anymore because of the NR tag prices.

Trust me when I tell you this. We as NR hunters bring an awful lot of business to NE when we come to hunt. The motel I stayed in was booked a year out, and so were all the surrounding ones. If NE charged what CO or MT charges those poor motel owners wouldn't be able to keep the rooms full. The grass is not always greener on the other side. I enjoy hunting your state and made some good friends.
 
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Sounds like a lot of boohooing to me. What is the purpose of raising prices in NE? Just to make it fair? Well, crap lets just keep rasing them till only the rich can hunt. Raising prices will hurt your state. My family won't even come to hunt with me anymore because of the NR tag prices.

Trust me when I tell you this. We as NR hunters bring an awful lot of business to NE when we come to hunt. The motel I stayed in was booked a year out, and so were all the surrounding ones. If NE charged what CO or MT charges those poor motel owners wouldn't be able to keep the rooms full. The grass is not always greener on the other side. I enjoy hunting your state and made some good friends.


Bohooing? The only boohooing is you whining about your family not coming to hunt with you in MT. Sounds like a MT problem to me.

If you think that $200 is a fair price for a deer tag feel free to call your local wildlife department and see if they will drop your $580 deer tag to $200. See if they will drop antelope tags to $150. At that price I would come hunt in MT. Let us know how that works out for you.


So you think a 10% increase in prices would cause a huge drop in NR hunting? 10% increase would hurt the state of Nebraska? Based on what? You think a $225 deer tag is too much?

$20 is not going to stop anybody from coming to hunt in Nebraska. Trying to compare what happened in Montana to this in Nebraska is apples to oranges. It's ironic how you are so opinionated about Nebraska tag prices when your own state has shot itself in the foot by raising tag prices to ridiculous levels which caused all the problems you mentioned.

What do MT residents pay for der, elk, turkey, and antelope tags?
NE residents pay about $300 for those tags each year.

It appears to me that MT charges very little for resident tags and a whole bunch for NR tags. Nebraska charges about double for residents and half for NR's compared to MT. Do you see the difference? Do you see my point?
 
You want to discuss what? The fact that you pay more to hunt in CO? You still haven't come up with any logical explanation as to why what you pay in CO should effect what NR pays in NE. What I think should happened in NE is to cut out the Mule deer tags in the western part of the state and make it whitetail only so that the deer herds can start to rebound. Why does there need to be a statewide tag for bucks? You want to complain about what Colorado charges, yet even as a resident I don't get the kind of opportunity to hunt deer that you get in NE, so ofcourse NE is on the radar to out of state hunters. You still haven't said if you agree to a resident fee increase as well. Your idea of a discussion is awfully one sided. Noone is arguing the 'value' of the game animals...that's just a silly ploy
 
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Are you okay rdhunter? Your're not going to have an aneurism are you? I guess you didn't understand what I was saying. Raising prices is not the answer. All it does is hurt us sportsman. Still following............ The shot at the family wasn't cool and you know better. I agree with you on the MT tags. It absolutely crazy the prices they ask for NR. As too NE I would say yes they charge you R too much.

The big picture and the reality is. Prices will continue to rise throughout the west to the point that your son or daughter will not be able to afford to elk, mulie hunt. Hunting out west will be pipe dream only the well off will be able to do.
 
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Are you okay rdhunter? Your're not going to have an aneurism are you? I guess you didn't understand what I was saying. Raising prices is not the answer. All it does is hurt us sportsman. Still following............ The shot at the family wasn't cool and you know better. I agree with you on the MT tags. It absolutely crazy the prices they ask for NR. As too NE I would say yes they charge you R too much.

The big picture and the reality is. Prices will continue to rise throughout the west to the point that your son or daughter will not be able to afford to elk, mulie hunt. Hunting out west will be pipe dream only the well off will be able to do.
I get your point, not saying I agree that will be the outcome, but I get what you are saying. The issue with NRs is that, but law/definition we do not get a say in what the tag fee prices are. As you well know, that is set by the state government, which in all actuality only Rs can influence. So, what are you doing in your state to reduce NR or at a minimum keep them the same? If folks really feel that NR tag prices are really getting out of hand, we need to work on changing those fees in the state where we are an R.

BTW, you can get 1 buck and 2 doe tags that are valid for all deer seasons for less than $300 in my state...
 
I think NE will bump it a little if any because they really need the Hunters to kill the deer. The numbers before and they will rebound in short order the Kill Off were such that they were begging Hunters to come and shoot the Deer. Anyone who has traveled Interstate 80 can attest to that, Deer/car collisions leave deer all along that Hwy. That will be $.02 John
 
Why wasn't this implemented 1 or 2 years ago? My opinion is they lost more then 1/3 of Whitetails, I would say 2/3. I've hunted a good size ranch there for years and last year couldn't believe the die off. I won't go back for 3 or 4 years.
 
Are you okay rdhunter? Your're not going to have an aneurism are you? I guess you didn't understand what I was saying. Raising prices is not the answer. All it does is hurt us sportsman. Still following............ The shot at the family wasn't cool and you know better. I agree with you on the MT tags. It absolutely crazy the prices they ask for NR. As too NE I would say yes they charge you R too much.

The big picture and the reality is. Prices will continue to rise throughout the west to the point that your son or daughter will not be able to afford to elk, mulie hunt. Hunting out west will be pipe dream only the well off will be able to do.

You are entitled to your point of view. It should be noted that your perspective is from a state with extremely cheap resident tags and fairly expensive NR tags. My perspective is from a state with expensive resident tags and extremely cheap NR tags. Nebraska literally charges residents about double what other states charge residents and about half of what other states charge for NR tags. I'd like to see a 10% increase in NR tags to help keep G&P running. They have had to close down some recreation areas and some of the state parks desperately need maintenance done. I don't think going from a $205 tag to a $225 tag is going to stop anybody form hunting here. It's still waaay less than say Montana who charges $580 for a deer tag.

Have you worked on fixing the pricing in your state or do you just prefer to tell others how to do things in their state instead, on top of telling them that they are boohooing and about to have an aneurism?

I sent an e-mail to the governor yesterday asking him to trash the bill that would put an end to out mountain lion season after only 1 year. I also contacted game and parks to let them know how I felt about the pricing structure they use for tags.

So it's Ok for you to say that I am boohooing but if I say you are boohooing that crosses the line. Sound like you can dish it out but can't take it. Stop being a hypocrite.

If you don't like people telling you that you are boohooing, dont' do the same to them. Same with your aneurism comment. If you make smart arse comments, don't be surprised if you get them back.
 
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As mentioned prior on top of these license changes the state is trying to stop mountain lion hunting. Well the governor vetoed the bill this morning. Here is the article with his response.

Gov. Heineman Vetoes Bill to Ban Mountain Lion Hunting

(Lincoln, Neb.) Gov. Dave Heineman today vetoed LB 671, a bill that would outlaw cougar and mountain lion hunting in Nebraska. This bill was introduced by Senator Ernie Chambers of Omaha.

LB 671 would have repealed 2012 legislation that authorized mountain lion hunting in Nebraska by allowing the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission to provide permits for hunting mountain lions. Gov. Heineman signed this bill into law in 2012 after it passed in the Legislature with a vote of 49-0.

Gov. Heineman noted in his veto message to State Senators that, “the majority of you supported the enactment of that law.”

The Governor’s veto letter follows:

Dear Mr. President and Members of the Legislature:

I am returning LB 671 without my signature and with my objections.

LB 671 would repeal authorization for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission to issue permits for hunting mountain lions. In 2012, I signed LB 928 to grant the Commission the authority to permit the hunting of mountain lions. The majority of you supported the enactment of that law.

Nebraskans expect responsible wildlife management. LB 671 eliminates an important tool used to accomplish it. The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission should retain the ability to determine those management actions which are necessary to protect both the health and safety of our citizens and the wildlife in our state. Removing the agency's authority to manage mountain lions through hunting at this time is poor public policy.

I am concerned that LB 671 is potentially unconstitutional as it prohibits wildlife management of mountain lions through hunting. The majority of Nebraskans expressed, through the 2012 adoption of Article XV, Section 25 of the Nebraska Constitution that “hunting, fishing, and harvesting of wildlife shall be a preferred means of managing and controlling wildlife.” This provision of our Constitution is so new there is no clearly established law that tests its reach. However, LB 671 could be challenged as infringing upon Article XV, Section 25 because it precludes hunting which is now established as “preferred means” of wildlife management. Even if LB 671 is not unconstitutional, it fails to respect the will of Nebraska's citizens on this issue.

For these reasons, I respectfully urge you to sustain my veto of this bill.
###

Office of the Governor
State of Nebraska
Ph: 402.471.2244
F: 402.471.6031
www.Governor.Nebraska.gov
 

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