I have a hard time buying into, montana needs one thousand four hundred dollars per sponsered tag to run thier conservation programs. 300 dollar increase over last year. the price of the tag in 9 years doubled while the guy I hunt with kept the price the same in that 9 year peroid. Its a supply-demand thing. They are charging what they think the market will pay. I am going try for a montana lottery if I get one , good, If not then off to colorado on DIY archery hunt.
Something to consider, Im not familiar with Montana so Im gonna go with Iowas increases.In the last decade like it not theres been a huge increase in the number of people wanting a big set of antlers on thier wall.Trophy huntings taken off like a rocket.Big whitetails dont live everywhere, the areas that have them in number get the most pressure from non resident hunters, land leasing, NR property owners and increased pressure on public grounds result.
As a result you have more people hunting the same amount of accesible ground for what is actually a scarce commodity, truely big whitetail bucks.In response the DNR needs more public ground to keep everyone happy, more personel to maintain these grounds, and more man power to police these growing numbers of hunters and acres of land.
With timber land and unfarmable acres being recognized as hot spots for hunting big whitetails the prices of the land itself have gone up considerably costing the DNR much more money to aquire new ground each year.
So the price went from 150$ to 450 for example, an increase of 300$ overall.What exactly does $300 do for the DNR?Maybe put gas in one truck for a month, buy a 1/5 of an acre of public ground, maybe run a lawnmower for one summer.
Theres an increasing demand on the DNR from hunters for more and more every year, yet we expect them to operate on the same budget they have for the last 20 years.And many of the areas that have increased these prices have been playing catch up for that very reason, they havent raised prices in years, suddenly they do it in one lump sum or several large increments and everyone acts like theyre being robbed.
With all this going on they have to seriously take into account the fact that theres not an endless number of these trophy deer, elk, moose, bear or whatever the target species may be and regulate the number of hunters based on those populations.Going overboard and wiping out the trophy size animals will in short order stop non residents from coming to the state and once again hurt them financially.
Its a balancing act between being able to function and keeping everyone happy, the reality is they cant keep everyone happy but they can keep functioning with the proper revenue.