U.S. Attorney’s Office indicts United States Outfitters

George Taulman, owner of United States Outfitters of Taos, New Mexico, was indicted in Phoenix in October on federal charges of using or conspiring to use aircraft to hunt elk. His company and one of his employees were also named in the indictment, following an investigation that began in 1998. The probe has already led to convictions of a dozen people, including big game guides based in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

The felony charges claim that Taulman violated provisions of the Lacey Act, spotting elk herds from the air and telling his clients on the ground where to find them. If convicted, Taulman could lose his guide and outfitter’s license with the state of New Mexico.

Forgive me, but I borrowed this from bowsite. I think it is very well put.

To who it concerns: National forest service lands are managed by the forest service for the needs of the forest ecosystem. This does not mean that they are managed for the elk or deer specifically. Some drinkers are installed by the FS but not many in comparison to private groups.

Our ranchers saw the trouble with range wars in Texas and set up our state so the private land issues wouldn’t exist. They decided that the ranchers and farmers could lease federal lands (and state lands) very reasonably if the lessee would improve the lands by building water shed tanks for the animals thus creating habitat that is suitable to sustain wildlife in areas that were not able to carry many deer or elk or cattle/sheep. Many of these ranchers have lost there land through the years to the government and were turned into national forest land. Some are taken without giving the family heirs the right to keep the land. Ask residents in the area of Blue, Arizona. Most of the water catchments have been put in by ranchers for all to use. This extremely reasonable lease rate is why ranchers are not given land owner tags they are reimbursed in other ways.

During a depression Arizona wildlife fed the city of Chicago with elk, deer, and antelope. These animals were hunted by paid hunters for the government and shipped by train to the city of Chicago. Unfortunately the elk and antelope populations were hunted to extinction in this attempt to save lives of people in another state. The miner’s of Arizona hunted the big horn sheep to extinction.

I’m proud to say that our ranchers many of whom are also the fathers of our state pooled resources and purchased elk from the Yellowstone area and used the railroad and cattle trucks to reintroduce them to Arizona (as was the antelope and big horn sheep). These generous Arizonans never charged a dime to hunt their land they just asked our families to leave it better than we found it.

So the elk that were introduced by Arizonans with Arizonans money, time, and effort have been shared with the public without greed or malice to anyone resident or non resident. Our state’s rocky mountain elk society raised more money than any other state in the US I have been told by their president in AZ. I have also been told that the majority of that money goes out of Arizona to help introduce elk in the east coast.

These animals do not migrate great distances so they are not regulated by the federal government like geese and ducks are and thus need to buy a federal duck stamp to hunt them. This is why the state regulates the deer, elk, etc.

The Arizona game and fish’s director is not a political appointee and is not under political pressures of the governor due to this. Therefore wildlife management is done by using Wildlife officers’ reports on the number of males to females and yearlings counted in their unit each year. They from these numbers and the number of animals harvested issue tags to each of the hunting groups; archers, muzzleloaders, and rifles. They are careful not to overlap hunts to make the hunts more enjoyable when possible. With this system the game and fish has managed the state’s herds to unquestionably the best herds in the west with the fewest acres to put them on. Arizona is still mostly a desert.

Our game and fish put residents and non residents together and gave NR the same exact odds as residents had up to 10%. We were all on an even playing field if you bought the bonus point. That is not the case now, NR have many times better odds than a resident does and this is true in all units yes, including the trophy units.

Out sportsmen are very active with their money and their time hundreds of thousands of dollars are received by the ABA, Mule Deer Assc., Antelope Society, RMEF, and Bighorn Sheep Society to mention only a few. These organizations spend thousands of dollars each year supporting the game and fish projects and future employees by scholarships.

As for federal dollars coming in for the game and fish they come from the Pittman/Robert act which was enacted by hunters to tax themselves thru purchases of guns ammo etc. manage wildlife. Later the Dingle/Johnson act was passed to tax fishing products to promote and foster fishing in each state. These monies are divided up by the amout of supplies sold in each state and are used by the game and fish. I don’t see NR money in large quantities supporting the Arizona game and fish. Oh, the out of state fees at 10% of the tags is not even 1% of the budget.

I fought as did leaders of the Arizona game and fish to keep out of state fees down so everyone could put in. So anyone could realize the once in a lifetime dream of hunting here. But other western state keep raising their rates making ours the cheapest by far.

We have the smallest herds of animals for the size of our state than any other state in the country except Nevada. But we chose to share them with all NR and residents alike giving you the same odds as a resident. But one man’s greed has now given one group better odds than another. He has been divisive to the hunting community and has damaged our future as hunters in all states. Hunting was the sport of kings and nobles in Europe and it may now become the sport of the rich and editors of certain publications.

This may be the stepping stone to the end of the average hunter in all states. I claim no crystal ball but wonder what other loop holes can be found and put in play by activist judges.

Because of the extra tags issued in some hunt units lets hope the guides don’t help destroy the large bull population for a few dollars.

One last thing Arizonans, we do live in the best state and we still need to support our game and fish more now than ever before. Continue to give to the organizations that support the game and fish. Don’t allow others to make you believe the G&F is not keeping our wildlife’s best interest at the front of the agenda. And when they make mistakes inform them and they will work to resolve it. They have always given a 200% effort to work with organizations and to give us the greatest hunting opportunities, not in volume but in quality, in the western US.