Congress Attacks Hunter's Rights
Dear Fellow Hunter:
Your right to hunt and fish on federal public lands, lands you and I and every other American own, is about to be taken away from us via legislation by our very own Congress.
A Bill introduced in Congress by Nevada Senator Harry Reid (S # 339) and another by Colorado Representative Mark Udall (H.R. #731) will allow the Rocky Mountain States to exclude you from hunting and fishing on National Forests, BLM and other public lands soley because you are a nonresident. In fact, every State could keep you out if this law pases.
This bill will allow states to discriminate against you, to treat you like a second-class citizen, and to deny your right to apply and hunt for elk, mule deer, antelope, sheep and every other specie on public land. States could and would impose strictor nonresident limits than on residents on public fishing areas.
Senator Reid calls it "A bill to reaffirm the authority of States to regulate certain hunting and fishing activities." Its' real purpose is to circumvent recent court decisions that favored nonresidents and allow states to again discriminate against nonresidents in allocating licenses, limits, and setting license fees. In other words, States could restrict nonresidents, like you, from receiving any licenses to hunt or fish on public lands, or allow States to charge you thousands of dollars for the same hunting licenses that residents would pay only a few dollars for.
This isn't make believe. Even though the US Supreme Court has ruled in
Hughes vs Oklahoma, that the wildlife belongs to all Americans equally, nonresidents are still subjected to severe discrimination today. Let me give you just a few examples:
Colorado no longer allows nonresidents to apply for the Ranching for Wildlife Areas. Once nonresidents were removed from these high quality elk and deer areas, the State passed a quota on nonresidents to keep them from drawing too many of the few remaining high quality tags left to apply for in the State.
New Mexico's highly prized Valle Calderas National Preserve was bought for $101 million in Federal money just a few short years ago. Now the NM Game and Fish Department has put a strict quota on nonresidents. Last year non residents donated over 65% of the application money for these elk tags, but only received 19% of the tags. New Mexico's sheep license is $3000 for a nonresident and $100 for a resident.
Utah, just in the past few weeks, passed a regulation starting in 2006 that will give 25% of the existing nonresident tags and a paltry 5% of resident tags to a yearly convention in Salt Lake City. The rules allow you to have chance of getting one of these tags only if you travel to Utah in person and apply. They know you won't. In other words, they will transfer these nonresident tags into resident hands. In more discrimination, Utah does not allow any nonresidents to apply for the draw to obtain the high quality Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit tags, only residents.
The Montana process keeps you from drawing the quality tags; they only allow nonresidents "up to 10%" of the sheep, moose and mountain goat tags. When applying for the quality limited elk areas, you have to first apply for the low quality combination tag which is guaranteed to be drawn every two years. Residents get to apply yearly as their combination tags are over the counter. Once you have drawn the combo tag at a cost of $660, then you reapply for the quality limited areas. At one time, if you did not draw the quality tag, you simply sent the poor quality combination tag back to them for a refund. Montana did not want the nonresidents to return these licenses so they passed a regulation that you can only get a 50% refund for the poor quality combination tag. So it costs you $330 for a 1 in 20 chance of drawing a quality tag or you are stuck with the combination tag. Not a tough decision for nonresidents to not apply, so the residents win... again.
In Wyoming, nonresidents apply nearly blind at the quality limited entry tags. Wyoming give up to 20% of the elk tags to nonresidnets, but deducts 2 nonresident tags for each nonresident landowner who qualifies and owns as little as 2000 acres in that unit. But when they calculate the draw odds, they act as if each tag was in the drawing. Trying to get this information on the real numbers is time consuming, usually inaccurate, and often exasperating. For added discrimination, Wyoming uses an outdated true preference point program and quota system for their sheep and moose that gives you virtually no hope of drawing unless you started years ago. Wyoming also forces you to hire or use a resident to hunt wilderness areas.
Arizona and Nevada were highly discriminatory toward nonresidents until the recent
Montoya vs. Manning decision by the Ninth Circuit United States Court of Appeals which forces these states to treat all hunters equally. Arizona is no looking for ways to dodge the law and actually advertised for ideas on how to discriminate against nonresidents. They may try to take elk licenses up to an outrageous $3200 each. Nevada already charges $1200 for an elk tag to nonresidents. Nevada is also attempting to defy the court system by only opening up certain units to nonresidents and excluding nonresidents altogether from millions of acres of federal lands.
On top of all this discrimination, nonresidents already pay the majority of the budgets for the Rocky Mountain States' game and fish departments, even though we get only a fraction of the licenses. In addition, Arizona, Nevada, Montana, and Idaho collect millions of dollars from nonresidents each year for general hunting licenses. They basically extort money from the nonresident because the nonresident is forced to purchase a general hunting license in order to either apply and/or obtain a bonus point. This general hunting license rarely gets used so it is free money to the State. Little does the nonresident know that the quota is the main deterrent to his drawing a tag. It is about to get worse if S.339 and HR.731 becomes law. This Bills expressly permit unlimited discrimination on price allocation on all lands and waters.
If these bills pass, it won't be a matter if you have family in one of these western states or own property in the state. It does not matter if you hire a guide or not, does not matter if you are a bow, muzzleloader, or rifle hunter, and does not matter if you have served your country in the armed services. As long as you are residing in another State you will feel the sting of discrimination.
Ranchers and farmer won't be able to sell hunting opportunities to nonresidents. So much for private property rights!
This is bad. Very bad. This is un-American and the greatest threat to the hunting tradition to come along in a very long time.
We must act now, together, to protect our right to hunt, fish and travel in our own country. As American citizens and the bill payers, we have the right not to be discriminated against because of the State we live in. We live in the
Untied States of America, remember! This isn't about States rights. This isn't about conservation! This is about selfish and politically influential local hunter wanting to keep everyone else out of our federal public lands in their State, nothing more.
Due to many years of litigation and personal sacrifice, courts are now supporting the nonresident. Now only the politicians, like reid and Udall, can pass legislation to continue the discrimination against us. If residents of the states outside the Rocky Mountains don't speak up against this legislation, you stand to lose your right and your children's right to ever hunt in a quality unit in the Rocky Mountains.
You and your friends must call and mail your States' US Congressional Representatives and US Senators. Tell them to oppose S.339 and HR.731. This is the most important task you must do. Attached is a sample letter. Lift out the paragraphs that you like and send it to your own Representative.
Contact your local and national hunting organizations and tell them the importance of defeating this legislation. Don't let them use any excuse, even if their headquarters is in one of the Rocky Mountain States trying to take your rights away, they are supposed to be representing you, not trying to obtain tags and hunting opportunities for themselves.
Non-taxable donations can be sent to the
Conservation Force and label them "
Nonresident Legal Fund". For more information, call or e-mail:
Conservation Force
3900 N. Causeway Blvd. Suite 1045
Metairie, LA 70002-1746
504-837-1233
504-837-1145 FAX
[email protected]