I couldn't sit on my hands on this one. I just emailed the entire board:
"Dear Board Members-
I recently downloaded the new 07 big game proclamation and was appalled to see the following:
2. Bull Elk (5-year waiting period)
R657-5-31
(1) A person who??..
?(4) Management bull elk permit holders who successfully harvest a management bull elk as defined in Section XVIII.G (1)(a), and have their animal inspected by the Division will have their waiting period for limited bull elk removed.?
In all due respect, this is pathetic and represents your failure to listen to the public at the highest level. For years you have listened to the outcry of ?more opportunity? and ?better odds?, yet those who still want you to ?keep our trophies?. Some sportsman don't care if it takes them 20 years to draw an Elk tag to chase that elusive 400 bull, others just want to hunt quality Elk and all of us want better odds. These management tags were the perfect opportunity for you to begin to please everyone. You could have simply added these tags into the current system and kept it simple. It would have provided opportunity to those seeking to just hunt some of these wonderful 5xX?s. What makes my stomach churn is the fact that you choose not to listen to the public. I don't think a single RAC recommended this? In fact, those who attended the Wildlife Board meetings where very confused as to what you did pass. Do you even know or were you like the rest of us who had to wait for the proclamation to come out to find out?
By ignoring the public and creating this horrible loophole, you have now provided opportunity all right. You now have given people with a lot of points the chance of killing large elk, over and over again. Let's say John Doe draws one of these tags with max points. He chases his trophy bull on the Pahvant, doesn't find him, so he shoots a 5x6 on the last day. John takes it in, gets it checked, gets his points back, etc. Jim?s in the pool again next year with a nice bull on the wall. I personally have extensive knowledge of a couple of these units and I know some dandy 5xX?s exist every year. Jim turns around and does it again, year after year. Yeah, he won't draw every year, but he has that chance. Finally, John finds his monster bull, shoots him, doesn't turn him in. It's OK, he will go on the waiting period now, he's got his trophy. You just lowered opportunity for others and created a loophole that will potentially allow sportsman to hunt these units year after year. You are keeping more people in the bonus pool and letting them kill more elk. I won't even begin down the path of how unfair this is to those already on waiting periods.
I would strongly encourage you to look at this. I would encourage to remove #4 above in the future and create a true opportunity tag. A tag that will allow you to complete your management objective, but also remove people from the bonus pool at the same time. It's simple, effective and will begin to please a lot of sportsman.
Finally, I do praise you for setting aside many of these tags for our Youth/Seniors. Good job. This is a great first step for providing more youth opportunity in our state.
Thanks for your time and have a great holiday season-
Kirt Connelly
North Ogden"
ODDNUT1
Kirt C.
Hunt Odds.com
