The conservation bonus point proposal will have to be studied further and include an implementation mechanism to make certain it will accomodate any and all particpants, resident and nonresident alike, that wish to make themselves available to the program. Lots of questions came up about the CBP as to implementation, staffing, etc. that will have to be figured out before it can be enacted. MPO is that it's not dead as a concept, just not developed enough to adopt.
Arizona can use all the help it can get on habitat/conservation related projects. The proverbial "10% of the people do 90% of the work" may well be fact here, and in most other states as well. Offering an incentive for something of value in return is what makes the world go around my friends. I've spent countless hours involved in volunteer work (certainly not intending to imply all in wildlife/conservation work!)and haven't received anything other than personal satisfaction and pride in accomplishment and the benefits of knowing what I did could only help or enhance the program I chose to involve myself with. Unfortunately, volunteer groups are usually understaffed and overworked. This is true in most cases from youth athletics to booster clubs to church groups to conservation groups. All can use more help and those who have "heard the call" usually provide a disproportionate amoount of the time, energy, and money in furthering the groups' causes.
Enter something like the CBP program. If you can get a newbie out to a project and provide a hands on opportunity to contribute something worthwhile, well then you just might ignite a spark in that individual that will build into a flame that lasts a lifetime. If giving that person a bonus point in the draw is the price to be paid, I'd say it's a bargain for all involved.
Honestly, you would have to admit in your heart of hearts that you personally felt that AZ was shafting you with a 10% nonresident cap and you wanted more "fairness" which would provide for you an increased opportunity to receive a permit in the mail to hunt our state's very limited trophy resources. I'm not going to dance on this issue because you don't want to hunt "an elk" in AZ, you want to hunt a big, mature, dark antlered behemoth of a wapiti, like the ones all those other guys are getting a crack at while you are being denied because of our "punitive cap".
The majority of AZ resident hunters are placing their dream hunt choice in the first position on their apps and then following it up with a more reasonable hunt selection in position 2 with positions 3-5 either left unfilled by those who only want to hunt a bull or with antlerless selections for those who just want to "hunt an elk". Most nonresidents are not following this application methodology. They apply for their two dream bull elk hunts for the first phase of the draw and then keep writing in bull hunts for the second phase 3-5 picks, even though there is no statistical chance to draw a bull elk tag in those positions. If the NR would spread their hopes around, as a group, they would draw more permits.
As for your feelings of betrayal...well, the fact is that it was nonresidents that responded to the appeals of George Taulman in his highly inflamatory letter that he mailed to nonresident Arizona applicants that gave birth to the lawsuit that sought to assault AZ resident hunting opportunity. If was the money contributed by nonresidents who bought into the rhetoric of Mr. Taulman that we were ripping you off and that you were being treated unfairly that launched the attack on Arizona resident hunters. At no time that I'm aware of did AZ admit we were being "unfair" in our application of the draw nor do I recall AZ resident hunters calling for the state to issue more tags to NR applicants, nor do I recall AZ residents asking for help from NR in exchange for support of issuing more NR hunt permits.
The bottomline is that NR want more permits in AZ. If they had to sue to get them they were fine with it and proved it by opening up their checkbooks to fund Mr. Taulman's cause.
Understand that all the other western states that have hunts for antlered/honored big game animals restrict my opportunity to hunt in their state. Utah has a 10% setaside, as opposed to a cap, but at the expense of preventing me from applying for multiple species thereby virtually precluding me from ever amassing enough bonus points to draw an elk tag if I'm trying to draw a limited entry deer or antelope permit. Once I do draw that deer or elk tag in Utah, which can and does take many years, there is virtually no chance to draw an elk tag do to lack of bonus points and minuscule NR tag numbers. However, that is the way the game is played in Utah and if you wnat to hunt there that's the rules and you live with them and plug away building your bonus points. By the way, have you taken a look at what a premium limited entry deer tag casts in Utah? Trust me, AZ permits are a "blue-light special" by comparison.
I've applied in Nevada since 1991 and have drawn 3 deer permits in those 14 years and 2 of those permits were in very marginal deer units. I applied there in positions deep on my application just to have a ticket to the October show. Are Nevada's tag allotments to NR applicants "fair"? If you discount permits issued to NR through the guided hunter portion of the draw, I doubt they are any better than a NR opportunity in Arizona.
New Mexico caps their elk tags to NR at 10% for the DIY hunter. They also charge a much higher tag fee than AZ does, if that is "fair", and if it is, why is 10% ok in NM but a similar number in AZ makes us "greedy"? Examples like this can be found from state to state all over the hunting country.
The beauty of Arizona's system is that it isn't a respector of persons in the draw. Rich or poor, internationally know hunter to one of the kids I just graduated out of my Hunter ED class, they all have the same chance to get a low random number in the lottery. If you get lucky and pull a magic number you're going to hunt as a nonresident so long as the unit you chose to apply for hasn't already given out 10% of it's available tags to fellow lucky low number nonresidents. Remember the advice to spread your hunt units around a bit. AZ has wonderful bull elk hunting in virtually every unit. Oh sure, maybe not 375 B&C bulls behind every tree, but good bull elk hunting nontheless.
I'm sorry to hear you are done with this site. With the low number of posts you've made it looks like you've chosen to keep your opinions and comments to yourself in your time here. If you're new and wanted to express your disapproval of AZ resident hunters, you now have and you can move on. If you'd like to stick around and continue to practice the lost art of genial debate, speaking for myself, I invite you to pull up a chair and lets agree to disagree without being disagreeable.
Whatever you decide, I wish you well.