Cam@strawberry
Very Active Member
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Participating in the committee meetings for the upcoming utah elk plan has placed previously held opinions in stark reality.
Currently, 90,000~ applicants are vying for 2200 LE elk tags. If we stopped taking applications this year it would take 43~years to clear. Monroe mountain would take 100~ to clear. There are easier hunts to draw sure, but the broad math paints the picture.
A popular solution is to lower age classes to increase opportunities, roughly speaking, for every age class we drop we can increase permits by about 50%. If take every unit in the state to 5.5-6.5 we’d get almost 3000 permits total and take 13 years off the average draw time. So now just 30 years not counting point creep. 4.5-5.5? 5500 permits and 20~ years if I’ve mathed myself correctly, sorry but that’s not a solution IMO.
Applications in the last 5 years have gone from 300,000~ across all species to 590,000~ last year. That trend looks to continue.
OTC elk permits (spike and anybull) used to be an acceptable option for getting out on the mtn. Last year they sold out in 4 and 6 hrs respectively. They only lasted that long because of administrative limitations.
Demand is far outweighing the way we manage available supply.
So speaking clearly, my kids 7, 4, and about here, will never be guaranteed to hunt branch antlered elk in this state. Your kids, and likely you will only draw one tag if any. The same problems face deer hunting.
If you’ve ever said ‘I’m willing to wait I don’t need to kill another animal’ in some form or fashion, basically saying in your hunting journey you’ve reached a point where you identify as a ‘trophy’ or age class hunter, ask yourself if that mentality or hunting with your kids or grandkids is more important? I’m fairly certain it’ll be the latter for most people.
Make no mistake, this means we have to make choices that will affect ‘your unit’. They will change the places you hunt. In all likelihood your points will be devalued. The cost to fighting that is the future of hunting for our youth, and ourselves. No grey area here. I’m firmly entrenched in opportunity, I want tags in my pocket as frequently as possible. If you feel the same, be proactive and reach out to let people know you aren’t happy with the math presented above.
Currently, 90,000~ applicants are vying for 2200 LE elk tags. If we stopped taking applications this year it would take 43~years to clear. Monroe mountain would take 100~ to clear. There are easier hunts to draw sure, but the broad math paints the picture.
A popular solution is to lower age classes to increase opportunities, roughly speaking, for every age class we drop we can increase permits by about 50%. If take every unit in the state to 5.5-6.5 we’d get almost 3000 permits total and take 13 years off the average draw time. So now just 30 years not counting point creep. 4.5-5.5? 5500 permits and 20~ years if I’ve mathed myself correctly, sorry but that’s not a solution IMO.
Applications in the last 5 years have gone from 300,000~ across all species to 590,000~ last year. That trend looks to continue.
OTC elk permits (spike and anybull) used to be an acceptable option for getting out on the mtn. Last year they sold out in 4 and 6 hrs respectively. They only lasted that long because of administrative limitations.
Demand is far outweighing the way we manage available supply.
So speaking clearly, my kids 7, 4, and about here, will never be guaranteed to hunt branch antlered elk in this state. Your kids, and likely you will only draw one tag if any. The same problems face deer hunting.
If you’ve ever said ‘I’m willing to wait I don’t need to kill another animal’ in some form or fashion, basically saying in your hunting journey you’ve reached a point where you identify as a ‘trophy’ or age class hunter, ask yourself if that mentality or hunting with your kids or grandkids is more important? I’m fairly certain it’ll be the latter for most people.
Make no mistake, this means we have to make choices that will affect ‘your unit’. They will change the places you hunt. In all likelihood your points will be devalued. The cost to fighting that is the future of hunting for our youth, and ourselves. No grey area here. I’m firmly entrenched in opportunity, I want tags in my pocket as frequently as possible. If you feel the same, be proactive and reach out to let people know you aren’t happy with the math presented above.
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