No big secret, I'm not a fan.
Sad thing is, I was a fan. The year $fw started, there was a lot of push on construction sites for them. Seems us construction trash do a lot of hunting and it was a logical place to hit up guys to join. I never have been a "joiner", so I did not. However I did donate some money. That continued for a while. Then, Prop 5. Which I think is still perhaps the biggest thing done in hunting in this state, perhaps ever. To their credit, and for a younger org $fw was all over this. They helped organize, they advertised, they lobbied. And, I will always give them credit for it.
But I started noticing, much like the NRA does, there seemed to be more and more "emergency, send us some money to save the deer" newsletters, advertisement, etc. The expo, in in infancy, was pretty cool, and to be honest I never thought much about the tag situation.
Then, as I was reading a lot, I started to notice, THE DON, was "around" a lot. Seemed like his name was popping up all over in State politics. Karl Malone started making it known that he pay massive ammount to kill one of those bucks out on AI. There seemed to be a shift, away from the hunters in the state, towards a select group of hunters in the state. I attented the expo, and it had gone from a Utah thing, to an all out trade show. It had become nothing more than a collection of guides, trying to out gladhand each other for the high rollers. Again, not a bad thing necessarily, but FAR from the "utah sportsman getting a voice in the DWR" $fw had set out to do. The circle of fanboys surrounding Doyle, was perhaps one of the saddest things I have ever witnessed. It was, and is, a BIG SCHLONG CONTEST. I did enjoy the usual suspects, with there women in the skin tight jeans with the girls hanging out, but, it was amazing to see. I quit going to the expo.
That brings us to today. I havent been to the expo since the year before Spidey was released out of the game farm(cool your jets, even I don't believe that BS). I simply refuse to hand over my money to groups that work against me. I don't deny the average $fw does good work. I don't deny they are in it for the right reasons. BUT, they also shouldn't deny that in order to do so, they hold their nose, and cover their ears to what $fw is doing. They are not for public access, they have proven that over and over. They are not for expanding BIG GAME HUNTING. They were the driving force in the huge tag decreases. Notice when that subject come up its always "you can buy a spike tag OTC. Its never, we need more open bull units at the expense of LE. They are not for, and in fact lobby against the average, Utah hunter having a voice in the DWR. You need only look at who sits on the WB to see that. They are, a conduit between big money interests, guides, and the state. AI proved that. They have changed completely from a grass roots, voice, for Utah hunters. No ammount of PR, or BS changes the facts. SO, IMO, since they no longer represent the whole, they should no longer be able to profit from the wholes money, AKA tags. Im afraid, however, that ship sailed. The cancer is so deeply entrenched, its hard to seperate DWR and $fw. They seem to be becoming one, which was exactly 180 degrees different from what $fw started out as.
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun"