Thanks, jd332001, we're all blessed by your willingness to share your knowledge and wisdom with the rest of us when you're not busy designing rockets.
If you take a quick look at the numbers the DOW pushed out for the 2010 harvest, unlike you, txhunter58 and SorryToGo seem to have a little better concept of what they're talking about. According to the DOW, in 2010 something like 167,388 elk hunters did not get to enjoy that ?Colorado Elk Hunting Experience?, the DOW is busy ?marketing?. I'll venture to guess those 167,388 hunters didn't spend all of their 1,091,343 ?recreational days?, sitting on their butts as you infer. If they had enjoyed their ?Colorado Elk Hunting Experience?, whether they are residents or not, their numbers would not be declining each year - which was the reason for the original post from cjoutfit. SorryToGo was right, it doesn't matter if you're a resident or non-resident, and the numbers over the years bear him out; the ?Colorado Elk Hunting Experience? is declining if your measure is based upon the harvest. But at the same time, all those cost factors that you mentioned, ?(hotels, restaurants, sporting good stores, liquor stores unless they r utah hunters haha)? keep increasing every year right along with the fees the DOW is charging to get that ?Colorado Elk Hunting Experience?. For any of the other rocket scientists like yourself who may read this, maybe the reason the elk hunter numbers are declining, both resident and non-resident, is; while all the costs keep going up, the thing they're trying to accomplish (harvest an elk), isn't happening. Now this is a stretch, and it's probably difficult for the rest of us non-rocket scientists to grasp, but maybe, just maybe it is because elk hunters who are shellin? out all the money for the Colorado Elk Hunting Experience? think the ?Colorado Elk Hunting Experience? should include an elk, Now grab hold of your butt jd332001 - hold on hard, because this concept is waaaay out there, looks like about 78%, roughly 167,388 elk hunters might be thinking along the same lines ? the thing missing from the ?Colorado Elk Hunting Experience? are elk.
Like SorryToGo said; it IS all about the money ? the DOW isn't asking the question about the decline in hunters deciding to opt out of the ?Colorado Elk Hunting Experience? because they're concerned about hunters, they're asking because of their loss in revenues. Maybe the DOW should spend more time on returning the elk to the ?Colorado Elk Hunting Experience? by focusing their efforts and OUR money representing sportsmen via habitat restoration/maintenance and game management, and less time ?marketing?. It's really not that tough of a concept; sportsmen, both resident and especially non-resident, are getting tired of paying more every year for the ?Colorado Elk Hunting Experience? hoping for a return on their money, i.e., an elk, only to head home empty handed.
Most of the replies that people have posted for you, cjoutfit are saying the same thing in different ways; the ?Colorado Elk Hunting Experience? is NOT what it used to be, the balance between cost/investment versus the return is progressively declining each year, it's worse for a non-resident hunter because they have to invest more than a resident. The marketing the DOW is trying to accomplish is missing the most important element needed; they need to do a better job delivering what the customer is paying for, if they don't, the customer is going to STOP paying their hard earned money for something the DOW is NOT delivering ? elk. And just saying jd332001, when you pull your head out of yours, you'll figure it out - it ain?t about getting off of it - sportsmen like SorryToGo are going to continue the trend, they're going to reach the point where they'll spend their money where the return is better than the ?Colorado Elk Hunting Experience? ? if you don't believe it, check the numbers for 2011, they'll be down again also. And maybe when you retire from the rocket design business, you could consult for the DOW, I've heard that same stupid expression of yours from them ?