javihammer
Active Member
- Messages
- 135
Hey I have an idea. Why doesn't Utah have a private group hold an online auction for 80% of the Utah tags. The leadership of the private group could use some of the CONSERVATION proceeds to fly around Utah and check the habitat conditions from the air (small regional jet, one or two flight attendants max - light refreshments, beer and wine only). They could take some aerial photos and do some small electronic money transfers from their I-phones for habitat work. The private organization could also have a couple tour buses with antler decals stuck to the sides and a web address where people could apply for "membership" to quarterly tag auctions. Membership eligibility could be based on zip code, political party, religious affiliation and two years of tax returns. The tour bus could also have a 120" flat screen on the side that plays flashy hunt videos and loud heavy metal music. Maybe the bus could stop at different locations throughout Utah and have a reception to celebrate the winning "VIP" auction bidders. They could even hire some lobbyists to ride on the bus, the lobbyists could buy lunch for the politicians in each town and pretend to fight for hunters rights and predator control (while silently meeting with realtors about future land purchases). The private organization could even use some of the proceeds to buy some private land and lock it off to the Average Joe hunters that would otherwise trash it (kind of like a savings account, CONSERVATION tags may be legislated away but LAND is forever if you deed it to the CONSERVATION organization properly). The private group could even use some funds to pay for extermination of any of those pesky non-game critters eating the browse that the antlered animals need. With no competition for food, imagine the vast expanses of 200" mule deer, almost like a feedlot full of cattle. Those big mulies would all look great on the wall and would be a great testament to CONSERVATION.
The private auction group could also hire guides/photographers to take pictures of individual live deer in the field and post the photos on an online auction website (and give them cool names like HULK OR GODZILLA). Auction bidders could bid on and "reserve" their specific animal based on score categories linked to their membership status (no bronze members bidding for 200" deer, platinum members only). The photographers could shoot each deer with a gps receiver "dart" and winning bidders would know the exact location of their deer at all times instead of wasting all their "valuable" time trying to find them with binoculars. Maybe the current GPS location of each deer could be listed on the auction site so that bidders could bid a little lower on the animals that require a long hike from main roads. The gps location would also display the "access" fee on the auction website so that the bidder would know how much the fee would be if the deer is currently located on private land. If the animal was determined to be on private land, the access could be arranged by the auctioning organization (also for a fee...more CONSERVATION money). Once a deer has been reserved, LED strobe lights on the GPS dart would activate every 30 seconds to let other hunters know the animal is reserved and is not to be shot. The gps receiver could also contain a heartbeat monitor that could automatically send a "success" update to the auction website once the animal died...that way way the whole world would know who the victorious hunter was or if it was poached prior to the owner shooting it himself. Once the animal has been killed, photographs of the animal could be posted on the DWR website with all of the details about the equipment used printed on the photos, kind of like sponsorship stickers on a racecar. The auctioning organization could work out the sponsorship arrangements producing even more CONSERVATION money.
Instead of a guide, maybe the auction site would offer a "caddie" service that would provide a person to haul the rifle, the TRI-PAWD, 12x60s, backpack and the meat out. Of course a videographer would also be available "for a fee" to document the 500 yard cross-canyon kill. Caddies would not be guides, that way the SHOOTER could call it a DIY hunt (DIY SHOOTERS could monitor the location of their animal on the mapping software on their satellite Smartphone so no guide is necessary). The caddie service would be run by the private auctioning organization in order to generate even more CONSERVATION money. Imagine all the CONSERVATION money and TROPHY heads that could be produced with such an arrangement. Maybe the website could automatically sum up the total score from each of the animals antlers and rank the hunters by TOTAL SCORE so that the world would know who the BEST hunter is...maybe update his MySpace page with his new STATUS. Imagine how many TROPHY POINTS he could earn if he didn't have to waste all that time looking for an animal and how many more animals he could kill if increasing the supply of auction tags pushed tag prices down far enough. He might be able to shoot 3-4 MONSTER DEER in a weekend since auction tags have no yearly bag limit. Maybe the private organization could also offer punch cards, buy ten tags, get one free (equal or lesser score of course). Maybe the organization could have an EXPO where additional tags could be raffled to friends, corporate sponsors or people local to where the EXPO is held. Raffle tickets could be handed out like party favors and imagine how many more BOOTHS could be sold to VENDORS during the EXPO if they were given a few raffle tickets in exchange for their participation at the EXPO. The organization could hand out 50 raffle tickets to each vendor ($250 value) and still make $750 per booth at the expo. Better yet, have a third party group "manage" the expo and take a percentage of the proceeds from each booth for "consulting". So many options to generate CONSERVATION money and so many ways for the heroic CONSERVATION leadership to collect without all that pesky transparency stuff. You might even be able to convince the local government that they had some big ECONOMIC IMPACTS (LOL) off of such an EXPO and maybe even trick an Average Joe into buying a couple raffle tickets (a couple regular guy raffle winners are good for the marketing materials anyway).
The other 20% of the tags could be reserved for limited opportunity hunts (AJ - average joe hunts) in a few remaining public areas (probably the lower deserts) and would be available through a raffle run by the same private organization. The hunt areas for these tags would be heavily policed since the low quality and overcrowding would make the neanderthal Average Joes cranky as these areas would be restricted to foot access only. No caddie or GPS tracking services available for these AJ hunts either, those services are restricted to at least silver members and Average Joes can barely qualify for bronze membership (some AJ hunters have been known to make less than six-figures). Tags for these hunts would be somewhat plentiful and lower class "culls" from some of the "trophy" areas could be transplanted in on occasion so that the unwashed masses had an INCENTIVE deer or two to chase without actually entering the trophy MANAGED areas. Each of the AJ tags would come with a coupon for 5 dollars off the next EXPO, that way Average Joes could view the taxidermy mounts of trophies killed on premium GOLD or PLATINUM AUCTION member hunts and congratulate the successful BIDDERS at the EXPO. In the off chance that demand for these hunts exceeds supply, the private org can just pull 25% of the tags out of the existing AJ raffle pool and set them up under a new raffle. Average Joes are too unsophisticated to notice their tag pool stayed the same and that they now need to spend more in tickets in order to access the same number of tags. But who cares about average joes or limited opportunity hunts anyway, the auction tags are where the big CONSERVATION money is at.
What a world huh? Imagine the possibilities if money and trophy quality dictated how things are done. Utah would be so great they wouldn't even need to keep track of the CONSERVATION money or measure HABITAT improvements. They could just leave everything in the hands of some private group and watch the same rich dudes SHOOT TROPHIES every year on the outdoor channel. The Utah DWR would be flush with CONSERVATION money but light on hunting license revenue and future hunters. Who cares though, kids aren't buying auction tags anyway right? Besides, lobbyists are expensive and there are plenty more states in the US that need to be deprogrammed from that silly North American Wildlife Management philosophy.
Utah has the policies in place and the technology is currently available to implement much of the horrible stuff above. Utah hunters need to push back against the small group of people and orgs that make their living off the tags that belong to you. Any groups that currently profit from these tags should adhere to the highest standards of transparency, not the MINIMUM standards. Why does Utah need more CONSERVATION money in the first place? I guess more money is always better right (however Arizona seems to do just fine without much of it)? Who would have thought 20 years ago that Utah would have hundreds of wealth tags available right now (and that the director of the Utah DWR would publicly defend and praise the process publicly while mentioning that he and his son killed two sheep and a thirty inch mulie because of it)? Who would have thought 20 years ago that there would be half a dozen game cameras on a single waterhole in some parts of the state (some using cellular technology)? Who would have thought 20 years ago a video camera in a Las Vegas casino could use image technology to compare facial features and notify the casino of a cheat (could this technology work to notify a rich hunter of a 200" inch deer on a game camera?) Who would have thought a piece of elephant tusk could tell a wildlife officer in Africa the exact herd the elephant came from based on genetic information (could genetic mapping work for trophy deer?....could this information be used to identify pockets of land with trophy potential?....CONSERVATION GROUPS could buy up the GOOD land and call it CWMU land and give 80% of the tags to rich guys. Utah hunters are in trouble, greed and overarching technology could kill hunting in the state you love, especially when people start minimizing the importance of the North American model. This isn't fear mongering, a whole lot can happen in 20 years or less. It wouldn't surprise me if some states (like my home state of AZ) start restricting non-residents from screwed up states from entering their public drawings unless they provide comparable non-resident opportunities in their home states. Utah hunters need to take the first step toward cleaning things up by signing the UWC petition, the Utah situation CAN get worse if you don't take steps to make it better. Technology is fine, technology combined with bad policy can be a scary thing.
Ryan
The private auction group could also hire guides/photographers to take pictures of individual live deer in the field and post the photos on an online auction website (and give them cool names like HULK OR GODZILLA). Auction bidders could bid on and "reserve" their specific animal based on score categories linked to their membership status (no bronze members bidding for 200" deer, platinum members only). The photographers could shoot each deer with a gps receiver "dart" and winning bidders would know the exact location of their deer at all times instead of wasting all their "valuable" time trying to find them with binoculars. Maybe the current GPS location of each deer could be listed on the auction site so that bidders could bid a little lower on the animals that require a long hike from main roads. The gps location would also display the "access" fee on the auction website so that the bidder would know how much the fee would be if the deer is currently located on private land. If the animal was determined to be on private land, the access could be arranged by the auctioning organization (also for a fee...more CONSERVATION money). Once a deer has been reserved, LED strobe lights on the GPS dart would activate every 30 seconds to let other hunters know the animal is reserved and is not to be shot. The gps receiver could also contain a heartbeat monitor that could automatically send a "success" update to the auction website once the animal died...that way way the whole world would know who the victorious hunter was or if it was poached prior to the owner shooting it himself. Once the animal has been killed, photographs of the animal could be posted on the DWR website with all of the details about the equipment used printed on the photos, kind of like sponsorship stickers on a racecar. The auctioning organization could work out the sponsorship arrangements producing even more CONSERVATION money.
Instead of a guide, maybe the auction site would offer a "caddie" service that would provide a person to haul the rifle, the TRI-PAWD, 12x60s, backpack and the meat out. Of course a videographer would also be available "for a fee" to document the 500 yard cross-canyon kill. Caddies would not be guides, that way the SHOOTER could call it a DIY hunt (DIY SHOOTERS could monitor the location of their animal on the mapping software on their satellite Smartphone so no guide is necessary). The caddie service would be run by the private auctioning organization in order to generate even more CONSERVATION money. Imagine all the CONSERVATION money and TROPHY heads that could be produced with such an arrangement. Maybe the website could automatically sum up the total score from each of the animals antlers and rank the hunters by TOTAL SCORE so that the world would know who the BEST hunter is...maybe update his MySpace page with his new STATUS. Imagine how many TROPHY POINTS he could earn if he didn't have to waste all that time looking for an animal and how many more animals he could kill if increasing the supply of auction tags pushed tag prices down far enough. He might be able to shoot 3-4 MONSTER DEER in a weekend since auction tags have no yearly bag limit. Maybe the private organization could also offer punch cards, buy ten tags, get one free (equal or lesser score of course). Maybe the organization could have an EXPO where additional tags could be raffled to friends, corporate sponsors or people local to where the EXPO is held. Raffle tickets could be handed out like party favors and imagine how many more BOOTHS could be sold to VENDORS during the EXPO if they were given a few raffle tickets in exchange for their participation at the EXPO. The organization could hand out 50 raffle tickets to each vendor ($250 value) and still make $750 per booth at the expo. Better yet, have a third party group "manage" the expo and take a percentage of the proceeds from each booth for "consulting". So many options to generate CONSERVATION money and so many ways for the heroic CONSERVATION leadership to collect without all that pesky transparency stuff. You might even be able to convince the local government that they had some big ECONOMIC IMPACTS (LOL) off of such an EXPO and maybe even trick an Average Joe into buying a couple raffle tickets (a couple regular guy raffle winners are good for the marketing materials anyway).
The other 20% of the tags could be reserved for limited opportunity hunts (AJ - average joe hunts) in a few remaining public areas (probably the lower deserts) and would be available through a raffle run by the same private organization. The hunt areas for these tags would be heavily policed since the low quality and overcrowding would make the neanderthal Average Joes cranky as these areas would be restricted to foot access only. No caddie or GPS tracking services available for these AJ hunts either, those services are restricted to at least silver members and Average Joes can barely qualify for bronze membership (some AJ hunters have been known to make less than six-figures). Tags for these hunts would be somewhat plentiful and lower class "culls" from some of the "trophy" areas could be transplanted in on occasion so that the unwashed masses had an INCENTIVE deer or two to chase without actually entering the trophy MANAGED areas. Each of the AJ tags would come with a coupon for 5 dollars off the next EXPO, that way Average Joes could view the taxidermy mounts of trophies killed on premium GOLD or PLATINUM AUCTION member hunts and congratulate the successful BIDDERS at the EXPO. In the off chance that demand for these hunts exceeds supply, the private org can just pull 25% of the tags out of the existing AJ raffle pool and set them up under a new raffle. Average Joes are too unsophisticated to notice their tag pool stayed the same and that they now need to spend more in tickets in order to access the same number of tags. But who cares about average joes or limited opportunity hunts anyway, the auction tags are where the big CONSERVATION money is at.
What a world huh? Imagine the possibilities if money and trophy quality dictated how things are done. Utah would be so great they wouldn't even need to keep track of the CONSERVATION money or measure HABITAT improvements. They could just leave everything in the hands of some private group and watch the same rich dudes SHOOT TROPHIES every year on the outdoor channel. The Utah DWR would be flush with CONSERVATION money but light on hunting license revenue and future hunters. Who cares though, kids aren't buying auction tags anyway right? Besides, lobbyists are expensive and there are plenty more states in the US that need to be deprogrammed from that silly North American Wildlife Management philosophy.
Utah has the policies in place and the technology is currently available to implement much of the horrible stuff above. Utah hunters need to push back against the small group of people and orgs that make their living off the tags that belong to you. Any groups that currently profit from these tags should adhere to the highest standards of transparency, not the MINIMUM standards. Why does Utah need more CONSERVATION money in the first place? I guess more money is always better right (however Arizona seems to do just fine without much of it)? Who would have thought 20 years ago that Utah would have hundreds of wealth tags available right now (and that the director of the Utah DWR would publicly defend and praise the process publicly while mentioning that he and his son killed two sheep and a thirty inch mulie because of it)? Who would have thought 20 years ago that there would be half a dozen game cameras on a single waterhole in some parts of the state (some using cellular technology)? Who would have thought 20 years ago a video camera in a Las Vegas casino could use image technology to compare facial features and notify the casino of a cheat (could this technology work to notify a rich hunter of a 200" inch deer on a game camera?) Who would have thought a piece of elephant tusk could tell a wildlife officer in Africa the exact herd the elephant came from based on genetic information (could genetic mapping work for trophy deer?....could this information be used to identify pockets of land with trophy potential?....CONSERVATION GROUPS could buy up the GOOD land and call it CWMU land and give 80% of the tags to rich guys. Utah hunters are in trouble, greed and overarching technology could kill hunting in the state you love, especially when people start minimizing the importance of the North American model. This isn't fear mongering, a whole lot can happen in 20 years or less. It wouldn't surprise me if some states (like my home state of AZ) start restricting non-residents from screwed up states from entering their public drawings unless they provide comparable non-resident opportunities in their home states. Utah hunters need to take the first step toward cleaning things up by signing the UWC petition, the Utah situation CAN get worse if you don't take steps to make it better. Technology is fine, technology combined with bad policy can be a scary thing.
Ryan
