May 26, 2913 - 200 Servings of Fish and Chips

[Coign]

Back home in Minnesota white-tail deer is our biggest hunting sport. And it is conservation by hunters that brought the deer from 300,000 in 1950 to more then 30 million today. They were so good at conservation that we have too many deer now.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6835501/ns.../#.UaTXo6vkvUZ

[Lamplighter]

Yes, I don't know if it's still so, but in the 70's when I visited New Zealand,
there were government-hired hunters whose job was to shoot the (imported) deer
that were foraging in the (imported) pine/fir forests.

[Adak]

Originally Posted by Coign

Back home in Minnesota white-tail deer is our biggest hunting sport. And it is conservation by hunters that brought the deer from 300,000 in 1950 to more then 30 million today. They were so good at conservation that we have too many deer now.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6835501/ns.../#.UaTXo6vkvUZ

I disagree.

Hunters have never set the laws for hunting. That is the bureaucracy of the state - which is always looking for more $$$.

Their normal mode is to increase license, supplies, tags, fuel, costs, etc., so they make more $$$ per hunter. Then, if they also increase the number of deer, and their distribution, they hope they can entice more hunters into the fields, every year.

This is not chump change for most states - it's hundreds of millions of dollars. Not only does each hunter pay a fee directly to the state, but each sporting goods dealer makes money, so each store also pays more in taxes, to the state.

What they forget, as liberals always seem to, is that if you raise the fees and taxes too much, the hunters find something else to do, besides going hunting.

[glatt]

The last thing liberals are thinking about is hunting license fees. It doesn't even register as a blip on the radar. Just sayin...

[xoxoxoBruce]

That depends on whether they are hunters, in a sporting goods business, or gun sales.

[Lamplighter]

Don't forget the tourist industry

... if Fish and Wildlife don't produce big stags, the out-of-staters go elsewhere.

Then the guides, sports goods, restaurants, hotels, start lobbying
and the Dept of Commerce pays attention to them.

At least Montana is transparent about all this, and keep their out-of-state licenses very low.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Yes, trophy hunting is a whole other game, especially for western states. Here, deer hunting is more like a more vigorous trip to the meat store, half tradition, half recreation, which puts meat on the table. But for the guys that travel to deer camps, and hunt the game lands rather than their own back yard, it can be very expensive meat.

[Coign]

Originally Posted by Adak

I disagree.

Hunters have never set the laws for hunting. That is the bureaucracy of the state - which is always looking for more $$$.

At least in Minnesota, that money that hunters pay goes directly to the DNR which funds conservation. The DNR does not collect from the General Fund taxes.

"“Most of what we do is funded by the anglers who buy licenses and stamps,” said Peterson. “The state’s General Fund does not pay for fish management. Legacy Amendment tax revenues have yet to contribute in a significant way, either."

http://news.dnr.state.mn.us/2011/05/...nse-dollar-go/