MT Non Residents Bill

[Headin west]

Would like to see the same graph with soy beans.

 

[Frangler]

SENATE BILL NO. 512 :
the commission shall by rule limit the number of nonresident game bird licenses to 10%
of the number of licenses purchased the previous year by residents

SB512 could make it impossible for non-residents to legally hunt upland birds
if they are late in attempting a license purchase.

Colorado should do that with elk tags lol. What a joke....

 

[Goosemaster]

So many guys dont even eat the birds I have had lots of people trying to give me there birds at the campground. It makes me wonder how many wind up in the garbage in the end. The government should really approach this in a way to protect the birds for years to come. Better to make a little less for a lot longer that to kill the golden goose for short term profits.

I found several roosters last year that were just dumped on the trail on Blick management. Karma will take those guys out.

 

[ArmchairBiologist]

The acreage of corn has not increased substantially since 2001.
View attachment 5949

If you think corn acreage hasn't substantially increased you're misreading the graph. That graph is in 1,000 acre increments. If the average goes up by 5,000 in the next decade, that would equal 5 million additional acres. The Renewable fuel standard went into effect in 2005, but was supercharged in 2007 by The Energy Independence and Security Act. Since 2007 corn acreage has increased by an average of at least 10 million acres over the previous few decades. I'm not going to do the math, because I don't want to take the time. It could be as high as 15 million acres.

When you consider that the vast majority of this additional corn acreage happened in the midwest, specifically Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota....that's a massive change. You combine that with genetically modified crops so corn can be grown further north, and in drier conditions and you get massive landscape change. Allot of small grains disappeared in many areas since 2007.

 

[ArmchairBiologist]

Some of you people don't understand, hunting has no or very little impact on Pheasant population. Lowering the limit does nothing, one tough winter, like their having now can really effect population, but one spring with perfect conditions can give a huge boost. As we have seen lately letting the government..... I will just leave that one alone... I have a cabin in eastern MT, and with the decisions to eliminate the Russian olive trees that the feds have been doing, who by the way planted them with our tax dollars, has done more to change the landscape of Pheasant populations than anything. This is a major food and cover source for winter, and the birds I shoot in November and December have crops full of these berries. Wyoming and Idaho both have season licenses, North and South Dakota have 5-14 day licenses no cap, means you can buy as many as you like. Raise the license fees, give residents first 2 weeks, have grouse and hun separate license, break it up into zones like Wyoming does. I primarily hunt November and December, I see very few if anybody late season. This bill will not solve anything, and I for one will never submit any info to their phone surveys again. I do wonder if they are including the big game combos as effective bird licenses or is the info from strictly stand alone non res bird license.

I agree that hunting has little to no impact on pheasant numbers.

I think you're off base with your russian olive comment. Wildlife agencies planted russian olives all over the midwest back in the day. There's no evidence they improved winter survival. They spread like wildfire and are very invasive. I hunt in areas of eastern montana with phenomenal bird numbers and see very few russian olives. They don't need them.

You should also do some more research before you claim they used tax dollars to plant russian olives. What federal land specifically are you referring to? If it's USFWS land it could be duck stamp money. If any tax dollars are used, it's Pitman Robertson funds which are an excise tax on guns, ammunition, gun parts, and archery equipment. So I guess saying "our taxes" would technically be correct since this is a hunting forum....but if you were talking to non-firearm or archery owners then that wouldn't be the case. They aren't using federal income tax money for that.

 

[AKSkeeter]

If you think corn acreage hasn't substantially increased you're misreading the graph. That graph is in 1,000 acre increments. If the average goes up by 5,000 in the next decade, that would equal 5 million additional acres. The Renewable fuel standard went into effect in 2005, but was supercharged in 2007 by The Energy Independence and Security Act. Since 2007 corn acreage has increased by an average of at least 10 million acres over the previous few decades. I'm not going to do the math, because I don't want to take the time. It could be as high as 15 million acres.

When you consider that the vast majority of this additional corn acreage happened in the midwest, specifically Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota....that's a massive change. You combine that with genetically modified crops so corn can be grown further north, and in drier conditions and you get massive landscape change. Allot of small grains disappeared in many areas since 2007.

Do a linear regression on the corn acreage from that graph and you will see there is not statistically significant slope to the trend line.
There is year to year variation with the acreage fluctuating but not consistent increase or decrease trend.
Long term (several decades) there is an increasing trend, but not since about 2007.

 

[WDH]

To see if corn acres have really increased, compare the total acres of other crops across the country, mainly soybeans. You would find as corn acres go up, other grains go down. Farmers will pencil out what is most profitable and shift back and forth. In my area, corn acres are up, wheat (poverty grass) is down. Still the same general number of total acres around here.

 

[MABELS BIRD]

I agree that hunting has little to no impact on pheasant numbers.

I think you're off base with your russian olive comment. Wildlife agencies planted russian olives all over the midwest back in the day. There's no evidence they improved winter survival. They spread like wildfire and are very invasive. I hunt in areas of eastern montana with phenomenal bird numbers and see very few russian olives. They don't need them.

You should also do some more research before you claim they used tax dollars to plant russian olives. What federal land specifically are you referring to? If it's USFWS land it could be duck stamp money. If any tax dollars are used, it's Pitman Robertson funds which are an excise tax on guns, ammunition, gun parts, and archery equipment. So I guess saying "our taxes" would technically be correct since this is a hunting forum....but if you were talking to non-firearm or archery owners then that wouldn't be the case. They aren't using federal income tax money for that.

Sorry your 100% wrong about RO trees, what do you think they eat when there's 2-3' of snow, RO berries, and the old canopies that the USFW destroyed in my area had a direct correlation to the pheasant population demise. You might have hunted eastern MT in October, but 99% of the birds we shoot along the highline during snow conditions are close to or are using RO berries. The RO was planted in my area as a source of cover and food that would prosper during drought conditions by the USFW, so the $'s came from duck stamps, once again they used the $'s to plant them, than they used the $'s to eradicate them, which to me is a waste of $'s period. Back in the early 2000's I could show you waves of up to 500 birds, there gone and will not be coming back due to the mismanagement of the USFW at this specific location.

I hunt both public and private, I can think of a couple of places that don't have many RO's, but even those the birds key on the food source late in the season or during snow accumulation years.

 

[Goosemaster]

Sorry your 100% wrong about RO trees, what do you think they eat when there's 2-3' of snow, RO berries, and the old canopies that the USFW destroyed in my area had a direct correlation to the pheasant population demise. You might have hunted eastern MT in October, but 99% of the birds we shoot along the highline during snow conditions are close to or are using RO berries. The RO was planted in my area as a source of cover and food that would prosper during drought conditions by the USFW, so the $'s came from duck stamps, once again they used the $'s to plant them, than they used the $'s to eradicate them, which to me is a waste of $'s period. Back in the early 2000's I could show you waves of up to 500 birds, there gone and will not be coming back due to the mismanagement of the USFW at this specific location.

I hunt both public and private, I can think of a couple of places that don't have many RO's, but even those the birds key on the food source late in the season or during snow accumulation years.

Ro saves birds in winter. They should never burn them!