No resident hunters ever fall off an ethics wagon LOL. Raising fees for your own greed does nothing to gain people in the outdoors, and the local economy. I used to go to ND every weekend. Friends who grew up there had a family farm in CRP of 1,200 acres. We would go Fri night, hit the pub. Get our birds Sat, have fun Sat night up town, spending money. Eating at the local café along the river for lunch etc. Buy some ammo at the local hardware shop. Get some gas at the local gas shop. Get up Sun morn, get a few birds and go home. Now when we were there we hunted with a few of his local pals too. Let me say, the locals were the outlaws. Shooting anything and everything. Shooting out windows going spot to spot. Shooting birds of prey on and on. Well, sure that day came to a 5 day season, and higher fee. I never spent another dime in that state. I went fishing one week a couple years later. We went to the local shops we visited hunting. All closed up, all out of business. Just sayin...… We can bitch about non residents and fishing here in MN too LOL. But, why? Waste of breath. It's AMERICA people. Your talking about AMERICANS, not foreign invaders. Those same locals and farms the bitched to get that law passed in ND surround our lakes in MN with ND plates too Just drive around Ottertail lake and look at the plates parked at all the cabins. People should be promoting outdoors, not trying to alienate.
You raise some good points FCSpringer - our issue in KS is we've simply lost a ton of bird habitat and birds are not as widespread as they once were. State focuses on deer which I've harped on for a long time is and has been a serious mistake. Lots of small towns that used to have motels, gas stations, restaurants, etc have died - some of that due to economic reasons, some I would say is partially due to no hunters (or at least the volume of hunters) - There's a few places I used to go not so long ago that had decent bird populations and plenty of access and they'd have hunter breakfasts etc - Many of those are gone or from what I've heard poorly attended.
As I get my business more successful and buy more of my time I will be a thorn in someones side until some things start to change. I live in the Capital now and can be a pain in the axx when I need to be. Dont know if it will ever work but hey it's worth a shot. Our state has lots of issues so I understand the OP's concerns - we dont have as much access or as much of the upland resource as we used to so it's disheartening when you feel like others pillaged it. Probably just his perspective. Anyways things will not change unless folks start looking at the big picture here --
-- De-emphasize big game/deer hunting
-- ACTUALLY manage our deer herd instead of treating them like dove with virtually unlimited tags and statewide units
-- With deer management actually taking place and restricting times (adding more seasons and limiting who can hunt in what season) it SHOULD theoretically eliminate some of the leasing for deer and cutting off lots of access for upland hunters
-- Work with the ag industry to get incentives passed and educate farmers on incentives they'd have to put in and manage buffers wetlands etc - likely marginal ground anyways they are not truly making much if any money on and could make more with habitat programs and increase their efficiency buy more of their time back
-- Educate farmers on the benefits of having hunters in their communities through increased sales tax revenue, increased local business, possible day hunt fees if they want to go that way etc - it will benefit their communities - and with birds you can simply run WAY more hunters through than big game
-- Whats good for birds is great for deer and lots of other species - birds simply require a more specific habitat recipe/farming practices
-- Govt side - Firstly before any of this can happen we need a governor that can fix our states revenue situation and proceed with economic developement - KS has simply been stagnant for years even during the boom times while the rest of the nation has grown. We haven't had a governor worth a crap in decades - We need one that will pass medical marijuana and recreation marijuana and put the tax dollars to work that we are already losing to colorado, blackmarket and soon to be OK, MO, NE (I think they passed it) and Arkansas.
-- ****
Promote Troy (PrairieDrifter) to run the KDWPT 
or at least the head biologist
Anyways - sounds like a 20 year plan eh?
