Viewpoint: Montana hunters dooming themselves to repeat history

Andrew Posewitz

HB 635 is a close to certainty following legislative govt motion taken March 21, 2023.  HB 635 awards hundreds of elk tags to non-resident landowners by advantage of their possession of property.

Within the listening to, Senator Fuller from Kalispell actually handed over possession of Montana’s elk to non-resident landowners, and shortly they are going to have the tags to show it. This invoice provides away one thing extremely vital in trade for imprecise guarantees.

This invoice hits on the very coronary heart of hunters, our heritage and our values. Whereas allocating this variety of tags would possibly really feel small, the philosophy that underlies the invoice is doubtlessly disastrous and we must be eyes huge open about being led to this place and about who’s main us to this place. Hunters in Montana have an ignoble historical past of agreeing to surrender one thing actual in trade for imprecise guarantees.  We should always cease doing this.

My father, Jim Posewitz, wrote a guide in 1999, titled “Inherit the Hunt.” This guide comprises lots of the underpinnings that will result in my dad’s collaboration with Dr. Valerius Geist in creating the North American Mannequin of Wildlife Conservation a couple of years after Inherit the Hunt was printed.  I used to be privileged to do analysis for this guide as famous within the dedication.

Many have requested what my dad would possibly consider HB 635 given the disagreement inside the conservation neighborhood over this invoice. The excellent news is we don’t should guess since he has spoken on to the problems raised.

For individuals who worth my father, his philosophy and his relentless pursuit of the democracy of the wild, I level you to those quotes from Inherit the Hunt.

“There are extra severe threats to searching than a handful of anti-hunters making a residing off of their advocacy. Probably the most ominous risk is carried by those that would create the equal of a brand new royalty of the hunt in North America.” and “To be true to our heritage, we should reject the notion of securing benefits within the hunt by denying alternative to others.  If we’ve a most cancers in our collective physique, that is it.”

Talking of political affect invading wildlife administration – “Thus, it’s no shock when the allocation of searching alternative takes on a design to favor minority pursuits which have affect, when searching permits are bought to the best bidder, and when industrial pursuits are given privilege.  These actions undermine the precept of equal alternative and equal therapy elementary to our democracy and the general public curiosity in wildlife.”

There are only a few guarantees that ought to trigger hunters to desert the writings of my father, and the imprecise guarantees of HB 635 actually don’t rise to that threshold. This invoice brings straight advocates for what my father believed to be, “Probably the most ominous risk to searching.”

Please preserve your eyes huge open as to what we’re giving up, and those that are asking you to offer it up. Immediately we’re gifting away our elk, tomorrow it might be another portion of the general public belief.

Andrew Posewitz is a fourth-generation Montanan and a fierce public land and searching advocate. He beforehand served as Chief of Employees within the State Auditor’s workplace and is among the founders of the Montana Public Belief Coalition and a frequent speaker at conservation occasions all through the west.