Wyoming Wilderness Restriction on Non-res

[huntnphool]

I'd be curious to know how many Wyoming "outfitters" are actually non residents.

 This was the issue in Montana a few years back that led to Initiative 161.

According to the states outfitter directing there are 303 licensed outfitters, 27 of them are non resident outfitters. There are 3 that operate in wilderness according to there description. and out of those 3, I personally know one of them and the owner lives in Cody. I did notice the majority of those 27 non resident outfitters advertise private land hunts only and a select few operate on National forest. I highly doubt there will be any changes to this law 

http://outfitters.state.wy.us/

I'm not suggesting there will or needs to be a change to the law, simply pointing out what happened in Montana.

[NW SURVEYOR]

Here's a concept:
Some clown(s) buys a tag, drives to Wyoming and in the face of an impending storm decides that they/he will hunt anyway.
After all, he's been planning this trip with his buddies and he knows what he's doing.
Fast forward a few days and everyones stuck 10 miles back without a clue.
Along comes a storm, no cell coverage and the State of Wyoming foots the bill to fetch Nimrod and his pals.

Guess who picks up the Search and Rescue bill?
Not our lost/stuck clown hunter.
My guess is the State forks out major coin to get these guys out.
They may try to recover the cost, but my guess is that this is rarely succesful.

Now, I am a firm believer in having the Feds retain the lands.
I do not trust the individual States to manage that kind of Real estate and resources.
That said, the ownership of the animals is beyond my pay grade.
I do think that both the State and Feds should be responsible for the "Stewardship" of the animals.

As for the Outfitter/Guide, as long as they are on the hook to pay for any Search and Rescue operation, who am I to complain.
If on the other ahnd the State bails them out, that's a different story.

Just my two cents.



Now, I

[Knocker of rocks]

As for the Outfitter/Guide, as long as they are on the hook to pay for any Search and Rescue operation, who am I to complain.
If on the other ahnd the State bails them out, that's a different story.

Nowhere in Anglo North America are the victims, their heirs or any guide service held responsible for rescue costs.

Also, are state residents immune from bad decision making?

[NW SURVEYOR]

I saw a case a few years ago where some guys in Colorado thought it would be fun to head out (snowshoeing I think) immediatley prior to a huge forecast storm in the Rockies.
It turned into a fiasco with the State spending thousands of hours looking for these clowns who got seperated and holed up in various locations.
It think they all survived and the State went after them (Or tried).
I never heard the outcome but I bet your right, the State pays.
At the same time, I think that the individuals in certain cases should beon the hook.
Now, how to be fair is a another question.

Good luck with that.

[DOUBLELUNG]

As for the Outfitter/Guide, as long as they are on the hook to pay for any Search and Rescue operation, who am I to complain.
If on the other ahnd the State bails them out, that's a different story.

Nowhere in Anglo North America are the victims, their heirs or any guide service held responsible for rescue costs.

Also, are state residents immune from bad decision making?

Actually, they are held financially responsible in CO if they don't have any of several licenses that include a SAR surcharge.

[Knocker of rocks]

As for the Outfitter/Guide, as long as they are on the hook to pay for any Search and Rescue operation, who am I to complain.
If on the other ahnd the State bails them out, that's a different story.

Nowhere in Anglo North America are the victims, their heirs or any guide service held responsible for rescue costs.

Also, are state residents immune from bad decision making?

Actually, they are held financially responsible in CO if they don't have any of several licenses that include a SAR surcharge.

Their website uses the terms "can" and "may".

[link]

Nwsurveyor, your argument in your last two posts make no sense. A non resident can do anything in the wilderness areas except hunt. So, this has nothing to do with safety, search and rescue costs, or the state of wyoming looking out for poor, ignorant, incompetent non residents.

[bobcat]

Non residents actually can hunt in wilderness in Wyoming- just not for big game.

[JimmyHoffa]

Nwsurveyor, your argument in your last two posts make no sense. A non resident can do anything in the wilderness areas except hunt. So, this has nothing to do with safety, search and rescue costs, or the state of wyoming looking out for poor, ignorant, incompetent non residents.

I know this is kind of a stretch, but he might have a bit of a point on the safety part.  Take the Washington High Hunt for example, I've heard that a lot of the reasoning for the earlier dates from WDFW was due to better/safer weather.  If the dates were later, WDFW expected to have too many hunters back in the wilderness getting caught in snow or injured in conditions where rescues were too dangerous.  Maybe Wyoming had a few similar thoughts to convince a few?  Though, I do agree with others this was mostly a convenient way to direct business towards influential guides/outfitters.

[trophyhunt]

Like I said earlier, I'd hunt the wilderness by myself if I had too. Stupid law

[JLS]

There is absolutely no safety basis to this law whatsoever.  Ask a WY G&F employee if you need to.  It's meant as a benefit to the resident hunters and to the outfitters, pure and simple.  Nothing more, nothing less.  They do patrol it, and they do cite folks for violating it.

It's a state's right to impose hunting restriction on non-residents, regardless of the land status where that takes place.  It's no different than AK requiring a guide in order to hunt certain species.  You can challenge these laws in court all you want, but you won't win.

[Skyvalhunter]

Anyone hunting one of the Wilderness areas outside of Yellowstone park?

[Skyvalhunter]

Bump

[2MANY]

I'm looking into the max point draws around there this year.
I have a call into a bio to make sure I don't screw up.

[Skyvalhunter]

Times running out on applying, only few more days left