Free: Contests & Raffles.
(most air strips are on private land or state land...none are on wilderness lands, and those that are managed by the FS are on national forest lands, not wilderness designations...and FYI, they use power tools in the Frank Church through a special use permit...they didn't put those bridges in place with hand tools).
Action...here are the facts, just fyi.Per IDFG the MOST hunters in Unit 27 (this is both NR and Resident) was 598...never 650+ as you state.There are 26 active airstrip in the Frank Church, with 8 public ones that are the most "popular" in Unit 27...plus an additional 6 private ones in Unit 27 that outfitters use (an example is Pistol Creek...and Pistol Creek Outfitters). So that's actually 14 airstrips, not 4 and hunters also use trailheads not just airstrips. The IDFG Commission made this decision against the recommendation of IDFG (biologist included)...keep in mind IDFG Commission is much like the WDFW Commission with the exception that the IDFG Commission gave themselves special powers in 2017 to allow them to make rules such as these...whereas the WDFW Commission is meant to be a board of citizens as an oversight to the Director. The Agenda for the IDFG ruling on this was titled: Unlimited Controlled Hunt Non-Resident Tag Numbers, Outfitter Allocation (Action). And as far as history of groups...the airstrips have always been popular, even back in 1991 when I first went in there, the place I flew into had camps along the runway, the turn around, and down by the river, just as many back then as today. In 1995 I spent 21 days in there, my summer job of being a USFS Initial Attack Firefighter ended so I flew in and bummed around for 3 weeks and hunted...I saw way more deer and elk recently than I did in 95 (94 was the start of a bad winter for 3 years straight) and wolves were introduced in 1995 at this very airstrip, the first wolves to be transplanted in Idaho. The wolves wreaked havoc when we couldn't hunt them, even came down towards the airstrip (more than once tracks were seen going between tents). But once the wolves could be hunted they stayed away, in fact, the hunting has become absolutely better. The mule deer can breed without wolves eating and chasing them (using even more energy which eventually kills the mature bucks as they can't recover in time before winter) and the elk numbers are way up to where they were pre-wolf (or close to it...still now cow tags like before, but getting a bull is not that hard like it used to be when wolves were off limits). And lastly, think about this, everyone on here says how great the hunting will be...though only 51 NR get to hunt it now (and hunters come from all across the country...I met a few guys from Wisconsin and NY in there that did DIY trips). What about the the Bee Hive Affect. Essentially we are taking man out of the area during the mule deer breeding time, allowing the wolves to have free range and once again wreak havoc during the most crucial time of the year for the deer. Without keeping the wolves away we will lose more mule deer and the big bucks suffer the most. There have been several studies done and mature mule deer bucks hurt the worst during winter as their fat reserves are depleted during the rut and they can't recover before winter, add in unchecked wolves, and there will be less mature bucks some spring...the wolves will spread, but the core packs will remain in the Frank Church, breeding and repopulating other areas where wolves are being taken out. Kind of like a beehive...you can kill the bees at the picnic table but if you don't kill the hive more bees will just show up at the picnic table...if man isn't in there to keep the wolves away from the breeding mule deer, less will get bred and the mature bucks will be run ragged before winter. At least now, the mere presence of man keeps the wolves away and anyone who has flown into the Frank during the late hunt has watched dozens of rutting mule deer, which don't care when you walk by them...heck, we had a deer come INTO our tent two years ago looking for our apples. This is simply a take-away of a hunt and since this is Hunt WA (not hey, I live in Idaho ha ha guys...) we all should be concerned over losing yet another hunt to the agenda of a game commission that is being used as a ploy by businesses...oh, and for the Idaho guy who said that the outfitters aren't getting rich on these tags...no outfitter gets rich, but they argued and won their argument that they needed their own tags for this unit, and the commission gave them more tags than they even had clients for last year...the outfitters won. Grade
The bridges we're referring to in the Frank Church are steel cable bridges with welded trusses...definitely not put in by hand tools or carried there by horses...flown in via helicopter. Also, FS does give out Special Use Permits to private citizens, that's how guides can operate in the wilderness (commercial use permits) as well as we put a new roof on a backcountry cabin several years ago...using a helicopter and power tools, special permits are just that, a special permit to allow for a variance, regardless if its FS or private citizen.
