Hunters are a pain in the ass to Game Bureaucrats.

Just ask the Idaho Fish and Game Department, or so it seems.

I'm afraid this photosafari crap has permeated the game NONmanagement philosophy of game departments throughout the world. Here it is not called "photosafari", but rather "biodiversity" that demands "management" for non-take enthusiasts as well as hunters.

Over 50% of revenue to Idaho Fish and Game Department now comes from non-hunter/non-fisherman sources such as Federal research grants. This is NOT income to the Department from NONtake enthusiasts. THEY don't pay for their enjoyment of game. It is taxpayer dollars getting to the Dept. thru roundabout routes.

To paraphrase a certain Jewish Rabbi, "Where the money is there also is the heart".

Increasingly the money is from sources other than the hunter and fisherman but NOT from the nontake enthusiast. The woods increasingly seems to favor the biologist over the sportsman and subsistence hunter/fisherman. Just been reading several Id F&G reports and the disease permeates them; the rubbish that nonhunters WILL {but doesn't now} provide significant revenue to both private economy and State F&G Department and therefore should be encouraged by the Department. Yet, still, nontake enthusiasts don't directly pay for wildlife management, hunters directly do... Increasingly, by circuitous routes as mentioned, taxpayers do. All this a justification for nongame species introduction and promotion by the Department and naturally restrictions on hunting and fishing opportunity are/will be the result. This control is in my opinion the American form of African corruption. Follow the money, not the mandate.

And hunter dollars fund the very Department that does not in my opinion have their interests at heart.

So...if the Department is going to get so much money from other nondirect sources that benefit nontake enthusiasts who don't pay for their wildlife enjoyment...why don't they simply eliminate license and tag fees for hunters and fishermen...

The issues facing hunters the world over are surprisingly and shockingly similar; bureacrats seizing power under the guise of reaching out to nonhunters and being inclusive of them in their plans.

That the Botswanan leadership wanted to little-by-little boot the hunting industry out of the country is not surprising.

Also similar is the response; I hear more and more people say that because the Idaho Fish and Game Department is turning traitor to its legal mandate to manage game and fish for the hunter and fishermen, they will merely respond by NOT buying tags and licenses but hunting anyhow.

This is the "First World" version of the type of response that always seems to follow African bans on hunting.

It is crude and blunt to say it, but true nonetheless; "If it pays, it stays. If it costs, its lost".

The gun and license traded for the snare and knobkerrie...??