Elk foundation working against hunters

Right before the last legislative session, an op-ed called out the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation for not showing up “to oppose the guaranteed tags for outfitters, the bulls for billionaires program, efforts to award transferable tags, attacks on conservation easements, or the theft of conservation dollars” in the prior session.

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has evolved, the authors argued, “from public hunting advocates in Montana to nothing more than a land trust organization.”

That opinion piece must have struck a chord. 

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is noticeably more active in Helena this session, which is great to see. But what has the foundation been doing on behalf of their members in Montana?

First, it opposed and then killed House Bill 283, a bill that sought simply to give the option for the statewide sheep and moose tags to either be auctioned or raffled, rather than requiring that they be sold to the highest bidder. While auctions sound good, they work best for the wealthiest participants. Raffles offer opportunity to all, and can, importantly, result in larger revenues.

Why would Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation care about this? The hearing highlighted that every year the statewide elk tag has been available, it’s been awarded to Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. And every year the foundation has auctioned that tag to the bidder with the deepest pockets. For the 20 years this has happened, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation  had the option all along of auctioning or raffling this tag, and they can still use this tag to attract high rollers to their banquet, and still give this exclusive opportunity to the wealthiest of the wealthy. That’s their prerogative, but the foundation’s lobbyist still felt inclined to stand up and oppose a bill that would have no impact on their auctioned elk tag, and would simply give the option that they have with their elk tag to the sheep and moose tag too. Is this what elk foundation members are asking for, and what their donations and membership dollars are paying for?

To illustrate how unreasonable Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s opposition to HB 283 was, the bill passed the House Fish Wildlife and Parks Committee, and then the entire House floor, unanimously. Then, relentless lobbying by Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation killed the bill on party lines in the Senate Fish and Game Committee, with all eight Republicans voting against the bill.

Worse, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation then joined the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association and the Montana Conservation Society as the only groups to support SB 270, a bill that would allow individual landowners to shoot quite literally an unlimited number of elk each season. Four in five Montana elk hunters don’t kill a single elk, yet Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation’s lobbyist thinks a bill that would allow one person the ability to shoot an unlimited number of elk is a good idea? The bill has been amended, but the foundation supported its original, extreme form.

For an organization with a mission to “ensure the future of elk, other wildlife, their habitat and our hunting heritage,” it’s a depressing puzzle that they’d support this attempt to treat elk like vermin and disincentivize public access and opportunity — in other words, our hunting heritage.

Two years after they were called out, it’s good to see Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation more involved on issues impacting elk and elk hunters in Montana. But in some ways, I wish the foundation would go back to doing nothing in Helena, rather than actively working against the interests of resident hunters.

Bruce Sterling is a former member of Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. He lives in Thompson Falls.