WY Grizzly Bear Application Starts July 2nd

nv-hunter

Veteran member
Feb 28, 2011
1,587
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Reno
I've never applied in Wy, how does the system work? Will you have to front the tag fee for this draw or buy a license? Thanks for the info, PM me if you would like.
 

JimP

Administrator
Mar 28, 2016
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Gypsum, Co
Like anything else on Wyoming draws the money come first so the fees are up front. No other license to purchase until you draw the permit.
 

JimP

Administrator
Mar 28, 2016
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Gypsum, Co
OK they threw me a curve ball. I expected for them to require the fees up front like the do on deer and antelope.
 

HighPlainsHunter

Active Member
Mar 1, 2018
419
3
Laramie
Saw on the Cheyenne news this morning that anti groups are planning to try to draw tags and not use them.

Hopefully whoever does draw the tags will have a good hunt but they may end up being followed by these people with cameras.
 

zpooch

Very Active Member
Aug 11, 2016
531
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Wyoming
Saw on the Cheyenne news this morning that anti groups are planning to try to draw tags and not use them.

Hopefully whoever does draw the tags will have a good hunt but they may end up being followed by these people with cameras.
There is so much country out there, how would they find you?
 

HighPlainsHunter

Active Member
Mar 1, 2018
419
3
Laramie
There is so much country out there, how would they find you?
I tend to think they will find ways to identify these guys and do everything they can to prevent the hunt and would not even want to guess the lengths they will go to to find these hunters names, truck info, trail head parked at, etc..

I hope you are right and they won't be able to find the griz hunters and harass them, video them, etc.. But that seems unrealistic IMO. People go crazy about wolves, whales, etc.. like this.

Even outfitters offering griz hunts could be targeted.
 

HighPlainsHunter

Active Member
Mar 1, 2018
419
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Laramie
https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/jackson_hole_daily/local/article_264f96a5-f5d7-5a45-98e8-c15fdb6d8773.html

A number of Jackson Hole animal lovers are trying to rally like-minded folks to apply for grizzly bear hunting tags with no intention of shooting the big bruins.

The maneuver amounts to a form of legal protest against the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s planned grizzly bear hunt, slated to start this fall for the first time in 44 years. Spring Gulch resident and wildlife activist Lisa Robertson plans to apply for the hunt, and, if selected, she will carry a camera rather than a firearm.

“It’ll give us 10 extra days of a living grizzly,” Robertson said. “We’re all entitled to be represented out here, and this is one way that the nonconsumptive public can say, ‘We’ll pay you to not kill this grizzly — at least for 10 days.’

“We should be involved in this process, and at this point this is how we can be involved,” she said. “It’s legitimate. It’s legal.”

Wyoming’s hunt is structured in a way that allows the possibility of disruption by nonhunters. Across most of the Yellowstone region’s interior, just one hunter will be allowed in the field at a time in a season that starts Sept. 15. The rules are designed to prevent two female bears from being killed, which would exceed a cap imposed by an agreement with Idaho and Montana.

When plans for the season were still in draft form this spring, outfitters complained about the potential of a nonhunter securing and not using one of the licenses that are sure to be coveted in the hunting community. Game and Fish officials heard the concerns and changed their plans, instating a 10-day limit per hunter and requiring people to procure a hunter-education certificate before they can purchase a license.

Under Wyoming statute, the safety certificate is not required of people born before Jan. 1, 1966.

An additional deterrent that hopeful grizzly hunting saboteurs face is the cost: If selected for one of the state’s 22 tags, residents must pony up $600 and nonresidents $6,000.

As long as the requirements are met, there’s nothing illegal about applying with no intention of hunting, Game and Fish Carnivore Supervisor Dan Thompson said.

“That’s their prerogative,” he said. “Honestly, like I’ve said throughout the course of this, I wish it could be viewed not as sabotaging the hunt but as contributing to grizzly bear conservation and management.”

But Thompson isn’t encouraging nonhunters to apply.

“It’s not something we’re condoning, people putting in just so they can take a tag from someone who is interested in the hunting opportunity,” he said. “But it’s going to happen. I know it’s going to happen.”

A number of friends and fellow activists Robertson has reached out to are weighing going through the application process, among other forms of protest.

Longtime Jackson resident Ann Smith said she’s leaning toward applying for the hunt but has not yet decided.


“I probably will,” Smith said. “We have to speak out, is my point. I’m fighting this by raising the money, $82,000, for Earthjustice.”

Earthjustice is the San Francisco-based environmental law firm that represents a coalition of tribal and conservation groups in the effort to keep Yellowstone grizzlies protected under the Endangered Species Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service deemed the ecosystem’s isolated population of about 700 grizzlies recovered in 2017 and turned over management to the states. Montana wildlife officials opted not to hunt grizzlies in 2018, but Wyoming and Idaho both approved seasons.

U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen, who’s presiding over the grizzly case, has scheduled a hearing between the government, its intervenors and opponents for late August, days before Wyoming’s hunt is set to start.

At least one avid Jackson Hole hunter is also thinking of applying for the grizzly hunt, but with no intention of putting bear meat in the freezer.

Outdoor writer Ted Kerasote, a longtime staff editor for the hunting magazine Sports Afield, is considering entering the lottery in protest. His view is that Wyoming is jumping the gun, and he’s particularly displeased with Game and Fish rules that allow hunters to kill grizzlies without using the meat. Wanton-waste rules that apply to big-game species like elk and deer penalize leaving meat in the field, but no such rules exist for trophy-game species like bears or mountain lions.

Kerasote pointed out that nonhunters could individually affect the hunt by actually hunting.

“If the people who are opposed to the hunt want to be the most effective and be utilitarian about this, go out and shoot a female bear right away,” Kerasote said. “That would save the lives of at least 10 male bears in the [demographic monitoring area]. I know that’s a very harsh way of looking at things.”

Game and Fish’s grizzly bear hunting lottery is open between July 2 and 16. The cost to apply is $5 for residents and $15 for nonresidents.
 

shootbrownelk

Veteran member
Apr 11, 2011
1,535
196
Wyoming
If I subscribed to Field and Stream, I'd cancel my subscription for that idiotic statement Kerasote made. "Buy a tag and go out and shoot a female grizzly to end the hunt". Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. He evidently forgot what happened to Zumbo and Metcalf. It's a legal hunt and he should have shut his pie hole.
 

mnhoundman

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Oct 25, 2012
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Minnesota
If I subscribed to Field and Stream, I'd cancel my subscription for that idiotic statement Kerasote made. "Buy a tag and go out and shoot a female grizzly to end the hunt". Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. He evidently forgot what happened to Zumbo and Metcalf. It's a legal hunt and he should have shut his pie hole.
That's exactly what i was thinking! Editor for a hunting magazine says this... He's a grizzly and wolf lover!
 
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RICMIC

Veteran member
Feb 21, 2012
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Two Harbors, Minnesota
Many of the antis have very deep pockets, so using pooled $ to pay for a tag may not be that much of a limiting factor. As time goes by, the rules can be modified to address this by selling more tags and having a mortality number just like they do for mountain lions.