Email from USO lead plaintiff

[111]

Just recieved this email from USO. Just wondering if any of you have got the same email?

 

This is Lawrence Montoya, or "Griz." I was lead plaintiff in the recent suit against Arizona on the discrimination against nonresidents in getting permits for bull elk and antlered deer in the Arizona Strip. I've been reading a whole lot of angry messages from a whole lot of people who don't know the facts. I know I'am going to get a ton of nasty e-mails for this, but I wanted to put out there the real facts so everyone knows how we got the point where a federal court struck down Arizona's nonresident caps as being unconstitutional.

 

In a word, Arizona gave the Court no choice.

 

For years, we tried asking the Commisssion just to let some more permits go to non-residents. They told us to get lost. We got a lawyer who knows the Constitution and asked him to talk to Arizona.

Way back in the summer of 1997 , there was a meeting with the Director of the Arizona Game and Fish Department and two lawyers from the Arizona Attorney General. Our lawyer before the meeting had given them constitutional cases showing that their discrimination against nonresidents was illegal. There is in fact something called the United States Constitution. He reminded Arizona of what it said and meant. We didn't want to sue, we just wanted more fair treatment of nonresidents. Heck, nonresidents already pay 5 times as much for a license. We subsize the Arizona Game Department, just like in other states.

Arizona was letting nonresidents have only about 6-8% of the permits. The law said nonresidents could draw "up to 10%", but the way their system worked nonresidents were only getting 6 to 8%. Right next door here in New Mexico, nonresidents can draw up to 22%. You can stand on one side of the border, hunting the same elk herd in the same forest, but theh law is different three feet to the west where nonresidents were getting almost completely shut out. Arizona residents were getting a better deal in NM than Arizona was giving New Mexicans. Not exactly fair.

So what did we ask for? We asked for only a 10% share for nonresidents. That's less than New Mexico, less than Wyoming , less than Colorado.

What we were told: "Take your best shot." We told them that if we had to sue the Court would have no option but to throw the caps out completely and that they wouldn't like the result. Arizona's response: "Do what you gotta do." These are almost exact quotes.

For the past seven years, we kept telling Arizona they were going to lose. We kept offering to compromise and work with them. We got the same response. And what we told them would happen, happened.

By the way, this is what Arizona was fighting about: They re-ran their draws going back to 1998 as though there were no caps (the way they did it before 1991). The sky would not have fallen. Without the caps non-residents would have drawn something like .95% above the caps for elk and 2.85% above the caps for antlered deer. Thats all the difference our suit will make. Anyone who can get Arizona's briefs from this year can read it themselves. By the department's own numbers, only something like 86 more bull elk permits and 164 more deer permits-out of thousands-would go to nonresidents. Arizona hunters need to calm down. It's not the end of the world. They are still going to get 85-90% of the permits, like they were getting before the caps were put in in 1991.

So why are nonresidents getting like 850 additional permits this year? That is nothing to do with us. We never asked for more permits, just a more fair share for nonresidents. It was the Game Commission that chose to simply give permits this year to every nonresident who got kicked out because of the caps. We wanted them to re-run the draw and do it. They just handed out more permits.

So thats the story, as true and correct as I know how to tell it.

 

This "Griz" knows most of those tags will still be going to Arizona's prime hunts.

[Redman]

I got the same emai, what a bunch of crap.

 

Redman

[DesertBull]

As soon as I got it, I replied "Why Arizona? Why not other states?"

 

He immedialty replied to me, "Don't worry, it's coming to all 9th circuit states."

 

Next year will be a free for all. Next up is landowner tags, just wait and see.

[az4life]

I got it too, and it's obvious he had a "LAWYAH" help him write it.

 

Trying to set the record straight huh? Well I think we have a pretty clear picture.

 

Anyway I try to find the good in everything. It was REALLY tough on this case but when Life hands you lemons, make lemonade...

 

Applying the same logic to this rhetoric, It was not all Bad. I printed it out and ran it through the paper shredder. I plan to spread it around real thin on my yard because anything as full of Manure as this was is surely going to be great fertilizer.

 

Gotta say he has nerve, but we knew that since he filed the darn suit anyway. I wonder if WE have had an impact with all the letters to sponsors and general havoc he must have been getting as fallout. Could not happen to a more deserving guy as far as I'm concerned.

[COUESAZ]

AZ4Life

 

That is the best thing I have seen someone post in a long time. I will print what you wrote and read it throughout the day just to keep th smile on my face.

 

I think there is enough manure there for us all to use on our yards.

[Red Rabbit]

Talk about a misrepresentation of numbers. If I was flying, the bag on the seat in front of me would be filled. Does he mention that over 45% of the applicants to 13B are nonresidents? How about unit 9 & 10 numbers for elk? BARF!

[az4life]

BTW

My open letter reply to GRIZ:

 

Mr Montoya

 

First, I read your email with an open mind!

 

After comparison between the "facts" as you state in your letter, and the

suit, plus the judges ruling related to the suit....

 

Your email does not influence me and my disdain for you and your company is

nearly total. The lack of respect you show for MY state rights and fairness

in distribution of MY state resources is totally vile.

 

Your case was based on what YOU wanted, and not what was good for Hunting in

general!

I hope the USO boycott and continual pressure hunters from all over the

country are applying on you and your sponsors drives you into financial

ruin. From what I have heard your organization has no scruples and you throw

out ethics when it comes to hunting so your loss will be our gain.

 

You may have won this battle but you may not be around to see the end of the

war.

[Rembrant]

If you can believe what Montoya is saying, it sounds like what we are calling our whimpy Game Dept held their groung pretty well for seven years. Really stinks they didn't win the court battle too.

Mike

[AZbomb]

I am amazed Mr. Montoya thought this letter would help his case. He obviously just doesn't get it.

[.270]

i agree. someone wrote it for him. he ain't smart enough to string that many sentences together. i sincerely hope this guy and me never cross paths again. what a maroon. i also sincerely hope that the boycott continues and that uso goes broke. this deal with the ranchers and their letter to shroufe is just a continuation of this whole process. taulman, griz or any of the rest of uso's guides aren't talented enough to consistently drag big bulls out of Az. you have to get more than a mile or so from the road and you can't get out of shape dudes into that kind of country without livestock. and the only way they will be able to is to get guranteed permits on private land. uso is interested in quanity. quality never enters into their plan. in my opinion, the letter to game and fish said a lot without saying much. the owners of these big private land tracts don't want to open the land up. they want elk permits for what they say is damage done to the range by elk competing with cattle. the don't neccessarily want to open their land up to the public. they want elk permits for compensation and then they want to be able to use them behind a locked gate. the more i think about this whole situation, the sicker and madder i get. greedy people and lawyers. and the dummys that spend their money with outfits like this, thinking they're getting a good deal. it will be the death of joe hunter. Lark .