PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — The opportunity to legally take a record book big game animal has to have a huge amount of circumstances all lined up in just the right way for a successful outcome. In the case of this whitetail deer, taken in Ohio by lady archer Nicole Miller in 2021, she purchased an archery tag just like any other hunter. Her success ultimately rested on being in the right place, right time when this buck presented an opportunity. She arrowed this buck in her home state of Ohio in 2021. Its official score is 191. As for the BigHorn Sheep image, this animal was also a bow and arrow hunt that took place in Taos County, N.M. in 2021. The archer was Brian Benyo, who had applied for many years and finally was successful on a draw. Its score is 189 2/8. Both of these trophy animals were on display at the April 2023 convention of the Pope & Young Club in Reno, Nev.. While the average hunter will buy a big game tag in their home state, many states also have special big game tags issued that are allotted to qualifying conservation organizations to auction off. Today’s story will highlight just a few of these above and beyond types of conservation funding supplements.
Fundraising is an ongoing endeavor for conservation organizations. While the typical flow and majority of funds into a state’s natural resource department of fish, game and law enforcement comes primarily from fishing, hunting and fur harvest license sales from residents, there are additional methods to raise much needed revenue to help supplement these specific budgets.
These license sales may be open to both residents or non-residents. At this time of the year, preparations are well underway by avid hunters across America to secure tags, in state or out of state, either by having applied for many years prior and hoping that the draw odds are in your favor this year.
It is always rewarding to receive an email notice that says “congratulations, your application to hunt ______ in the state of ______, game management unit _____, was successful.” Normally a
hunter’s application process involves securing points from year to year, adding a new point toward the drawing odds next year, and getting a new point if your name was not drawn for this year.
It becomes a waiting game. And so, some hunters will apply in their home state, and several
other states, knowing that the odds of a successful draw in all of them is remote at best. Lots of planning must take place to make multiple hunts take place during one year to accommodate travel times, peak rut times, and license specific hunt season dates.
Every serious hunter, archer or gun hunter already knows that hunting big game animals comes with no guarantee whatsoever. You could go home without an animal, but lots of memories and some serious miles of hiking left behind as the hunting party trekked the mountains, rangelands, wilderness forests or desert landscapes in search of the quarry animal. A term hunters use is “eating tag soup” for the opportunity — without a big game animal’s valuable meat and impressive antlers to bring home.
I have noted in my extensive readings of the hunts by others that it is all too typical to see the words “this was my seventh or eighth attempt to take this animal, and now on this date and time, my dream hunt came true. What that means is there was some serious money handed over to outfitters who earned their money for services rendered in every prior hunt, not just the hunt where a big game animal may have been taken.
The hunter had to save his or her money for a long time in order to go on the hunt knowing full well that the odds of taking the animal were never a sure thing. Experienced hunters sometimes do what is called DIY hunts. DIY stands for Do It Yourself — doing all the planning, scouting and actual hunting on public lands or secured private lands with permission.
Then comes the pack-in of all your gear into some remote area, set up camp, hunt, and if an animal is taken, field dress it, backpack all the meat out to the base camp and eventually again back to your truck at some remote trail head. This process has to be repeated multiple times before all the usable meat and finally the antlers or horns are brought out on the final pack.
This involves a lot of work with a capital “W” for sure, and if the hunt took place in grizzly bear habitat, an added huge safety factor is always just a heartbeat away. Talk about excitement,
this sure can be it.
One of the additional methods to raise some serious money for conservation involves what are sometimes called Governor’s Tags, or Super Raffle Tags, Minister’s Special Licenses (Canada), Statewide Auction Tags, or similar descriptions. The tags vary in many western states and are specific to species like mule deer, wild sheep, elk, bison, or moose, and also by specific game management units.
These tags are many times available as online auction items, or the tags can be presented as one of the live auction items at a large statewide conservation organization’s annual banquet or convention. Iowa is no different in this regard.
Iowa has produced and continues to produce a few exceptional huge antlered whitetail deer every year. The photos and stories of these animals may become a cover photo of a hunting magazine.
That story and associated publicity may make some hunters both in Iowa or other states want to come here and make an attempt (again, not a guarantee) at a big deer. Just a word of practical caution is in order: there is not a big antlered whitetail buck behind every bush or tree in Iowa, or other state, for that matter.
Iowa’s good reputation for the potential for large antlered deer is a function of genetics, good soils, good nutrition and for the hunter a lot of good luck. Residents buy their deer tags at resident rates. Non-residents pay premium prices for a license and have to apply for a license and point preferences.
On average, it takes three to four years for non-residents to draw a license in Iowa. If you have the financial freedom to afford a large purchase price, an Iowa Specialty Tag may be offered at a pre-approved conservation organization function. There are specific requirements that not-for-profit conservation organizations must meet in order to be issued a Specialty Tag that can be subsequently auctioned off.
One such organization is the Iowa Scholastic Clay Target Program Non-Resident Deer Tag Auction. This is in cooperation with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR). This organization sets the guidelines for people to apply. The winner receives a tag good for 1
any-sex deer and 1 antlerless deer.
The tag is valid statewide. A non-resident general hunting license is required to be purchased along with a non-resident habitat fee. The tag sale typically sells for many thousands of dollars.
Friends of Warren County Conservation is a 501(c)(3) organization. They recently sold an Iowa Specialty Deer Tag for $24,000.
Another organization is TIP of Iowa, Inc., which stands for Turn In Poachers. This organization’s purpose is to evaluate specific law enforcement adjudicated cases involving wildlife crimes. Confidential sources offer tips that allege that so and so is doing something illegal.
The case gets investigated, and may lead to charges and conviction. The tip provider may subsequently be anonymously given a monetary reward for the information they submitted. The simple truth is often that the case would not have been made at all if not for the tip information provided.
TIP of Iowa is presently conducting an email auction of a specialty tag they have. Their rules are simple. Submit via email a bid for the tag.
The top five bidders will be contacted at the close of regular bidding time. Then those top five will be contacted to indicate what the top five bid amounts are, without names, and allow each to up their bid if they want to.
They will have until noon on June 11 to send in a final bid. The highest bidder wins, and to sweeten the deal, any pre-approved conservation organization that is a 501(c)(3), any amount
of the bid above $498 will be tax deductible.
This deer tag sale has a reputation of bringing in over $20,000. As per the rules set by the Code of Iowa, one half of the sale proceeds go to the Iowa DNR, and the other half is retained by the selling organization.
Here are other examples of what other states are doing. Alaska has special licenses for Dall Sheep that in 2021 and 2022 sold for $175,000 and $170,000, respectively. They also have special permits for brown bear,moose, bison, Muskox, elk and caribou.
Alberta, Canada has already sold Minister’s tag good during 2023 for moose that sold for $28,000. A bighorn sheep tag went for $375,000. A mule deer tag sold for $225,000. A pronghorn antelope tag went for $10,500, and an elk tag hit the bid winner at $85,000.
Arizona has a big list of big game animals by management units. A Desert Bighorn Sheep tag brought in $270,000 for the upcoming 2023 season. A Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep hunting tag brought $200,000, and a mule deer tag went for $725,000.
A Coues (pronounced cows) deer tag was claimed for $34,000. Two pronghorn tags fetched $80,000 and another $50,000. Within the Navajo Nation, Desert Bighorn tags brought $62,500, and another garnered $85,000.
British Columbia, Canada sold a mountain sheep permit for $270,000. California sold a Desert Bighorn Sheep tag bringing in $160,000.
Colorado has a long list covering Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Mountain goat, elk deer and pronghorn. Idaho at the Wild Sheep Foundation convention sold a tag for $320,000. States to the east side of the Mississippi River, like Kentucky, will offer elk and deer, or just one or the other type tags later this year at conventions yet to be held. Maine will be offering 10 moose tags later this year.
The list of state offerings is much longer than what I have room for. A point I’ll make is that these specialty tags for big game animals add significant funds to both the 501(c)(3) organizations and to their respective department of natural resources.
While these funds are supplemental, the biggest piece of any DNR wildlife budget pie comes from common working folks who live and work in state, cannot afford expensive out-of-state hunting trips, and just buy resident licenses for the big game they will put into the food freezer each fall to help feed the family all winter long.
Hunting is conservation. All hunter fees paid make it possible. Fundraiser events add a bit of zest to conservation funding.
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Regarding sport hunting and conservation, Theodore Roosevelt said in 1893,”There is no objection to a reasonable amount of hunting. The encouragement of a proper hunting spirit, a proper love of sport, instead of being incompatible with a love of nature and wild things, offers the best guarantee for the preservation of wild things.”
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Garry Brandenburg is a graduate of Iowa State University with BS degree in Fish & Wildlife Biology. He is the retired director of the Marshall County Conservation Board. Contact him at PO Box 96, Albion, IA 50005.
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- PHOTOS BY GARRY BRANDENBURG — The opportunity to legally take a record book big game animal has to have a huge amount of circumstances all lined up in just the right way for a successful outcome. In the case of this whitetail deer, taken in Ohio by lady archer Nicole Miller in 2021, she purchased an archery tag just like any other hunter. Her success ultimately rested on being in the right place, right time when this buck presented an opportunity. She arrowed this buck in her home state of Ohio in 2021. Its official score is 191. As for the BigHorn Sheep image, this animal was also a bow and arrow hunt that took place in Taos County, N.M. in 2021. The archer was Brian Benyo, who had applied for many years and finally was successful on a draw. Its score is 189 2/8. Both of these trophy animals were on display at the April 2023 convention of the Pope & Young Club in Reno, Nev.. While the average hunter will buy a big game tag in their home state, many states also have special big game tags issued that are allotted to qualifying conservation organizations to auction off. Today’s story will highlight just a few of these above and beyond types of conservation funding supplements.
