[Pikebreath]

One thing lost in all this noise, is one of the reasons landowner tags were introduced for mule deer bucks was unscrupulous priority builders were applying in zones with few available tags and the high likelihood of not being drawn just to build priority if they didn't want the tag that year. Then when they did want to draw a tag they would switch to zones where their higher priority would pretty much guarantee a tag.

Imagine the frustration of local landowners in these high priority zones now having to wait years to get drawn becuz of these priority building WMU jumpers who had no intention of ever hunting in that zone!

Originally the landowner tags were available on a first come first served basis and capped at 10% of the total tag allocation. Since the number of land owner tags hardly ever reached the 10% cap, the cap in practice was no longer applied and it has only been in the last few years that the 10% allocation has come close to being filled or exceeded in some zones.

Landowner tags still didn't stop the practice of priority building WMU hoppers, so the 999 option was brought in in the early 2000's to allow applicants the chance to build priority and manage their draws without displacing serious applicants who actually wished to be drawn.

At first the 999 option was slow to catch on with the general hunting population as relatively few applicants used it, but it did remove some applicants from the real draw pool for a few years, and along with increasing deer populations meaning higher numbers of available tags, typical wait times for tags was every 2 -4 years.

Eventually, the 999 concept started catching on and more and more hunters started entering the draw just to build priority,. This past season over 24000 antlered mule deer hunters used the 999 option. This practice has encouraged higher participation rates in the draw system and eventually the chickens do come home to roost in the form of large numbers of high priority applicants finally jumping into the draw with many more priority points than what was previously need to get drawn. In other words the guys jumping in with a priority 6 - 8 are now displacing priority 3- 5's which may have gotten drawn in previous years. It's called "priority creep " folks.

Throw in a 50% increase of resident hunters in Alberta since the year 2000 and priority creep can only get worse under the current system.

What has been fairly constant through this time frame is the allocation of the harvest amongst the various user groups, Landowner tags have not exceeded the original 10% allocation (overall) and the same holds true for outfitter and hunter hosted non resident hunters.

Blaming landowner and non res allocations for this priority creep simply doesn't hold water when the real problem is larger numbers of resident applicants and fewer overall tags due to lower deer numbers.

Yes it is time to examine the allocations given to to landowners and non residents to ensure they stay within their allotment,,, and even perhaps the way these allocations are given out,,,, but to eliminate them purely on the "general principles of non land holding residents first and only" will only release a couple thousand tags into a pool already over 70000 strong when you consider all the applicants (including 999) which translates to one more tag in 35 years per resident hunter!!!