Big game brings big bucks

Conservation groups and state wildlife agencies earned big bucks by auctioning a few coveted big-game hunting permits to the highest bidder at fundraising events in the West this winter.

Montana offered five big-game hunting licenses which attracted bids totaling $211,000. The state Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department received 90 percent of the auction money while the conservation groups kept 10 percent for their part in organizing the events.

The auctioned tags – for bighorn sheep, moose, mule deer, elk and mountain goat – allow the hunter to hunt anyplace in Montana where the season for a particular species is open.

Similar auctions were held for tags in Idaho and Washington.

“The money all goes to research management and habitat tied to that specific species,” said Ron Aasheim, head of conservation education for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The Foundation for North American Wild Sheep auctioned Montana’s 2007 bighorn-sheep license for $140,000 and the moose license for $20,000. The Mule Deer Foundation auctioned a mule-deer license for $15,000.

All three of those licenses were auctioned in January at the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo in Salt Lake City.

In February, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation auctioned Montana’s elk license for $27,000 and the mountain-goat license for $9,000. The sales were at the foundation’s 23rd annual Elk Camp and Hunting, Fishing and Outdoor Expo in Reno, Nev.

The bighorn sheep tag is the most coveted of the auctioned tags. Montana’s record amount is a $310,000 bid in 1994.

Washington bighorn sheep herds have lost some of their luster for attracting big bids at the FNAS auction, although this year’s permit was purchased for $61,000, up from $50,000 last year. The high bidder for the permit to hunt in any unit open to sheep hunting was Charles Johnson of New Brighton, Minn.

Other bids for Washington permits the state offered at fundraising auctions this years include $47,000 for East Side elk, $24,000 for moose, $22,000 for West Side elk, $13,000 for East Side deer, $7,000 for mountain goat, $3,000 for West Side Deer.

Idaho’s bighorn sheep tag, the only permit the state offers for auction, was picked up by Ken Trudell of Green Bay, Wis., for $100,000.

While out-of-state hunters typically are the high bidders for bighorn sheep tags in these auctions, the states also have permit raffle drawings at prices that appeal to more local hunters.

Montana raised $324,660 in 2006 when it introduced its SuperTag raffle, in which hunters pay $5 for each chance to draw a tag that would allow them to hunt a particular species anywhere in Montana, all hunting season long.

(The Great Falls Tribune contributed to this story.)