And it's entirely due to the work of the California Chapter of the Wild Sheep Foundation!
There are 29 tags total, three of which are fundraising tags, the third of which is new this year and sold for tens of thousands of dollars.
There are also two non-resident eligible tags this year, not counting the three fundraising tags.
CA has great sheep in the overwhelming majority of its hunt zones.
Apply!
Gave up on ever getting a tag there a long time ago but might start applying again if there was an archery tag...
"Zero tags in the San Gorgonios? What's up with that? That unit has always had two tags."
Pneumonia due to contact with domestic sheep...……...AGAIN!
Seriously? That's amazing... entirely... hmmm... Ed F
Touche, but I believe it is an absolutely fair comment it wouldn't have happened without funding provided by CA WSF.
It happens several times each year across the west.
The reason there are no tags in the Old Dad Peak zone, which used to have 4 tags, is due to the same thing in early 2013.
75% of the herd was lost and of those that survived, lamb recruitment is close to zero.
It can take up to twenty years before lamb recruitment returns to normal levels.
Not to mention the years of effort it took to get DFW to agree they were not issuing enough tags.
"Pneumonia due to contact with domestic sheep...……...AGAIN!"
The situation could have been stopped, 4 years ago we were taking pictures with Domestic and Wild sheep in the same frame. It was reported however apparently it fell on deaf ears.
Our DFW in an interesting department. Sometimes I think their goal is less wildlife, not more.
At least we have WSF
That's the result of a bill CA WSF wrote and got passed a few years ago which threw out the 'not more than one tag' language from a law which was written in 1986.
I did that a few years after that.
The NR thing was a small part of the bill. I only added that because CA was way out of line with what other states were doing.
The most important things were it took the setting of the tag fees out of the legislature's hand and put them in the hands of the Commission, which can now adjust fees according to what is reasonable.
The new law also allowed NGOs which sell fundraising tags to retain 5% of the sale price and add a Buyer's Premium.
Prior to that, CA DFW got 100% of 'all revenues.'
They are not.
There is no 'rounding up,' so even if those three tags were included, it still would mean two NR tags, not three.
