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A little GA controversy...

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ssramage

ssramage

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Apr 26, 2020
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191
Location
Saint Simons Island, GA
Mentioning it here for further visibility because it seems to be occurring in other states as well (TN, AL, etc).

Long story short, our state DNR made the decision for 2022 to reduce turkey bag limits and season dates, particularly on public land. Our turkey population has been consistently declining over the last 10 years. While not ideal, time will tell if these tactics have an effect.

Where the controversy really begins, is that it has come to light that the state of GA as well as a few others, have teamed up with popular Youtube hunting shows (THP) and are paying them to promote public land hunting in those states. It seems very counter-intuitive to me to sponsor a hunting show based on traveling, non-resident hunters all while reducing hunting opportunities for residents. Throughout the course of their videos, they mentioned several times how cheap it was to hunt GA as a non-resident.

I encourage anyone who may live in one of the other states visited by THP (or any other popular personality) to reach out to their state DNR and inquire as to whether they have a financial arrangement with these parties.
GA THP1.jpg
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I saw this when it was posted in facebook but didn't reply over there. I don't see what the problem is, pretty much all state DNR's have a certain amount of money they spend on marketing every year. the budget is set, they either use that money on commercials, or ads online, or, in this case, partnering with a yourube channel to bring exposure. its not like they took money away from other stuff, that money was going to be spent on advertizing regardless. as for the in state vs out of state thing, out of state licenses generate more revenue per resurce (turkey), they likely have a certain portion of their existing marketing budget for out of state, and a portion for in state. If the resource is in decline, and the best revenue generator for the resource is liense sales, doesn't it make sense to try to sell more of the expensive version, and generate more funds?
 
thedutchtouch said:
I saw this when it was posted in facebook but didn't reply over there. I don't see what the problem is, pretty much all state DNR's have a certain amount of money they spend on marketing every year. the budget is set, they either use that money on commercials, or ads online, or, in this case, partnering with a yourube channel to bring exposure. its not like they took money away from other stuff, that money was going to be spent on advertizing regardless. as for the in state vs out of state thing, out of state licenses generate more revenue per resurce (turkey), they likely have a certain portion of their existing marketing budget for out of state, and a portion for in state. If the resource is in decline, and the best revenue generator for the resource is liense sales, doesn't it make sense to try to sell more of the expensive version, and generate more funds?
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Not at all.
The state, per their own words, used funding from hard card license sales (an additional upgrade/fee) to fund these programs. The goal as they stated was to drive awareness for GA residents about hunting opportunities. Please explain to me how marketing through a Midwest group targeted towards traveling hunters effects this strategy?

I do agree with one point that you made though. The state did it to drive license sales and revenues. The sad shame of that is that the state of GA, in comparison to other states, does a very poor job of managing the resources. An increase in revenue won't fix that.

For all those saying that you see no problem with it, wait until THP or similar visits a public property near you and see how quickly it degrades.

To be clear, I have absolutely zero problem with Hunter recruitment. But this isn't recruiting new hunters. It's using revenue generated from resident hunters to further constrain resources that are already at risk and for which opportunities are being limited.
 
ssramage said:
The goal as they stated was to drive awareness for GA residents about hunting opportunities. Please explain to me how marketing through a Midwest group targeted towards traveling hunters effects this strategy?
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Where in their email response did it specify "for GA residents"? It says "used to spread awareness of Georgia Hunting".
 
LAKY said:
Where in their email response did it specify "for GA residents"? It says "used to spread awareness of Georgia Hunting".
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Sorry, this has been an ongoing debate. It's not in the above screenshot, but came from the state deer biologist after asking for a statement from the director quoted above.

Again, I have zero problem with Hunter recruitment. What I do have a problem with is driving revenue from license sales, while systematically reducing hunting opportunities, and spending money on this vs improvement of habitat.
 
It does seem wrong to reduce access to the resource for state residents while promoting that same resource to non-residents.
 
ssramage said:
Mentioning it here for further visibility because it seems to be occurring in other states as well (TN, AL, etc).

Long story short, our state DNR made the decision for 2022 to reduce turkey bag limits and season dates, particularly on public land. Our turkey population has been consistently declining over the last 10 years. While not ideal, time will tell if these tactics have an effect.

Where the controversy really begins, is that it has come to light that the state of GA as well as a few others, have teamed up with popular Youtube hunting shows (THP) and are paying them to promote public land hunting in those states. It seems very counter-intuitive to me to sponsor a hunting show based on traveling, non-resident hunters all while reducing hunting opportunities for residents. Throughout the course of their videos, they mentioned several times how cheap it was to hunt GA as a non-resident.

I encourage anyone who may live in one of the other states visited by THP (or any other popular personality) to reach out to their state DNR and inquire as to whether they have a financial arrangement with these parties.
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Sorry but i kind of figured this stuff was going on
I think your gonna eventually find that there is alot more into this than people think.
The deal is probably not the only thing that goes on.
are they getting special permission, For certain untouched public properties?
i would love to know or find out.
i would say with these types of deals that pertain to marketing (yes) they most likely are.
very interesting this is.
these pieces are far from heavy pressured properties.
the truth of what really is going on with these groups and influencers trying to collect followers sponsors and views any way they can may start to come out.
I figured it would somehow start to emerge one day.
Sad and so disappointing.
Love these guys and its very disappointing.
Im reslly findong that Most of these teams or groups dont tell you the whole story of how they achieve success.
I guess we shall see.
 
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So my question is how much did they get to do this? Free license? $1000? That amount will determine how I feel about it. Hunting is not a members only club. It should be open to everyone. People paying hunters to endorse there product is nothing new. I hate the ones that tell you the only reason they killed that animal was because of X brand product. Those guys have not done that after a kill. They have done a few side videos promoting things. But I can't recall them standing over an animal saying we only killed him because of XXX brand.
These guys achieved success by taking a chance, some hard work, and ability to hunt, film, edit, and be likeable on a screen. They were not handed anything. They were only sought out after they had success. If they made some money on it. Good for them. I am jealous that's how they make money.
 
ssramage said:
Not at all.
The state, per their own words, used funding from hard card license sales (an additional upgrade/fee) to fund these programs. The goal as they stated was to drive awareness for GA residents about hunting opportunities. Please explain to me how marketing through a Midwest group targeted towards traveling hunters effects this strategy?

I do agree with one point that you made though. The state did it to drive license sales and revenues. The sad shame of that is that the state of GA, in comparison to other states, does a very poor job of managing the resources. An increase in revenue won't fix that.

For all those saying that you see no problem with it, wait until THP or similar visits a public property near you and see how quickly it degrades.

To be clear, I have absolutely zero problem with Hunter recruitment. But this isn't recruiting new hunters. It's using revenue generated from resident hunters to further constrain resources that are already at risk and for which opportunities are being limited.
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Maybe if there was a popular utuber that lived in Georgia with the same # of followers and influence that specialized in hunting public land they would reach out to them.....

THP can come hunt around my area whenever they like...wouldn't bother me a bit. My state takes my money and uses it however they wish and I don't have a say as to exactly how that $120 is spent.
 
I understand some of the initial angst from hunters and I certainly don't want to come off as a contrarian, but some GA folks aren't seeing the forest for the trees on this matter.

Firstly, the lionshare of most state wildlife management agencies' budgets come from nonresident fees and, for the most part, those funds are mandated to stay within the agency. They don't make much on resident license sales (especially from cheapskates like me that hold lifetime licences). That's really the end goal of these partnerships is to sell more nonresident permits.

Secondly, there's a reality in government budgeting that if there is a line item for something (in this case outreach), then it better get spent or it's not going to be there on the next budget cycle...guaranteed. From that perspective, you could say the GADNR dang sure got every penny worth on 200k+ Youtube views of micro tuned, targeted advertising.

Lastly, I can help but to think there's some underlying resentment that we've all been duped into believing THP is operating solely on love, peanut butter, and unicorn farts. Then low and behold we find out they're leveraging their platform to pay for the petro. Good for them, I say!

Would people feel better if the DNR dropped that line item on an I-95 billboard that was put together for pennies on the dollar and meanwhile some marketing firm's CEO on his yacht in the Bahamas makes a few grand for doing absolutely nothing?

I genuinely feel bad for the fella that sees 2 extra trucks parked at his favorite WMA logging road gate next year and somehow equates it back the partnership between GADNR and THP. Even if the two things are related, it's a tiny weeny bit of collateral damage in the grand scheme of things.
 
Respectfully guys we don't do politics here. Closing.

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