CABELA"S is taking over just an FYI

[Elkforever]

go to http//www.richl@spokeman.com and see how Cabela's is turning their empire into nothing more then a rich buy the best menality....In short they are buying up numerous ranches that are game rich and all the property around them to sell wildlife santuaries to the rich through their trophy real estate Market...One qoute goes as far as them buying up access points to 375,000 acres of BLM land to sell through their Trophy Real Estate Division. or check the article in the Olympian newspaper in the Outdoors section...I put up their link but it didnt take one to the right place.

[Kemo Sabe]

Cabela's is only one of many who are doing the same thing. It's been going on for years. Welcome to the new West. Sad thing is, a lot of hunters support it.

[NONYA]

They just donated 50,000 to the MT fish and game fund after the Montana sportsmans alliace boycotted them for the BS they are pulling here,they made a public apolagy and pulled their adds sellling land that was advertised as accessing landlocked public land or ripe for developement,RAISE burn IN YOUR STATE<they fold easily.

[MuleyMadness]

Here is the article in question...

1/24/08

Sportsmen take retail giant to task

By Rich Landers
The Spokesman-Review


It's a lot like a David vs. Goliath story, except that in the case of
Montana sportsmen vs. Cabela's, the underdog isn't aiming to kill.

After all, the Cabela's catalog may be the only "book" many of the
sportsmen have read this year, and it cost them significantly more than
a library card.

Doubtless many of them will be standing in line when the industry giant
opens its Billings retail store - the first in Montana - later this
year.

Sportsmen don't just patronize Cabela's, they have revered it into the
Oprah of outdoor gear.

But the Nebraska-based retailer hit a Montana hot button last year as
the company's real estate operations targeted prime hunting and fishing
properties in the Treasure State.

Montana sportsmen, informed by savvy outdoor writers - Mark Henckel of
the Billings Gazette, Mike Babcock at the Great Falls Tribune and Bill
Schneider of NewWest.net - began sniffing a rat that was getting fat on
Average Joes at the checkstand and then moving in to gobble up their
prime places to hunt and fish.

When applied to Cabela's, the term "mega bucks" doesn't mean deer. The
company generates $2 billion in sales through 25 retail stores, a Web
site that receives 40 million hits a month, and 130 million catalogs
distributed nationwide.

But in recent months, a few thousand Montana sportsmen were destroying
those catalogues or sending them back to Cabela's in protest.

Sportsmen accused the company's advertising for touting ranches with
exclusive hunting opportunities that could involve denying access to
nearby public land.

"I can't fight gazillionaires over (access to) a road, that's been there
since statehood, once they put a gate up," Rod Bullis, a hunter from
Lincoln, told The Associated Press last week.

The protest officially began in May with a letter to Dennis Highby,
Cabela's president, from Craig Sharpe, executive director of the
7,000-member Montana Wildlife Federation. Sharpe zeroed in on the
company's involvement in selling key pieces of wildlife habitat,
including a 29,000-acre Winnett-area ranch that had previously been
enrolled in the state's Block Management Program.

For perspective, Idaho and Washington wildlife managers are desperately
trying to find funding for models to Montana's Block Management Program,
which pays farmers and ranchers to provide free public access to
resident and non-resident hunters.

However, Sharpe pointed out that sales of recreational property almost
always result in a loss of public access for hunting and fishing.

"And, frankly," Henckel reported, "the MWF wonders why Cabela's wants to
be a part of that."

At that time, Cabela's Trophy Properties listed 72 recreational lands in
Montana ranging to $6 million.

Sales verbiage raised eyebrows, Henckel reported. For example:

*"Last large bighorn sheep range in Montana."

*"Waterfowl sanctuary entwined along 1.5 miles of the Yellowstone River
with three private islands."

*"Access to over 375,000 acres of BLM."

Sharpe's letter unloaded on the industry giant: "The MWF Executive Board
finds that Cabela's is trading on its trusted reputation as a merchant
of sporting goods to engage in a real estate marketing activity that is
calculated to subvert and destroy the very system of North American
wildlife conservation that has provided Cabela's with the
hunter-and-angler markets that gave your company life in the first
place."

Cabela's responded with three quick misfires, according to Schneider.

*Company spokesman David Draper insulted Montana hunters, saying they
shouldn't fret because the properties sales were "probably going to make
the land better."

*The head of Cabela's Trophy Properties tried to dodge the bullet,
saying the company isn't really in the real estate business, just the
real estate marketing business.

*Cabela's third response, Schneider said, was the old "can't we just get
along" comeback, which included an invitation for the MWF board to an
exclusive VIP reception at the Billings store opening.

Whoopie!

But as news of the protest sifted out of the sparsely populated state,
the Cabela's high brass saw the tarnish creeping into their worshiped
name brand.

Last week, Cabela's Vice President Mike Callahan, a former Montanan,
showed up at the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission meeting
with a $50,000 check and a pledge for another $60,000 over five years to
support the state's land-access programs.

Callahan said the company will change how it markets Montana. Under new
policies, Cabela's will not advertise the prospect of subdividing land
in Montana and will avoid undermining existing Block Management
contracts, he said.

The sportsmen apparently were heard.

"None of this is illegal, of course," Henckel said. "It's not
necessarily immoral or unethical, either. It's an owner's right to sell
and a buyer's right to do what he wants with the property."

But, he suggested, sportsmen all over the country need to stand up for
access, the foundation of their sport, before they lose it to the rich
and those who pander to them.

[NONYA]

Islands in our rivers are STATE LAND not private,isnt it illegal to sell state land?They cancelled plans to build a cabelas neasr here this coming summer,guesss they found out we dont need them or the crap they drag along with em.

[Joshs68]

Is this why here in Nebraska we only have less than 2% public land?? yeah thats right 2% of this whole really large state is public land.

[southwind]

But, he suggested, sportsmen all over the country need to stand up for
access, the foundation of their sport, before they lose it to the rich
and those who pander to them.

This may be the most important issue to our hunting lives. I have a huge problem with there being no public easement to any piece of public land.

I can see the tide turning towards the only way to play is your going to have to pay. I not saying we have to do away with outfitters I just want there to be a balance of fairness of access and opportunity that is not based on how big your wallet is.

[NONYA]

This year Montana is limiting the number of the previously unlimited tags that the outfitters have been taking advantage of to overhunt certian areas,they need to be regulated just like us,people in MT and sick and tired of them leasing up the land that used to be open to the public or in the block managment program,with limited tag numbers they wont be able to buy out these block managment land owners and we will have our access back.

[mossyoak24]

All i have to say is UFO and the sportsman for wildlife!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cabelas are not the only ones trying to rob our animals right out from under us.

[NONYA]

I just returned the hardcover master catalog they sent me with a nice little note letting them know I didnt want anything to do with em.