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Controversial elk hunting regs on Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission agenda Friday – Daily Montanan

['Keila Szpaller', 'More From Author', '- February']

Date: 2022-02-03 00:00:00

If elk were dimwitted and equally distributed across Montana, setting rules for hunting them might be easier.

But the ungulates can apparently figure out where to elude bullets and arrows, and in the face of a more-than-healthy elk population in many places but too few in others, the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department is working through a new set of hunting regulations to address the conundrum.

“The reality is we’ve got places where there’s too many hunters and not enough elk on public land,” said Greg Lemon, spokesperson for FWP. “And we’ve got places where there’s too many elk and not enough access on private land. And we’ve got a statutory requirement to manage to the (population) objective.”

Friday, the Fish and Wildlife Commission will take up a version of the new regulations and will likely make a decision for the 2022-2023 hunting season. The content of the changes for elk and the process have created significant controversy, and some hunters say the messy update has created confusion.

“I’m semi-retired,” said Thomas Baumeister, who worked for FWP for 20 years. “This is a full-time job. This is whiplash. I am not the dumbest guy. I’ve been around so long. If you ask me, ‘What are the proposals before us right now?’ I have to throw up my hands. I don’t have a freaking idea. That is a problem.”

As a result, some constituents are asking the Commission to hit pause, go with the status quo for the next couple of seasons, or at least hold off on significant changes to the regulations for elk hunting.

“(I’m) not sure if the stakes have ever been this high in Montana,” said Baumeister, now with the Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. “It’s not really and ultimately about elk. It’s about the haves and have nots and the growing inequality in this country.”

Mac Minard, though, head of the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association, said in the uproar, the problem of how to deal with a number of elk that’s far too high has been overshadowed.

“In the face of an incredible biological surplus of elk, there has been a tremendous loss of hunting opportunities by residents and nonresidents,” Minard said.

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As hunters and sportsmen like Baumeister see it, the changes being proposed represent a shift in the Montana ethic of protecting and managing wildlife as a public resource to managing elk as a commodity. Baumeister points to the elimination of the archery-only either-sex (900-20) permit as one example.

Anymore, he said, the most desirable opportunity for hunters is to hunt elk with a bow and arrow during the archery-only season in September: “That’s when the elk bugle. It’s a nice time of year. It’s just the best. You can’t top that.”

In the past, the opportunity for that hunt was limited and of high quality, he said. Licenses for nonresidents are capped at 17,000, and archery hunters still needed that 900-20 permit, of which there was a limited number. Because the proposal does away with the second hurdle, he said, the regulation would mean outfitters and landowners can rely on a steady stream of nonresident and resident bowhunters.

“They’re not aimed at making sure you have the opportunity to hunt elk on public land if you decide to do that,” Baumeister said of the proposed regulations. “They are really only designed to facilitate more hunting on private land by commercializing, monetizing that opportunity.”

People on both sides of the fence note elk are abundant on some private ranches but out of reach to many hunters. In the past, though, Minard said the regulations were punitive toward landowners in the hopes they would open their gates to the public.

“Think that punitive actions directed toward landowners will result in open gates?” he said. “It ain’t gonna happen.”

But he said he believes there’s a way for the Fish and Wildlife Commission to put sideboards on its current proposal, such as adjust quotas, rather than do away with limits given the public outcry. Regardless, he said something must be done to open up opportunities, and he sees no good reason to delay decisions.

“We’ve got an amazing shift in our demographic in Montana, and we’ve got landowners coming here with wealth buying up property, and they’re not interested in hunting,” Minard said. “Or if they are, they are interested in hunting for themselves. And that has caused a lot of problems with people. People say, ‘That’s public wildlife.’ That’s true. But that’s private land. And that’s true, too. You have to deal with the realities and the things you can actually control.”

The changes being proposed aren’t just tweaks, though, and one criticism is that a major revamping is moving so quickly, animosity is breeding between interest groups. In fact, some constituents argue the Fish and Wildlife Commission should tap the brakes on such an overhaul until a new elk management plan is in place. The current plan is from 2005, and in April 2020, the Commission authorized FWP to start working on an update.

“Given the changes that have occurred in Montana since then (2005), updating the plan is necessary to provide a framework for FWP to effectively manage elk populations on a changing landscape,” said the plan’s draft guidance from a citizens group.

FWP has said the seasonal updates to hunting regulations and revisions to the management plan will happen on parallel tracks. But it’s the Fish and Wildlife Commission that will make decisions Friday on whether to make changes to hunting regulations, and if so, how extensive they will be.

The argument that FWP could do more to shed light on existing programs that already can help alleviate problems is in the mix, too. For example, Rep. Marilyn Marler, D-Missoula, said the block management program means a private property owner who allows the public to hunt on their land gets reimbursed by the state, and the program offers the landowner a lot of control.

“I would really like us to increase awareness of that program and how it works,” said Marler, also member of the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee and outspoken advocate for managing elk as a public resource. “I’ve been so grateful for private ranch owners in eastern Montana who let me come on to hunt antelope.”

The Commission takes up revised hunting regulations every other year, and it meets 8:30 a.m. Friday, to talk about the 2022-2023 season. Elk regulations are on the agenda. Watch the meeting here: https://fwp.mt.gov/aboutfwp/commission.

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