Deadline
to comment Jan. 27
By Jessianne Castle EBS ENVIRONMENTAL & OUTDOORS EDITOR
BOZEMAN –
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is in the final days of a month-and-a-half-long
public comment period for proposed changes to a number of hunting regulations
that would take effect for the 2020 hunting season. The measure is part of the
biennial season-setting process and includes proposals for deer and elk, moose,
bighorn sheep and wolves, among others.
Initially,
public comment was slated to close Jan. 22, however that deadline was extended
to Monday, Jan. 27 at 5 p.m. The Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider the
proposals for final adoption on Thursday, Feb. 13 in Helena.
In many
cases, proposals for Region 3, which encompasses most of southwest Montana, seek
to clarify regulations by combining select hunting districts into single larger
districts or adjusting species-specific districts so that area boundaries are
more consistent with other species.
As an
example, FWP is proposing to combine moose hunting districts 306, 307 and 310,
which include portions of the Gallatin Canyon, under the single 310 hunting
district. Combined this way, moose hunting district 310 would match deer and
elk hunting district 310. The department is proposing to allow a single bull
moose to be harvested from this area.
“Discussions
within MT FWP and with Gallatin residents and sportspersons led to the idea
that if we opened the three districts together to one antlered bull license, it
would retain hunter opportunity on the landscape, while keeping it at a
conservative level to protect moose populations,” Bozeman area biologist Julie
Cunningham told EBS last fall. She added that in recent years there’s been a
downtick in moose numbers.
“Regarding
why moose numbers have declined, there are many potential factors,” she said. “I’ve
opportunistically documented moose mortalities since 2012 and have documented
17 mortalities on Highway 191. The next most common cause of death has been
disease with winter tick infections and arterial worm infections.”
In another
effort to simplify regulations and to prevent mule deer in the greater Bozeman
area from becoming urbanized, according to justification documents released by
FWP, there is a proposal to eliminate the 25 mule deer B licenses that were
initially created in 2005, instead making either-sex mule deer hunting valid
for the area’s general district 309 deer tag.
According to
the documents prepared by Cunningham, “This proposal alone may not be enough to
prevent urban mule deer challenges, but it should help. The proposal would
allow all hunters … freedom to harvest mule deer does in the greater Bozeman
area. Mule deer harvest data in HD 309 will continue to be monitored annually.”
Cunningham
also reported that mule deer buck harvest is above the long-term average, which
indicates the population is likely above average and could support additional
hunting.
In regard to
wolf hunting, the Fish and Wildlife Commission during a Dec. 5 meeting directed
the department to request public input on lowering the quota from 2 to 1 in the
two hunting districts adjacent to the Yellowstone National Park boundary near
Gardiner and Cooke City.
Commission
Vice-Chariman Rich Stuker made the initial recommendation, saying the area’s
elk numbers are at objective and that there is a large cohort of individuals
who come to the area to view wolves. He added that given Senate Bill 200 which
was passed in 2013 and authorizes landowners to kill wolves that threaten human
safety, livestock or domestic dogs, there are tools available to landowners to
manage wolf conflicts. Under this authority, Montana landowners have taken
between three and 12 wolves each year.
“We’re not
just looking at one group of users for our wildlife. The non-consumptive users,
they also have a place within our society,” Stuker said. “I’m hoping that
somewhere down the road we can get that group to provide additional funding for
the department as right now we all understand the hunters and the anglers
pretty much fund the department.”
Among the
proposals for elk hunting is the suggestion to continue many of the elk
shoulder seasons—a structure that allows elk to be harvested outside of the
general five-week hunting season in October and November. This measure is an
effort to reduce elk populations that are over objective and in some cases also
addresses concerns over the spread of the highly contagious brucellosis disease.
For the
areas around Bozeman, hunting districts 312 and 317, elk numbers are still too
high and future shoulder seasons are proposed to continue to Feb. 15.
Proposals
for the area’s mountain ungulate populations reflect an apparent ebb in
numbers. The only regulation change in the region for mountain goats looks at
combining districts 327 and 328 on the south end of the Madison Range north of
Quake Lake and dropping the combined quota from 4 to 2. “These two areas have
not shown high enough counts to justify current harvest rates,” Cunningham
wrote in the justification documents.
For bighorn
sheep in the Spanish Peaks and Taylor-Hilgards, Cunningham has suggested
removing the ewe licenses that were initially introduced in 2012 and 2016
following several years of the highest population counts ever recorded in the
area. At the time, Cunningham said, the goal was to keep the sheep populations
at a number suitable for the available winter-range habitat. However, since
then the sheep have experienced years of low lamb production and severe winters
that killed lambs.
“These
licenses are no longer needed to regulate this population,” Cunningham wrote.
“Currently, both districts are meeting population objectives but both districts
have seen several years of lower-than-average recruitment.”
There are no
proposed changes to the either-sex bighorn sheep tags released for these
districts.
Comments on
each of the proposed hunting season changes may be submitted online, emailed
to fwpwld@mt.gov or by mailing them to FWP Wildlife, PO Box 200701, Helena
MT 59620-0701. They are due Monday, Jan. 27 at 5 p.m.
Visit fwp.mt.gov/hunting/publicComments/2019/biennialSeasonSetting.html for more information or to view a complete list of proposals.
