Limiting Outsiders

Sun., Nov. 26, 2000

Staff

Hunting

Montana’s wildlife agency is hoping to put limits on nonresident bird hunting to improve hunting opportunities for residents.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks Commission Chairman Stan Meyer said the objective is to accommodate “the casual Montana bird hunter by not having to compete with the hard-core nonresident hunters.”

“We’re trying to maintain a piece of the Montana tradition where a father and a son can go out and not pay a fee and find a place to hunt.”

The Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department wants to cap the growing numbers of nonresident bird hunters, shorten the nonresident pheasant season and keep nonresidents from hunting birds on state wildlife areas.

The proposal that will be considered by the commission in December would:

Cap at 11,000 the number of nonresident bird licenses sold annually. FWP sold 10,969 of these licenses in 1999;

Allow resident-only pheasant hunting for the first nine days of the season and approximately the final two weeks of the season. No nonresident hunting would be allowed during that time period;

Reserve for residents-only upland game bird hunting opportunities on about 13 agency-managed wildlife areas.

This season, the state doubled the cost of the nonresident bird license from $55 to $110. The increase has reduced sales of nonresident licenses by about 20 percent so far this year.

Gunderson said nonresident upland bird hunter numbers have been climbing at a rate of about 600 per year. In 1988, there were 3,274 nonresident bird hunters. That number rose to 10,969 in 1999.

Private lands leased by all Montana outfitters, to hunt all big game, bird and waterfowl species, totaled 7.9 million acres in 1998, an increase of 31 percent since 1993.

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