Ruling could force change in Montana

BOZEMAN — A federal judge’s ruling in an Arizona case involving caps on nonresident hunters and the fees they must pay may affect similar regulations in Montana, a state wildlife agency attorney says.

Montana will either have to change its big-game hunting regulations or face an inevitable lawsuit from nonresident hunters disgruntled by high fees and limits on the number of licenses available, said Tom Lane of the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Reacting to a ruling striking down Arizona’s 10 percent cap on nonresident elk and deer licenses, Lane told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that the same or similar plaintiffs will challenge Montana’s rules.

In fact, the Arizona plaintiffs already have visited Montana officials, Lane said, but they stopped short of saying they would sue. However, they specifically suggested Montana change the way it issues big-game licenses, he said.

U.S. District Judge Robert Broomfield ruled July 13 that by limiting nonresidents to 10 percent of available licenses, Arizona violated the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

A commercial hunter from New Mexico sued the Arizona Fish and Game Department. He contended the state’s rules deprived him of an equal opportunity to obtain elk and deer heads and antlers, which can be worth thousands of dollars to collectors, and Broomfield agreed.

Lane said Montana legislators could pass a law next session making it illegal for anyone to sell the hide, head or antlers of a game animal, and that could address the commerce issue of the Arizona case.

But it wouldn’t address a growing resentment of nonresidents who face steep obstacles in some cases to hunt in other states, particularly high-demand Western states, he said.

Like Arizona, Montana has a quota for nonresident elk and deer licenses, currently 11,500. This year, 14,897 people applied for those tags.

One important difference in Montana is that any nonresident can avoid the quota by paying a higher fee for a guaranteed-issue tag, Lane said. That license requires the nonresident to hunt with a licensed guide.

That means nonresidents would pay $877, or 55 times the $16 resident elk license fee, for a guaranteed tag. Nonresident hunters can enter a drawing and pay $590 for an elk license if they’re lucky enough to get one, still 37 times as much as a resident pays.

Courts have ruled states have a right to treat nonresident hunters differently than residents, Lane said, and the state agency probably will wait to change its system “until a court tells us it’s invalid.”