Free landowner elk permit process OK’d, deadline to apply moved back to June 1

Citing a short timeline for notifying participants, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission on Tuesday approved a deadline change and a new process for landowners to apply for free either-sex elk tags in return for providing public hunting access.

The rule change to a June 1 deadline only applies to this year, the commission decided at its monthly meeting in Helena. Next year April 15 to May 15 would be the application period. Before the third year, FWP is hoping to have a new proposal to the Legislature for more permanent guidelines.

Commissioner K.C. Walsh said he talked to the manager of a large ranch who knew nothing about changes to the Contractual Elk Public Access Agreements, also known as 454s after the House bill that created the rules. The tags are only good on the landowner’s property.

“He was completely unaware of this program,” Walsh said.

He is concerned the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ proposal to set a May 15 deadline for landowners to apply was too soon after the Tuesday approval of the new process.

Quentin Kujala, FWP’s chief of staff, said the May 15 deadline was picked to allow the agency time to comb through applications to ensure they met the new guidelines.

The department is unsure how many landowners will apply.

“That uncertainty is, again, one of the reasons you see the timeline that you do,” Kujala said.

Last year 13 requests were authorized after decades of only two agreements. The jump came after the Legislature made changes to the law, allowing landowners to pick one of the public hunters the landowners must allow in return for the free tag and dropping the number of public hunters from four to three.

The deadline also gives the department time to hold a drawing if too many landowners apply for the free tags. FWP will allow an allotment of 10% of the hunting district’s existing elk hunting quota to be awarded to the 454 agreements. If a drawing is held and a landowner seeks more than one permit, only one will be awarded in the first drawing. If there are still permits available, another drawing would be held until all of the requests are met or the quota is reached, Kujala explained. This would avoid awarding one landowner requesting four permits all four of those tags while the landowner seeking one gets nothing.

Thomas Baumeister, vice chair of the Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, said this was the first and only time the public had the opportunity to comment on the changes. He also pointed out the 10% additional free landowner tags would be on top of another 10% FWP Director Hank Worsech decided to hand out to hunters following last week’s drawing snafu in certain districts. That means some areas could see quotas as high as 20% more than what biologists had recommended and the commission has approved, he added.

William Geer, of the Hellgate Hunters and Anglers in Missoula, also said his group does not appreciate the 454 tags being in addition to the existing quotas.

“We are already witnessing declines in the quality of hunting and elk populations in coveted units like the Missouri Breaks,” he said. “Biological carrying capacity and science-based management must be the guiding principles of elk management statewide in order to provide Montana hunters with continued opportunities to enjoy quality hunting in these districts.”

Commissioner Brian Cebull said he appreciated the new approach following last year’s “chaotic” situation. He sees the 454 agreements as a way for hunters to get “quality access” and encouraged the department to award the agreements to landowners who provide the best opportunity and experience.

That prompted Commissioner Pat Byorth to say the 454 agreements should not be looked at as an access program. The statute was written by the Legislature for wildlife management purposes on private land that is not accessible, not as a substitute for the Block Management Program that pays landowners to provide public hunting access.

“If we adopt a qualitative approach, that is one of the criterion that should be addressed,” Byorth said. “(Because) these are highly restrictive. They’re restricted to a very small geographic area. They are also restrictive in the sense that a third of the public hunting opportunity for cow (elk) is going to be regulated by the ranch owner. So it’s not whoever signs up for Block Management or whoever gets there in time. It’s very exclusive.”

If the agreements start to cost the state Block Management participants, Byorth said the commission needs to take a “serious look at that.”

Byorth also said the statute is very clear that the agreements are not mandatory, noting the Legislature put in the word “may,” not “shall.”

“The process as laid out addresses much of my concerns,” he added. “But I just wanted to make sure we are all on the same page, that this is not a substitute for Block Management and just a way to lead us down the primrose path of landowner tags that can be bought and sold.”

His statement prompted a reply from Commissioner Pat Tabor, who said, “Relative to what Commissioner Byorth said, and I think they were interesting comments, but I believe I heard yesterday in the working session pretty clearly that access is management. Gaining access on a lot of these areas that heretofore we haven’t been able to get access will be part and parcel of part of our overall management program. I think that’s one of the reasons behind 454.”

The new application process, with the updated June 1 deadline, was passed unanimously by the commission.