Montana hunters have it pretty good when it comes to access — over 7 million acres are currently enrolled in the Block Management Program, giving ordinary folks the chance to hunt private ground that would otherwise be locked up tight. But not all BMA land plays by the same rules, and if you’re planning to hunt private timberlands this season, you’d better know the difference before you park the truck and unlatch the tailgate.
Montana FWP put this video together specifically for hunters accessing private timberlands enrolled in BMA — and it’s worth your time. Timber company parcels often come with their own set of access requirements layered on top of the standard BMA rules: specific entry points, road restrictions, fire closure protocols, and in some cases, mandatory check-ins that go beyond what you’d deal with on a typical agricultural enrollment. In western Montana especially, where companies like Stimson Lumber and other industrial timberland owners participate in BMA partnerships, the terrain is incredible — big elk country, thick cover, the kind of ground that holds bulls into late season — but the access agreements are more complex. Burning that access through ignorance or carelessness isn’t just bad for you this year. It’s bad for every hunter who comes behind you.
That’s really the heart of what FWP is getting at here. The Block Management Program only works because landowners — including large timber corporations that have every financial incentive to gate their roads and walk away — choose to participate. When hunters leave gates open, cut fences, ignore posted boundaries, or treat private land like it’s a free-for-all, those landowners don’t renew. And once an enrollment drops off the BMA map, it almost never comes back. We’ve watched that happen across the state over the past two decades, and it stings every time a productive drainage goes dark on the access map right before archery season.
If you’re heading into any BMA ground this fall — but especially timber company parcels in places like the Clark Fork drainage, the Swan Valley corridor, or the breaks country in central Montana — take fifteen minutes and watch this video before you go. Know the specific rules for the parcel you’re hunting, sign in properly, and treat the land like your continued access depends on it. Because it does.
Editor’s note: Corrected the geographic location of Montana's 'breaks country,' which lies in central Montana rather than the southeast.
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