BRETT FRENCH | bfrench@billingsgazette.com
Across every category measured by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks it’s clear: nonresident and resident hunting license sales are up from a decade earlier.
At the same time, access to private land offered to hunters through the state’s Block Management Program is at its lowest level in its 29 year history.
The math is therefore simple, more hunters on less publicly accessible lands. As a result, resident hunters have been vocal in arguing they are being crowded out.
No. 1 issue
Rep. Courtenay Sprunger, R-Kalispell, provided a voice for those hunters during a Senate Fish and Game Committee hearing in 2025.
“We’ve all seen it,” she said. “We’ve pulled into a trailhead hoping for a quiet morning to hunt, only to find a packed lot full of out-of-state plates.”
“Outside of property tax, this is the issue that I heard the most about from my constituents,” she said. “People are frustrated by their experiences in our great outdoors.”
Study due Dec. 1
To put numbers to what can be an emotional topic, Sprunger successfully carried House Bill 568, The Montana Hunters First Act.
HB 568 requires FWP to analyze several factors, including: a study of impacts on Montana’s hunting seasons related to the Block Management Program that pays landowners for the impacts of allowing public hunting; hunting season structure; and resident and nonresident license allocation.
Part of the research includes a survey being mailed out to 5,000 nonresident hunters for each species.
In presenting the bill to the Senate Fish and Game Committee last session, Sprunger said the data should help offer solutions to protect Montana’s hunting heritage.
“This is a complicated issue,” she told the committee. “It goes well beyond just increasing dollars and decreasing licenses.”
Looking at the numbers
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is now asking hunters to convey how their elk, deer and upland bird hunting experiences have changed over the last decade as part of the study. The agency has also posted some of the numbers it has tabulated on its website to further educate the public.
These include that from 2016 to 2025, nonresident’s pursuing only elk rose from about 5,200 hunters to 7,900 — a 52% increase.
That doesn’t capture the totality of elk hunting pressure, however. According to FWP’s elk harvest estimates, nonresidents pursuing elk in 2025 numbered more than 20,000, up 10% from 2016. In that same time span, they also spent 5,700 more days in the field.
Conversely, the number of resident hunters dropped in the same time span by more than 4,100 resulting in more than 51,000 fewer days afield. On a positive note, those fewer resident hunters killed about 1,800 more elk, a 9% increase.
Nonresident success also climbed, up by more than 800 animals, a 17% increase.
Matt Leow, of the Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, told the committee, “We look forward to this study that will help put some numbers to it and give us a path forward to address the problem that so many of us agree is real,”.
Statutes complicate change
Since HB 568 passed, the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission took a step to reduce hunting pressure in Eastern Montana by cutting nonresident mule deer licenses by 2,500, which was estimated to cost Fish, Wildlife & Parks $1.7 million in revenue each year.
Originally, commission chairwoman Lesley Robinson had proposed cutting licenses by 5,000, but backed off after running into legislative actions that tied her hands.
FWP chief of staff Quentin Kujala explained that certain statutes were a “very deliberate action by the Montana Legislature” to “put some certainty” into the outfitting business in Montana. Certainty of clientele, Kujala said, is something the outfitting industry depends on.
Avoiding the cap
The issue of resident concerns about nonresident hunting pressure is not new.
Forty-eight years ago, out of concern regarding the growing number of out-of-state hunters, the Montana Legislature approved a cap on nonresident big game combination licenses – 17,000 a year.
Since then, however, legislators have added numerous other nonresident tags.
In 2021, the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks sold more than 66,600 nonresident deer and elk licenses, according to information the Butte Skyline Sportsmen’s Association received through a public records’ request in 2023.
Licenses created that avoid the cap include the Coming Home to Hunt (quota 500 elk, 500 deer and 500 big game combo licenses) for residents who have moved out of state, nonresident deer combination licenses (quota 4,600) and nonresident native licenses (no cap), nonresident student hunting licenses for college attendees (unlimited) and landowner sponsored deer combination licenses (quota 2,000).
Agency headwinds
Research mandated by HB 568 is meant to lead to legislation that can help address constituent complaints. Part of the problem is that nonresident license sales fund a big chunk of FWP’s budget.
Some residents have said they are willing to pay higher hunting license fees if the state would be willing to reduce nonresident hunter numbers. But any legislation reducing nonresident license sales is likely to face push-back from groups like the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association.
“Limits on licenses, permits and tags have a devastating impact on this industry,” Will Israel, executive director of MOGA, told a legislative committee in 2025. “We would generally be in opposition to any kind of restrictions, limitations, permits, things of that nature, that would have a negative impact. Please help to protect the industry as you’re moving forward.”
Looking ahead
FWP will have its data compiled into a report by Dec. 1, just in time for legislators to draft bills for the upcoming 2027 session.
“Our goal is simple: to protect what makes Montana’s hunting heritage so special today and for generations to come,” Sprunger said in 2025.
But as Leow pointed out, it’s much more complicated than just the number of nonresident hunters in the state.
“This is an opportunity for us to have more than stories and feelings around these discussions, which are often very emotional, and to take the data and to be able to have an informed conversation as we move towards a 2027 licensure package,” Sprunger said.
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