BRETT FRENCH | bfrench@billingsgazette.com

In an attempt to ease pressure on Montana’s declining mule deer populations, the Fish and Wildlife Commission approved reducing nonresident licenses by 2,500.

The amendment came during the commission’s Dec. 4 season setting meeting for big game hunting regulations for the next two years. Region 6 commission chair Lesley Robinson, of Dodson, had earlier submitted an amendment to cut the licenses by 5,000 but then backpedaled to the lower amount.

“The reason that I brought this forward was to start a discussion, and something has to be done,” she explained. “This is probably the most passionate subject that I’ve had since I’ve been on the commission.”

The move is just the latest to stem the loss of mule deer and ease hunter crowding in Eastern Montana. In 2023, the commission voted to halt all mule deer doe hunting on public lands in that section of the state.

Too tough, or not enough?

Robinson’s amendment passed unanimously, but not before commissioner Jeff Burrows of Region 2 suggested it wasn’t dramatic enough.

He cited eight Eastern Montana hunting districts where mule deer populations were about a third to one-half of the 10-year average. He also said he’s concerned about the number of nonresidents pursuing those smaller deer populations as residents complain about overcrowding on public lands.

“I don’t think this is a drastic enough step right now to address the concerns that we have,” he said, referencing more than 300 public comments also focused on reducing mule deer hunting.

“We need to do something. We need to do it now, and it needs to be more than just a scalpel … we need to take a hatchet to this thing,” he added.

Commissioner Bill Lane, who represents southeastern Montana’s Region 7, expressed concern that a bigger cut could affect the economy of local communities that rely on hunter spending. Lane said he preferred to be cautious.

Yet he also agreed the eastern half of the state is “overcrowded.”

Between 2020 and 2024, the mule deer harvest by nonresident hunters fell from more than 16,100 to around 11,300 as Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks attempted to stem the famed animal’s population decline.

Despite the reduction in hunting pressure, the state’s mule deer population was estimated at around 273,400 animals this year, compared to 328,600 in 2020 — a decline of more than 55,200 animals.

Mule deer face a variety of challenges ranging from summer droughts to harsh winters, loss of habitat and disease. Their decline is not limited to Montana, but is also being seen in other western states.

Passion project

Robinson said she was not taking action lightly, having repeatedly discussed her ideas with Fish, Wildlife & Parks staff to polish the recommendation.

The problems she kept running into were actions taken by the legislature, which are coded in statute. Those statutes didn’t allow her to do what she thought was necessary.

FWP chief of staff Quentin Kujala said those 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.

Under Robinson’s amendment, FWP will cap the sale of nonresident general deer licenses that are separated from the nonresident big game combination when a nonresident applies for only the elk combination, leaving the detached general deer license unsold.

In the past, there have been about 5,000 of the licenses available. Nonresidents can also apply for 12,000 other nonresident deer licenses.

FWP projected the loss of sales would cost the department about $1.7 million a year and would add urgency to an upcoming study.

House Bill 568, signed into law this past spring, created a study of the impacts on Montana’s hunting seasons while looking at season structure, resident and nonresident license allocation and the state’s Block Management Program, which pays landowners for impacts to their property when they allow public hunters access.

The bill, called the Montana Hunters First Act, was sponsored by Rep. Courtenay Sprunger, R-Kalispell.

Other deer hunting cuts

Another Robinson amendment also passed, this one cutting the total number of deer licenses a resident hunter may hold in a year from eight to three.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of people that actually harvest the, you know, the full amount that’s available,” she said. “But I think optically, considering every comment that we received, that this is ridiculous that we have this number this high in our regs.”

An amendment crafted by Commissioner Ian Wargo, who represents northwestern Montana’s Region 1, will also curtail mule deer hunting and is attempting to reduce public land hunting pressure.

Like Regions 6 and 7 in Eastern Montana, the amendment limits mule deer doe hunting to private lands only in Regions 2, 3, 4 and 5 while excluding HD 388 and allowing chronic wasting disease management hunts and urban hunts used to reduce deer populations.

Wargo said FWP has been “tone deaf to the public” regarding concerns about overcrowding and declining mule deer populations.

A similar attempt by Wargo to limit the harvest of elk on public land to one per person failed in a 4-2 vote. Only Wargo and commissioner K.C. Walsh of Region 4 supported the measure.

Wargo said the elk amendment was a passion project that began years ago when he served on an FWP elk advisory group. Problems with too many elk are limited mostly to private lands, he said, not public.

Robinson criticized the idea as trying to force landowners to provide access.

Commissioner Susan Kirby Brooke, who represents Region 3 in southwest Montana, said she wanted more time to understand what the fallout of such a change would be. However, she acknowledged that her area has seen more ranches leave the state’s public hunting access program as properties are sold to nonresidents.

Photo credit: Gateway Graphic Design and Photography