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Proposed special elk hunting seasons meant to thin out overpopulated areas have roused hunters, landowners and conservationists throughout the summer, and a decision on the plan is likely this week.
The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission will take up a measure on so-called “shoulder seasons” for elk, which would be special early and late season hunts in specific hunting districts where the state says there are too many elk based on Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ population goals, known as objectives.
The commission received more than 1,000 comments on the proposal over the summer.
FWP has a number of other tools that it uses to reduce elk numbers in overpopulated areas, but they haven’t always worked. After hearing complaints from landowners and livestock producers who have elk coming onto their land to chomp on their grass or crops and a push from the Montana Legislature and the governor, FWP began looking at this proposal.
The proposed guidelines define a shoulder season as a firearm hunting season that happens outside of the five-week general season between August 15 and February 15 and are meant to add to the number of elk killed in the regular hunting seasons.
Each extra season would be limited to a specific area and would go to the Fish and Wildlife Commission for approval and would have to meet criteria set by the guidelines. Commission chair Dan Vermillion said the guidelines are important because they ensure shoulder seasons will be used for the right reasons.
“They really provide a floor that the shoulder seasons have to live up to to be approved,” Vermillion said.
The floor he is talking about includes requiring a certain number of elk are killed during the regular hunting seasons. Exceptions to that rule are also included, like if the proposed shoulder season has broad support from hunters, landowners and the state or if bad weather kept people from killing enough elk in the regular season. A few pilot projects are also going in front of the commission next week, including one in the Bridger Mountains.
Jay Bodner of the Montana Stockgrowers Association supports the proposal, saying it could be a tool that helps people who feel the impacts of elk being concentrated on private land.
“Many of the elk hunting districts are over objective, and those elk do have a significant impact on private landowners,” Bodner said.
Bodner said that some of the criteria required for a shoulder season to be approve “appear to be very rigid” in his group’s view and could lead to fewer seasons being implemented.
Some wildlife advocates are unsure of how well the proposal will work.
“Elk shoulder season is not going to fix this,” said Kathryn QannaYahu, of Enhancing Montana’s Wildlife and Habitat. She would rather FWP walk away from the proposal.
QannaYahu said some of the population goals are inherently flawed because they are based on political concerns like social tolerance and not what amount of elk can actually live there. She also said that some of the other programs FWP has to manage populations, like game damage hunts, aren’t well managed.
A legislative audit found that the program was inconsistent in its implementation and how it addresses game damage issues.
“They need to get their house in order. They’ve got to get this game damage aspect fixed and be accountable to the laws that are already on the books,” QannaYahu said.
Gallatin Wildlife Association president Glenn Hockett shares some of the same concerns about the population objectives and said FWP should review those numbers. But he sees a way that elk shoulder seasons can work.
He said there should be a particular focus on increasing access to the sections of private land where elk congregate, rather than encouraging people to kill more elk on public land.
“I just don’t want to see the public land overhunted,” he said.
Elk learn to move to places where they don’t get shot, he said, and if ranchers don’t allow hunting the elk will hang around.
“Hunters are willing to help but it’s up to the landowner to allow access,” he said.
Nick Gevock, of the Montana Wildlife Federation, said his group recognizes “the problem of elk being concentrated on private lands at the wrong times.” But he also said the best population management tool isn’t necessarily to carve out special seasons.
“The best solution for this issue is improved public access during the regular hunting season,” Gevock said. “That is the first best tool in the FWP tool box.”
Vermillion, the commission chair, agreed with that to some extent, saying shoulder seasons alone wouldn’t be enough to reduce populations. He also said that shoulder seasons that don’t work simply won’t continue.
He added that the commission has the authority to implement something like this even without passing the guidelines, but passing them will make what happens across the state more uniform.
The commission takes up the shoulder season guidelines at its Oct. 8 meeting. Vermillion, for one, expects a lively public comment period.
“It will be an interesting meeting,” he said.
Originally published by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.