Folks,
We are working on many issues of importance, nominations, and the legislature. Our legislative priorities are:
1. Habitat Montana; ability to purchase key parcels fee title.
2. Increases in access to public lands
3. Denying all attempts at transferrable tags-ranching for wildlife legislation
4. Supporting legislation to increase penalties on public road closures.
5. Legislation on revising outfitter assistant law…HB 289
6. Legislation on revising outfitter reporting…HB 290
7. And as always, watching for bad legislation, building relationships
with legislators, participating in the Sporting Coalition, supporting
good legislation and fighting bad.
Things to watch now:
HB 289 MSA Bill to revise Outfitter Asst. Law
Moga advanced an Outfitter Asst. Bill in 2013. The bill was poorly
written and vague as usual. Now they want to remove the sunset BUT,
there is some glaring abuse happening. There is no definition for
Emergency Guide and no authority for the Board of Outfitters to make
rules. There is also a provision for mandatory client notice of the use
of an OA and if they have a first aid card. We have no evidence if it
is being followed or not.
PLEASE SUPPORT!!!
HB 290 MSA Bill to revise outfitter reporting law. Moga is leading the
charge on efforts to not report much of anything. We think their
harvest of public trust critters for profit entitles the public have
certain info and share it digitally with both state and federal agencies
involved. We want to know what (big game) was harvested, where down to
Hunting District, who harvested it, species and sex of harvested
critters, and when it was harvested. MOGA thinks we don’t deserve any
info.
PLEASE SUPPORT!!!
NOTE: We asked MOGA if they wanted to work together on these issues and
they turned us down. We offered to work with Foam and they accepted
and contributed. We offered the FWP an opportunity to work together and
they accepted and provided insight and details needed by the agency.
HB 96 *****CAUTION*****
Short Title: Revise free elk license/permit for landowner providing free public elk hunting
Primary Sponsor: Zach Brown (D) HD 63
This is a PLPW bill to attempt to give more permits to immediate family
members and ranch help. It is the old HD 454 tag with some
embellishments. This is a poke in the eye of PLPW who have spent
several years working on this delicate compromise.
WARNING: Rumor has it that Kelly Flynn has an amendment to create more
free licenses that can be given to the landowner to give out(sell).
***THIS IS TRANFERRABLE TAGS!!!!*** NO AMENDMENTS ACCEPTABLE If any
amendments move forward, KILL THIS BILL.
Joe
MSA
ACTION ALERT
Please OPPOSE ANY AMENDMENTS TO HB 96
Please call the Legislature at 406-444-4800 and tell the House FWP
Committee that the Montana Legislature should oppose ANY amendments to
HB 96.
Act now, because the bill could come up for a vote as early as Today!
HB 96, sponsored by Rep. Zach Brown, D-Bozeman, was a bill that the
Private Land/Public Wildlife Council advanced on a consensus decision to
improve an existing FWP program that gives elk permits to landowners
who allow public hunting. The permits are only good on the landowner’s
own land, and cannot be transferred to anyone other than a family member
or employee.
HB 96 would increase public hunting by establishing a random draw for
public hunters who have successfully drawn permits to hunt either sex
elk.
The Private Land/Public Wildlife Committee carefully wrote HB 96 to protect this important Montana value.
Now that promise is at risk....
A proposed amendment to HB96 will let landowners give the tags to
anyone, opening the door for abuse, fraud, and under-the-table deals to
buy and sell tags. I oppose ANY action that could lead to turning our
public wildlife into a private commodity!!
Please take a few minutes and call the House FWP Committee please tell
the Montana Legislature to respect the hard work and compromise that
went into HB 96 and oppose ANY amendments to HB 96. 406-444-4800
Thanks a bunch.
JW
