Billings Gazette SB143 OPPOSE Go Viral

 

Bill would guarantee hunting outfitters licenses, defying 2010 citizen initiative

Bill would guarantee hunting outfitters licenses, defying 2010 citizen initiative

• Brett French
• Feb 3, 2021
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Guaranteeing outfitters a portion of nonresident big game licenses could lead to more leasing of private land, hunters said during testimony on Senate Bill 143 on Tuesday in Helena.

Brett French

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Brett French

Hunting outfitters turned out in force at the Capitol on Tuesday to support a bill that would guarantee them a percentage of nonresident deer and elk licenses for their clients.

“This bill optimizes the economic return to Montana by making available a portion of the existing nonresident licenses to the hunter who chooses to hunt with an outfitter,” said Chuck Rein, a Big Timber rancher, outfitter and president of the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association, during a hearing before the Senate Fish and Game Commission.

Critics see the bill as a privatization of public wildlife, a subsidy for one group of small business owners, and also reducing the opportunities for do-it-yourself nonresident hunters to draw a tag.

“This bill will put us back on the path to privatizing and monetizing our publicly owned wildlife resources," said John Sullivan, president of the Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. "The citizens of Montana rejected that idea."

Sullivan was referring to a citizen’s initiative passed in 2010 that removed 5,500 nonresident big game and deer combination licenses that were guaranteed for outfitters. The initiative also raised the nonresident license fees and allowed them to be adjusted for inflation. Proceeds from the fees were targeted to fund hunting access and to preserve and restore habitat.

Drawing

Since passage of the initiative, all nonresident hunters must draw a tag through the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ lottery system. Hunters may then book with an outfitter after drawing a tag, or book ahead of time in hopes of drawing a tag and then cancel.

“Right now as a guided outfitter I have to overbook to stay booked,” said Donna McDonald, whose family offers guided and nonguided hunts on their ranch and adjoining national forest land in the Ruby Valley.

Many other outfitters, operating family-run businesses for generations, stressed the uncertainty and unpredictability of the current system and its negative effect on their operations.

“Supporting the bill is supporting small family businesses in Montana,” said Lydia Sargent, who operates Cayuse Hills Outfitters south of Shawmut with her husband, Wes.

Crowding issue

Bill sponsor Sen. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, framed Senate Bill 143 as a way to reduce crowding by nonresident hunters on public and Block Management Program lands. The program uses a portion of license dollars to pay private landowners for public hunting access.

“Our out-of-state (hunters) are having to congregate on that land, and obviously this is probably affecting success rates for both Montana residents and nonresidents,” Ellsworth said.

The number of licenses awarded would be based on what outfitters are currently booking, estimated at about 40% of nonresident hunters. The bill currently sets aside 60%, but Ellsworth said that would be revised downward.

“These guys already get those licenses, so it’s not taking away from do-it-yourself hunters,” Ellsworth said.

The bill includes adding a $200 fee to nonresidents who choose to use an outfitter. The additional charge will raise an estimated $2.4 million to $2.8 million a year, Ellsworth said.

These funds would be distributed to several coffers, including fees for disabled resident veterans to hunt for free, funding for Block Management, provide money for purchasing easements across private land to access landlocked public property, and add cash to the Future Fisheries program. The bill also removes language that has tied nonresident big game license increases to the Consumer Price Index.

Landowner and stockgrower groups testified in support of the bill, including Chuck Denowh representing the United Property Owners of Montana.

“Outfitters and hunters all benefit from the herds but it is landowners who bear the costs,” he said. “Perhaps the most important aspect of this bill is that it provides opportunities for landowners that we don’t have today.”

Outfitted hunters would be guaranteed a license under a bill sponsored by Hamilton Sen. Jason Ellsworth. Testimony on Tuesday drew a large crowd of outfitters to the capitol.

Brett French

Critiques

Missouri resident Virgil Groom attended the hearing with his sons to testify against the measure. For five years he’s hunted in Montana and said the reduction in the state’s pool of nonresident unguided tags would make it harder for him and his boys to draw a license.

“I’m a huge fan of the state, it’s beautiful,” said Colton Groom. “I just want my kids to come out and enjoy it.”

A compromise solution offered during the testimony was moving up the drawing date for big game licenses, providing more time for outfitters and their clients to connect.

“The simplest thing to do is use a scalpel and not an ax to fix this problem and fix the lottery,” said Patrick Schumacher, a nonresident Montana landowner. “Be the first state in the West to publish your results. Get ahead of Utah and all these other states. To me that’s a simple fix.”

Clarification

Ellsworth said his bill is justified because promises made before Initiative 161 was passed have not been met. The initiative's sponsors said it would create more access, but the amount of Block Management land has dropped from 8.2 million acres to 7.2 million. Meanwhile, nonresident use of those lands has increased from 16% to 22%, he said.

Those numbers are accurate, but don’t reflect the full scope of the issue. The amount of Block Management acreage has dropped, especially in southeastern Montana, because fewer large landowners are participating, according to Jason Kool, who oversees the program for FWP. Some of those lands have been sold, he said.

Use of Block Management lands in Eastern Montana is up partly because there are more upland bird and antelope hunters, about 30% to 40% of which are out-of-staters, Kool said. Those numbers fluctuate as the populations of game rise and fall.

Challenge

When asked directly by Sen. Tom Jacobson, D-Great Falls, if the state guarantees a customer base for any other business, Ellsworth instead answered there is no industry that relies on a lottery.

“We’ve got bars, we’ve got restaurants, we’ve got hotels and there’s no guarantee that a customer is going to walk in the door,” Jacobson said. “There’s no guarantee that they’re going to get so many rooms rented.”

“There’s no guarantee here,” Ellsworth countered. “The reality is that if these professionals do not do a good job and they don’t outfit correctly, they’re not going to get customers.”

Jacobson asked if Ellsworth had worked with any sporting groups prior to drafting the legislation. He said no, but added that he hopes to get engagement from people now. As proof, Ellsworth said he had received numerous calls and emails regarding the legislation.

No action was taken on the bill.

Some perspective

Simmering beneath the surface of Senate Bill 143 is a difference of opinion between some Montana hunters and landowners regarding access to public land and wildlife.

Landowners who can monetize wildlife for profit have incentive to deny hunters free access to their property or across their property to adjoining public lands, hunters argue.

Landowners can counter they are owed some compensation since wildlife are responsible for eating crops and causing damage to infrastructure like fences on private land.

North American wildlife law and conservation was founded on the basis of wildlife as a public trust resource, not managed for personal or corporate gain.

“Our concern is that it would shift management of wildlife from a broad public interest to one that starts Montana into a commercial-based interest,” said Tim Roberts, president of the Traditional Bowhunters of Montana, in testimony before the Legislature on Tuesday. “As a person who has lived in Utah, I have seen the result of management practices done in a similar fashion. I can tell you it won’t stop there.”

Although guided hunters, mostly out-of-staters, may be willing to pay big bucks for large bucks, what about all of the does and cow elk that aren’t sought by these hunters? Hunting is the only way the state has to manage wildlife populations. 

For FWP, lack of public access to private lands has allowed some elk populations to grow beyond management objectives, in some cases pitting landowners harboring wildlife against their neighbors who suffer the consequences of larger deer and elk herds.

All of these issues have increased friction between some landowners and Montana hunters.

“I believe it’s time we all work together to stop the wedge between private land, public land, guided, unguided,” said outfitter Donna McDonald during Tuesday’s hearing. “Let’s just start working together and move forward and stop some of this rhetoric that’s out there that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

The future may settle the disagreement in an unsettling way. Chronic wasting disease, which is always fatal, is spreading across Montana. It has the potential to reduce deer and elk numbers substantially, and possibly for generations to come, as it lingers in the ecosystem.