Alternatives for public elk hunting access

[406LIFE]

As I stand back and look big picture, I ask the question of what it would take to make public land more palatable to elk. A century of fire suppression seems to a policy that is shifting; that could do much to help the health of the forest and provide the feed elk are looking for. Rotational grazing has seen benefits in rejuvenating land; perhaps looking at this in a way that makes land improvement the priority could be implemented. I am not a land management expert, but I wonder what more could be done to combat invasive weeds (cheatgrass) and restore native grasses that elk like.

 

[Deleted member 28227]

State run automated reservation system limiting the amount of hunters to each property daily/weekly to fit landowners preference. Hunters must read and retype the rules for the property when applying for the reservation. Break the rules and you can’t apply for any properties in the program for 1 year. Nominal fee to apply (1-5$) to pay for running the program.

FWIW, ID offers a completely online Hunter Education that Montana will recognize. It is only valid for adults. Minors will still have to attend a class in person. This helps with AOH.

I’m speaking of the field day component of the course. The convenient dates and locations fill up quickly, CO, ID and MT have online courses through IHEA, these all require a field day.
I’ve helped a number of folks get into the sport the lack of field day slots has been by far the biggest hurdle.

 

[Sioux33]

How about pinpointing the most obvious private land harbors and looking at them on a case by case basis to see what we can do? Case in point is the N Bar in the Little Snowies. There's excellent elk habitat bordering the west side, but the FS has a maze of roads cutting through every direction. You can't even hardly get a mile away from a road and they're open to all vehicles year-round. Close down the roads to give the elk some security and maybe at least some of them will start to utilize this amazing habitat that's currently being wasted. That's just one that I know of, but what if FWP went through each unit and identified the bad apples as a starting point, rather than taking a one size fits all approach like the shoulder seasons.

 

[greatwhitebuffalo]

How about pinpointing the most obvious private land harbors and looking at them on a case by case basis to see what we can do? Case in point is the N Bar in the Little Snowies. There's excellent elk habitat bordering the west side, but the FS has a maze of roads cutting through every direction. You can't even hardly get a mile away from a road and they're open to all vehicles year-round. Close down the roads to give the elk some security and maybe at least some of them will start to utilize this amazing habitat that's currently being wasted. That's just one that I know of, but what if FWP went through each unit and identified the bad apples as a starting point, rather than taking a one size fits all approach like the shoulder seasons.

Good points. Highlights earlier comments on how one aspect of the overarching solution is re-writing the whole plan. Might be a good idea to start bit by bit; focusing on key terrain, with an eye on projected development over the next decade or two.

 

[d-edward]

Are there ways to reverse engineer potential access by finding previous BMA participants who elected to no longer continue participating in the program? Yes, some of these ranches may have changed hands or the individual contacts changed, but curious if outreach to these folks can be used to gauge potential interest in rejoining the program. There may be opportunities to listen to the needs/preferences of these landowners who may return to the program again if FWP and hunters can repair the relationship or remedy why they dropped out.