Big changes to Montana mountain lion hunting

[YukonGold]

Not sure if anyone's seen this, haven't seen a thread on it here yet. Big increases to lion quotas being proposed statewide and R1 commissioner added an amendment to remove all male/female subquotas.

https://fwp.mt.gov/aboutfwp/commission/june-2023-meeting

look at "mountain lion" in the agenda for the documents.

Didn't FWP just invest a ton of time and money into a lion management plan? Where'd that go?

 

[JBS]

I heard this coming, a war on all predators with a 40% reduction being the goal. I will comment against the increased quota proposals, but I believe this came from GG and will likely get implemented one way or another. It is going to be along three years.

 

[Badlandcat]

Taber slipped in a very bad proposal today. He put it in after the deadline to comment or sign up to speak. Sneaky bastard, MT FWP leaders are getting about as crooked as a department can get!

 

[WanderWoman]

In a number of these districts the female quota rarely or never fills, at current levels. So for those, this proposal won’t accomplish much outside of inflaming houndsmen, completely undermining the relatively new Mountain Lion Management Plan, and harvesting more males.

 

[YukonGold]

In a number of these districts the female quota rarely or never fills, at current levels. So for those, this proposal won’t accomplish much outside of inflaming houndsmen, completely undermining the relatively new Mountain Lion Management Plan, and harvesting more males.

Just seems like if the whole goal of this exercise is mountain lion population reduction, they kinda need to harvest SOME females...??? How can they achieve population reduction without a female quota? Even if it's not getting filled regularly, it's at least maintaining the opportunity. I foresee quotas closing faster with a much higher proportion of males under this proposal and I don't think that will make anyone happy long-term. Reduction in mature toms, proliferation of young stupid toms, angry outfitters, angry houndsmen, dissatisfied hunters, and no reduction in lion population.

 

[WanderWoman]

Just seems like if the whole goal of this exercise is mountain lion population reduction, they kinda need to harvest SOME females...??? How can they achieve population reduction without a female quota? Even if it's not getting filled regularly, it's at least maintaining the opportunity. I foresee quotas closing faster with a much higher proportion of males under this proposal and I don't think that will make anyone happy long-term. Reduction in mature toms, proliferation of young stupid toms, angry outfitters, angry houndsmen, dissatisfied hunters, and no reduction in lion population.

Agree.

That is the goal as written in the motion, but wanting something (and it’s unclear who besides Tabor and the legislature does) and realizing it are two different things.

FWP already offers adequate female lion harvest to help control/maintain populations as guided by the lion plan, but some of these quotas aren’t filling—whether by houndsman reluctance, terrain, access, weather, etc.

Also last year’s season changes restricting licenses to a region does not help increase female harvest. It likely hinders it.