Elk CAG 7-7-22. Recommendations

[MTelkHuntress]

I think the Elk Group is having a really interesting discussion as they finalize their proposals/ recommendations.
If anyone else wants to listen:

Truthfully, I'm left a little frustrated because it is such a complex situation. So many unforseen consequences but I guess looking at different states management decisions could be a big help. I like that the group is showing that public input is very important.

 

[Nameless Range]

I haven’t had time to watch this at all, but I’m curious what parts you found interesting.

 

[Gerald Martin]

I haven’t had time to watch this at all, but I’m curious what parts you found interesting.

I watched most of the first four meetings but like you have been too busy to stay engaged lately.

It was hard for me to slog through all the process to figure out if any solutions are forthcoming or if the results of this committee is just going to be summarized as “elk management is complex and we have too many elk.”

I probably didn’t stay engaged long enough.

 

[Ben Lamb]

I was able to catch a good part of it.
I think there's a good faith effort by the folks involved to find some solutions. A lot of the recommendations I've seen are pretty good in terms of trying to address hunter distribution. The discussion around choose your weapon/choose your season still needs a lot of vetting, IMO, those folks are coming at the issue from a good frame of reference, and it's been good to see how they all have really leaned into the recommendations to get public input, work on the concepts and refine them. I'm eager to see what they hand over to the director.

These kinds of efforts can be a grind, so a huge hat's off to the members who saddled up and did the work. I'm hopeful some gems come out of this process. The discussion around damage hunts was especially good.

 

[MTelkHuntress]

I usually wait for the full meeting to come out on YouTube and then just speed it up so it takes way less time to listen to
I think they have two more meetings before the recommendations are sent off (I could be wrong), but I think the group has come a long way from their first meeting. Transferable tags were killed quickly, thankfully, but then party hunting kept coming up. I didn't hear them discuss that in this meeting so perhaps that idea has been done away with. It has been hard to keep up at times because opinions and ideas changed frequently so I think the later meetings will be great to watch but I think this meeting in particular had so much more discussion of solutions and their consequences as well as public perception. They really got into the specifics in this meeting.

The damage hunt discussion was interesting (and long) because there was an emphasis on hunter behavior and getting hunters who actually want to be out there. Hunters that signed up for a damage hunt but don't end up hunting would be removed from the list which I think is a good idea since it's probably frustrating to call a bunch of hunters who signed up but then don't bother to actually go on the damage hunt.
Those with unfilled elk A tags could harvest a bull on a damage hunt, but they have to shoot any/ the first bull they see, so they can't wait for a bigger bull.
The game damage discussion was good because there was a focus on being more strategic about elk harvests. Lots of different ideas in this part of the discussion.

Dispersing hunters has been discussed a lot because there's so many different ways to do it. Pick your weapon and shortening seasons was discussed quite a bit.
Habitat was also discussed but at a much more broad scope which I understand. There's lots of details within that issue and I think exploring those solutions specifically could be a huge help.

A private land shoulder season between archery and rifle season was brought up quite a few times.

Shoulder seasons were discussed as some landowners liked them and others didnt believe they were helpful. The recommendation was to revaluate these seasons to see if they are actually working. With diseases spreading amongst elk, FWP would need to have some flexibility with these shoulder seasons. I liked that there was a point on not having shoulder hunts on public land.

Promoting better communication between landowners, biologists, hunters and outfitters. I liked that a point was made to have meetings amongst these groups, but specifically these meetings would never be during hunting season....so you know, some people wouldn't be left out of the discussion...like they sometimes are (hint, hint).

The creation of an A9 tag bundle was a little confusing but I think a hunter purchases this tag and it allows a hunter to harvest up to 3 cows, only valid on private land in over objective areas. Basically harvest multiple elk on one tag but it comes with 3 carcass tags. This was to address that even though a hunter can purchase up to 3 cow elk tags, they only show up to hunt with one so this would ensure that a hunter would have full opportunity to harvest more than one elk should the opportunity be there. Another part of this was to compromise and increase objectives by 10 percent, but that got removed later in the discussion.

A new access program, essentially a type 3 BMA was discussed where hunters with elevated skills would be allowed to hunt participating landowner properties. The intent being to gain trust with landowners because these hunters are supposed to have better training and skills. There was a lot of details for this type 3 and it got kind of complicated.

Discussion of restoring elk in northwest Montana so those hunters don't continue to add hunting pressure in other parts of the state. They didn't really dive into this much.

While I certainly don't agree with everything, some of the recommendations are much more reasonable and it will be interesting to see how they get more refined.

 

[Carnage2011]

I usually wait for the full meeting to come out on YouTube and then just speed it up so it takes way less time to listen to
I think they have two more meetings before the recommendations are sent off (I could be wrong), but I think the group has come a long way from their first meeting. Transferable tags were killed quickly, thankfully, but then party hunting kept coming up. I didn't hear them discuss that in this meeting so perhaps that idea has been done away with. It has been hard to keep up at times because opinions and ideas changed frequently so I think the later meetings will be great to watch but I think this meeting in particular had so much more discussion of solutions and their consequences as well as public perception. They really got into the specifics in this meeting.

The damage hunt discussion was interesting (and long) because there was an emphasis on hunter behavior and getting hunters who actually want to be out there. Hunters that signed up for a damage hunt but don't end up hunting would be removed from the list which I think is a good idea since it's probably frustrating to call a bunch of hunters who signed up but then don't bother to actually go on the damage hunt.
Those with unfilled elk A tags could harvest a bull on a damage hunt, but they have to shoot any/ the first bull they see, so they can't wait for a bigger bull.
The game damage discussion was good because there was a focus on being more strategic about elk harvests. Lots of different ideas in this part of the discussion.

Dispersing hunters has been discussed a lot because there's so many different ways to do it. Pick your weapon and shortening seasons was discussed quite a bit.
Habitat was also discussed but at a much more broad scope which I understand. There's lots of details within that issue and I think exploring those solutions specifically could be a huge help.

A private land shoulder season between archery and rifle season was brought up quite a few times.

Shoulder seasons were discussed as some landowners liked them and others didnt believe they were helpful. The recommendation was to revaluate these seasons to see if they are actually working. With diseases spreading amongst elk, FWP would need to have some flexibility with these shoulder seasons. I liked that there was a point on not having shoulder hunts on public land.

Promoting better communication between landowners, biologists, hunters and outfitters. I liked that a point was made to have meetings amongst these groups, but specifically these meetings would never be during hunting season....so you know, some people wouldn't be left out of the discussion...like they sometimes are (hint, hint).

The creation of an A9 tag bundle was a little confusing but I think a hunter purchases this tag and it allows a hunter to harvest up to 3 cows, only valid on private land in over objective areas. Basically harvest multiple elk on one tag but it comes with 3 carcass tags. This was to address that even though a hunter can purchase up to 3 cow elk tags, they only show up to hunt with one so this would ensure that a hunter would have full opportunity to harvest more than one elk should the opportunity be there. Another part of this was to compromise and increase objectives by 10 percent, but that got removed later in the discussion.

A new access program, essentially a type 3 BMA was discussed where hunters with elevated skills would be allowed to hunt participating landowner properties. The intent being to gain trust with landowners because these hunters are supposed to have better training and skills. There was a lot of details for this type 3 and it got kind of complicated.

Discussion of restoring elk in northwest Montana so those hunters don't continue to add hunting pressure in other parts of the state. They didn't really dive into this much.

While I certainly don't agree with everything, some of the recommendations are much more reasonable and it will be interesting to see how they get more refined.

Yep, that pretty much sums it up!