Montana General Season Structure Proposal

brockel said:
Imagine the improvement hunter/landowner relations when your door isn’t being banged on or phone ringing just as you are sitting down for thanksgiving dinner.
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I know a handful of landowners in the Elkhorns, and every one of them has conveyed to me in some way or another how exhausting our hunting season length is. One even told me their participation in the Block Management program would be far more likely if the season wasn't 3 months + long. I know landowners have some negotiating room there, but the counterfactual of shorter seasons and how that might affect other things like access, is often not considered.
 
brockel said:
Imagine the improvement hunter/landowner relations when your door isn’t being banged on or phone ringing just as you are sitting down for thanksgiving dinner.
Click to expand...
Agree! I assisted a friend near Hammond that had his property in BMA last year for the first time and talked to him two nights ago and said he won't likely enroll again. It's too much of a headache to coordinate hunters, and his property is rather small. People get tired of arranging hunters for 12 weeks. They would be better suited and more fair if the BMA was managed through regional offices like some of the parcels in Region 2. Shortening the seasons would be a great benefit
 
Pagosa said:
Agree! I assisted a friend near Hammond that had his property in BMA last year for the first time and talked to him two nights ago and said he won't likely enroll again. It's too much of a headache to coordinate hunters, and his property is rather small. People get tired of arranging hunters for 12 weeks. They would be better suited and more fair if the BMA was managed through regional offices like some of the parcels in Region 2. Shortening the seasons would be a great benefit
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As a separate matter from our season structure proposal I would love to see a renovation of the reservation process for Type 2 Block Management properties for the landowners who are tired of dealing with the amount of hunters trying to get a slot to hunt. They have to deal with the folks whom they give permission to as well as everyone else who calls when they’re already booked.

Personally, I have difficulty knowing with enough certainty when I can hunt to schedule time slots before hunting season. By the time I know when I can hunt, I’m reluctant to call to try and find an open slot for when I can hunt. I know that I will have to bother multiple landowners in the evening or early morning before I get an opening. I know that if I were a landowner, I would get sick of the phone constantly ringing even though my openings were filled. Consequently, I generally don’t hunt Type 2 properties.

I would love to see a voluntary registry of properties that could be booked via a website much like a VRBO or AirBNB site where hunters could browse multiple properties online and compare open dates on the properties to the dates they want to hunt. They would then be able to enter their information and reserve a date.
 
Gerald Martin said:
As a separate matter from our season structure proposal I would love to see a renovation of the reservation process for Type 2 Block Management properties for the landowners who are tired of dealing with the amount of hunters trying to get a slot to hunt. They have to deal with the folks whom they give permission to as well as everyone else who calls when they’re already booked.

Personally, I have difficulty knowing with enough certainty when I can hunt to schedule time slots before hunting season. By the time I know when I can hunt, I’m reluctant to call to try and find an open slot for when I can hunt. I know that I will have to bother multiple landowners in the evening or early morning before I get an opening. I know that if I were a landowner, I would get sick of the phone constantly ringing even though my openings were filled. Consequently, I generally don’t hunt Type 2 properties.

I would love to see a voluntary registry of properties that could be booked via a website much like a VRBO or AirBNB site where hunters could browse multiple properties online and compare open dates on the properties to the dates they want to hunt. They would then be able to enter their information and reserve a date.
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That would be super cool but I feel like it would have to be set up so that if the person no called no showed they wouldn’t be able to use the program again for the season
 
Gerald Martin said:
As a separate matter from our season structure proposal I would love to see a renovation of the reservation process for Type 2 Block Management properties for the landowners who are tired of dealing with the amount of hunters trying to get a slot to hunt. They have to deal with the folks whom they give permission to as well as everyone else who calls when they’re already booked.

Personally, I have difficulty knowing with enough certainty when I can hunt to schedule time slots before hunting season. By the time I know when I can hunt, I’m reluctant to call to try and find an open slot for when I can hunt. I know that I will have to bother multiple landowners in the evening or early morning before I get an opening. I know that if I were a landowner, I would get sick of the phone constantly ringing even though my openings were filled. Consequently, I generally don’t hunt Type 2 properties.

I would love to see a voluntary registry of properties that could be booked via a website much like a VRBO or AirBNB site where hunters could browse multiple properties online and compare open dates on the properties to the dates they want to hunt. They would then be able to enter their information and reserve a date.
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And stop some of these Type 2 BMA's from receiving $$$ and only letting their buddies and family hunt. That's fine, but they shouldn't be getting hunter funds if that is the way they want to operate.
 
Gerald Martin said:
Personally, I have difficulty knowing with enough certainty when I can hunt to schedule time slots before hunting season. By the time I know when I can hunt, I’m reluctant to call to try and find an open slot for when I can hunt. I know that I will have to bother multiple landowners in the evening or early morning before I get an opening. I know that if I were a landowner, I would get sick of the phone constantly ringing even though my openings were filled. Consequently, I generally don’t hunt Type 2 properties.
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They just don't answer the phone, and I am pretty sure they use the number for the old land line and just unplug it. Some of those type 2s shouldn't even be in the program. I have tried one on Aug 15 that said they are booked and I should try to call in November for the following year. Demand is clearly too high.
 
cgasner1 said:
That would be super cool but I feel like it would have to be set up so that if the person no called no showed they wouldn’t be able to use the program again for the season
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The nature of western hunting in roaded areas seems unconducive to a "no show" policy. Someone could easily intend to hunt a property and book it but then adjust accordingly to what they see when they show up to area in person. If you're pronghorn hunting and can glass most of a BMA property from the road or adjacent BLM land, see nothing worthwhile and move on, were you a "no show" in violation of the rules? Or perhaps you sign up for multiple type II BMAs with the plan to check them all out in a single day but end up killing something at the first property or on public between properties and lack the cell service to cancel your other reservations before the end of the day. It seems like the only way a no show policy could work would be if you only signed up immediately before stepping foot on a property, but that would also rely on good cell service.

Perhaps one solution would be only allow one active reservation at a time.
 
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SwaggyD said:
@Gerald Martin @cgasner1

What are you guys' thoughts on regional caps for NR, or ever for R?
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Speaking personally, I think they may be necessary at some point. How to determine the appropriate amount of hunters per region is something we discussed at length among our group and came to the conclusion that it would just be a WAG if we tried to give a number without better information. We concluded that we don’t have the answers to several questions.
1. What is the appropriate amount of hunter?
2. How would FWP implement a regional cap that would either not make unacceptable (socially) restrictions on hunter opportunities and be effective (biologically) to benefit the resource?

The necessity or lack there of regional caps is a legitimate conversation that will continue to occur and should continue to occur. As a group we have decided not to call for or support regional caps in this proposal, not because we necessarily support or oppose them. We just believe that with several years mandatory reporting in place to give us a better understanding of hunter distribution and regional biologists monitoring of the resource the conclusion for need of regional caps or conclusion they are not needed will be more accurate in the future than it would be today.
 
Gerald Martin said:
Speaking personally, I think they may be necessary at some point. How to determine the appropriate amount of hunters per region is something we discussed at length among our group and came to the conclusion that it would just be a WAG if we tried to give a number without better information. We concluded that we don’t have the answers to several questions.
1. What is the appropriate amount of hunter?
2. How would FWP implement a regional cap that would either not make unacceptable (socially) restrictions on hunter opportunities and be effective (biologically) to benefit the resource?

The necessity or lack there of regional caps is a legitimate conversation that will continue to occur and should continue to occur. As a group we have decided not to call for or support regional caps in this proposal, not because we necessarily support or oppose them. We just believe that with several years mandatory reporting in place to give us a better understanding of hunter distribution and regional biologists monitoring of the resource the conclusion for need of regional caps or conclusion they are not needed will be more accurate in the future than it would be today.
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Thanks, Gerald.
 
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