Montana legislature and mule deer

[Ben Lamb]

Today, the Environmental Quality Council will be looking at MT mule deer management. The discussion should happen later in the afternoon. There was a bill last session to eliminate the unlimited permits. Luckily, we were able to kill it (No good reason exists for the legislature to decide this kind of management in any state). Could be a portend of things to come in the 19 session, which is now only 6 months away.

http://leg.mt.gov/content/Committees/Interim/2017-2018/EQC/Meetings/May-2018/agenda.pdf

You can listen in here: http://leg.mt.gov/css/default.asp

 

[406LIFE]

Some good reading on the topic from the EQC:
http://leg.mt.gov/content/Committee...deer-effects-of-regulation-on-pop-harvest.pdf

 

[8andcounting]

Very interesting thanks for the post of the link . Guy needs to really take some time to read and try understand

 

[bigsky2]

Did anyone get a chance to watch this? I'm curious what was talked about.

 

[Ben Lamb]

I was in attendance. It was a nothing burger. FWP presented some information on buck to doe ratios in LE, Unlimited and general areas (linked above by 406 Life). Senator Carey Smith had requested the information after he ran a bill that would have eliminated FWP's ability to issue unlimited MD permits and restrict hunting to those areas only. Given former senator Balyeat's interest in the issue, I suspect we'll have more shenanigans around this next session, but hope to be pleasantly surprised.

Overall, I don't think the buck to doe ratios are anything that would surprise anybody who hunts the unlimited areas. My main take away is that Montana manages primarily for opportunity, and not for trophy quality. Which is about like saying the sun rises in the east.

 

[joelweb]

That report is interesting. I wonder how buck/doe ratios would change in unlimited permits areas if they were first choice only. There would be a lot fewer guys packing permits that way .Seems a lot of people draw them second choice so they don't burn points (including me some years).

I also think high elk numbers/elk hunters should play into deer management. A ton of people hunt the big elk units in Region 3 and they start popping forkies about the third week of the season when they begin to panic about not killing an elk. I think mule deer get more pressure in units with high numbers of elk hunters, and it really puts downward pressure on the buck/doe ratio and available age class.