Beaverhead Sportsmens Association

On Thursday I attended the Beaverhead Sportmen's Association meeting in Dillon. Approximatley 50 sportsmen attended. Also at the meeting were a number of FWP personnel including, Pat Flowers, Curt Alt, 3 area biologists, and Quentin Kujala.

The meeting was called by the association to bring attention to:

• low bull to cow elk ratios across southwest Montana


• Lack of quality of mule deer buck hunting


• High numbers (500-700) elk harboring on private land prior to the hunting season.


• The effect of HB 42 requiring area bioligist to manage elk to a specific number not the biological carry capacity of a hunt district.

Since Region 3 contains 50% of the elk in Montana these issues are critical to the future of quality elk hunting in Montana.

Incidently HB 42 was passed two legislative sessions ago by Debby Barrett, now sentator in the Montana legislature. She is also a rancher in this area. She also introduced a bill this session that would take the management of elk out of the hands of FWP and put it in the control of the Montana Legislature. Tell me that this isn't a bad idea. Politicians managing our ELK!!!

The conclusions from the meeting were:

• The area of SW Montana will likely moved to brow tined bull only


• Validation of an area will be considered to manage hunter numbers


• Game manager need to work with land owners to move elk out of pivots prior to the opening of general hunting season and on to public land.

There will be more to come from this for sure! Look for an article in Big Sky Outdoor News and this blog!