Legislators, governor enabling commercialization of hunting

For decades, Montana’s outfitting community provided their services in a fair fashion respecting the shared interests of hunters and landowners. Outfitters were partners in wildlife management, landowner relationships, and the hunting community. That collaboration has been mostly replaced by greedy efforts favoring the commercialization of hunting opportunities.

The list of bills the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association — MOGA — is pushing is long, coupled with the appointments to key boards and commissions that will reshape the rules to favor wealthy interests over public hunters and anglers, both resident and non-resident. These efforts are succeeding with votes almost exclusively along party lines.

It started with SB 143, a bill that would have created guaranteed outfitter-sponsored non-resident big game hunting licenses. Then it came in the form of HB 505, a bill creating potentially unlimited landowner-sponsored elk licenses. These bills were broadly opposed by public hunters as measures that would create more exclusive hunting opportunity at the expense of public opportunity.

MOGA is also behind SB 275, which takes two sporting members off the Board of Outfitters, gets rid of the requirement that they report leased private acres, and eliminates Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks oversight of enforcing the rules for outfitters. That leaves it up to the board — which once this bill passes will be almost entirely made up of outfitters, leaving them to police themselves. It takes away any accountability for the public resources outfitters depend upon.

Public hunters gave strong support for Andrew McKean as a reasonable, knowledgeable candidate to serve on the Fish and Wildlife Commission. The public’s nominee was rejected along party lines in the Senate.

To oversee our public fish and wildlife resources and the allocation of opportunities for the public’s enjoyment and consumption of those resources these same Senate partisans favor Pat Tabor, a hunting outfitter and former MOGA president. Tabor made no bones about his view of wildlife management in his application letter. It’s all about money.

Translation: Tabor and MOGA promote industry-friendly regulation and license allocations along with rules favoring privatization of public hunting and fishing opportunities. They want transferrable and guaranteed licenses for clients plus seasons built to exploit the most desirable hunts for their clients. Resident and nonresident do-it-yourself hunters get secondary opportunities designed to balance populations — basically shooting pregnant cow elk in mid-winter.

Landowners unable or unwilling to participate in commercialization of wildlife often suffer the consequences of their neighbor’s actions. Harboring of wildlife on private lands is motivated by MOGA leasing hunting rights for their clients. While their clients enjoy success, the neighboring landowners suffer the effects of these unnatural concentrations of wildlife outside of the hunting season.

It wasn’t always this way. Outfitters often prided themselves as much on their conservation contributions as their service to clients. They cared about the resource and the public image of their guiding service. They valued the reputation of hunting as fair chase. Not anymore. That’s been replaced by an insatiable sense of entitlement to our public wildlife.

MOGA is leading this charge to commercialize hunting, and they’re getting plenty of help from legislators and the governor. The governor claimed before the election “sportsmen and landowners are at war with FWP.” That statement has no factual basis. However, since the election there is no doubt the political majority has declared war on the equitable allocation of hunting opportunities in Montana.

——

Chris Marchion is a board member of the Anaconda Sportsmen Club, and an inaugural member of the Montana Outdoor Hall of Fame.