MT bill to alow reimbursment for wolf trapping expenses

[Humptulips]

https://leg.mt.gov/bills/2019/billpdf/HB0279.pdf

Looks like MT is thinking about taking a cue from ID.

[KFhunter]

Excellent!

I was curious about something like this in Washington, if MT needed to pass a bill to allow this then wouldn't it stand to reason WA would need too as well? 

Or was there a law on the books in MT specifically preventing compensation?

[KFhunter]

This is where that question stemmed from:

I certainly wouldn't be against F4W version in Washington but I'm not sure how it would work other than possibly coyotes   

We can't usually take more than one species of big game predator except bear on the west side (limit 2) w4m is paying for wolf trappers,  if we ever get to hunt the wolf it won't be more than a special draw or 1 wolf bag limit annually.   

It's not even easy to just get a coyote derby permit here in WA, coyote madness failed this year, if it was easy (or didn't require a permit in the first place) we'd have yote hunters out there trying to knock down some yotes, possibly even giving our antelope a better chance at keeping fawns. WDFW makes it a complicated and lengthy process.  Bearpaw knows more about this than I do.  https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,233490.0.html


Can anyone imagine WDFW giving a thing like foundation for wildlife management a green light to pay the equivalent of bounties?


I'm all ears, instead of crapping on ideas how about coming up with some 

The key to how F4W works is that they are not paying a bounty, they are paying expense reimbursements for hunters making legal kills. You have to photocopy your receipts of expenses and send them to get reimbursed. Depending on area of kill you can get reimbursed for expenses up to $1000 per wolf. I think that includes reimbursement for trucks, snowmobiles, fuel, traps, guns, etc purchased for hunting wolves. I do think the same thing may be possible for coyotes, bear, and/or cougar in WA, unless there is something in the law preventing reimbursements? A person would have to question WDFW very specifically.

For example on how specific wording makes a difference: We can't hold a hunting contest based on the number of animals killed unless we have a permit. But, we can hold photo contests of harvested animals if it's based on the best photo.

[Humptulips]

What I read in the MT Legislative link was that what ID is doing would be considered illegal at present. The new bill would specifically allow reimbursement but I think prizes in contest would still be illegal.

In WA I don't know the full extent of the laws on this subject but any WCO can be paid for trapping or hunting. I don't believe you could pay or reimburse anyone who was not a WCO. Anyone can be a WCO but they have to have a trapping license and demonstrate two years experience trapping.
So you could hire a WCO to hunt say coyotes. It doesn't say it has to be on your property. Trapping them would be more problematic because you would need special trapping permits which can only be issued for private land for a demonstrated problem after other solutions have proven ineffective.