"A big change came from an amendment that was proposed by Fish and Wildlife Commission Chair Lesley Robinson. The amendment, which passed 6-0, implements a sales cap for the non-resident general deer licenses. The cap would be half of the number of general deer licenses, separated from the elk combination licenses."
"In another amendment from Robinson, the commission reduced the number of general deer tags a resident hunter can hold from 8 to 3. The change includes both mule and white-tail deer tags combined. That amendment passed 6-0."
Soooo, the source of the problem is the number of non-resident hunters, right? The solution is to limit the number of non-resident hunters? Got it.
Look at this, from a report last month.
https://www.ktvh.com/news/montana-news/looking-at-non-resident-hunter-numbers"In 2014, 16,357 nonresidents came to hunt elk, logging 126,926 hunter-days. In 2024, 20,066 nonresidents hunted elk in the state,
spending 153,834 hunter-days — a 21% increase in hunter-days.
Comparatively, the rise in resident hunters has remained nearly flat over the 10 years. In 2014, 91,307 residents hunted elk, and 10 years later, the number rose slightly to 91,903. Meanwhile,
resident hunter-days increased from 818,301 to 946,480. That means resident hunters are spending more time in the field — 128,179 more hunter-days, or about a 16% increase."
Yes, you read that correctly. Resident "hunter-days" of 947,480 in 2024 vs. non-resident "hunter-days" of 153,834, or a 6.15x difference.
I agree. Non-resident hunters are the problem. Let's reduce their tags by half. That should solve the problem.
