Andy
01-29-2008, 04:40 PM
State program opens private lands to hunters
By BRETT FRENCH
Of The Gazette Staff
Although almost 30 percent of Montana is public land, access to private land is essential to the state's big-game hunting seasons.
Figures from the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks show why.
In 2006, 69 percent of the deer, 81 percent of the antelope and 36 percent of the elk killed in the state were taken from private land.
But hunter access to private land is, and always has been, at the pleasure of the landowner - a tenuous agreement. And as hunting pressure has increased, land has changed hands and leasing of private lands has increased. The result has been more hunters trying to gain access to an ever-shrinking amount of land.
"The more people you have on fewer acres, the more problems you have," FWP's Alan Charles said.
In 1985, FWP stepped in. The state would lease private land, helping landowners manage hunters and allow public access. The program was dubbed Block Management. Charles now manages it.
Coffee Creek landowners Hugo and Judy Tureck have had their central Montana ranch enrolled in the program since 1996.
"We're pleased with it," Hugo said. "It allows us a lot of control."
The Turecks allow two parties of three to four hunters a day to hunt deer and upland birds. Access is walk-in only to the almost 9,000 acres of private and public land in the Arrow Creek Breaks. The Turecks average about 240 to 250 hunter days a season, or 150 hunters.
Hugo said they aren't doing it for the money.
"I have a pretty strong commitment to public hunting," he said. "I could lease this out for much, much more.
"But the game does not belong to me, it belongs to the people of Montana. My job is to protect the landscape."
Over the years, Block Management grew exponentially before finally topping out and declining. Last year, 1,258 landowners enrolled 8.14 million acres in the program. That compares with 1,244 landowners enrolling 8.29 million acres in 2006. Those figures are down from the 9 million acres enrolled in 2005.
"We have about 10 percent of private land in the state in block management," Charles said. "We've had about a 3 to 5 percent attrition rate for landowners."
The reasons for leaving the program are as varied as the landowners, Charles said, including death and illness (many landowners are elderly); the sale of property, which Charles said is becoming more common; dissatisfaction with the program; hunter behavior; a desire to generate more income than the program can provide; and a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with the program itself, such as dissatisfaction with federal polices like wolf or bison management.
In 1999, as part of an audit, 121 landowners no longer enrolled in Block Management were asked why they did not re-enroll. Of the 121 landowners contacted, 61 responded. The top four reasons cited by the respondents were: 27 said the monetary incentives were not enough to compensate for hunter impacts; 23 said there were too many disruptions by hunters; 20 said there were too many hunters; and 20 said the Block Management Program was not what they expected.
Outfitters have another 6 to 10 percent of private land leased in the state, depending on who does the counting, leaving about 80 percent of the private lands with some type of mixed usage. Some landowners may allow no hunting, others are leased by private clubs, others may allow only friends and family to hunt, and some turn no one away as long as they act responsibly.
Although the Block Management Program's acreage has shrunk, use of the program rose in the past two years. In 2005, more than 439,000 hunter days were logged on block management, compared with more than 441,000 in 2006.
"Certainly we see a fluctuation that matches more what's happening everywhere else," Charles said. "The trend is for more hunter days in general across the landscape."
Block Management is funded from a mixture of five sources - 90 percent of which comes from nonresident hunting licenses.
For every $110 nonresident upland bird license sold, $55 goes to block management for 6 percent of the funding. The state's SuperTag lottery for moose, sheep, goat, elk or deer, which costs $5 per ticket, funds 4 percent of the program. Nonresident outfitter-sponsored big-game licenses generate the largest amount for the fund, 76 percent. Another 4 percent comes from federal Pittman-Robertson funds, which aren't broken down between resident and nonresident. The Hunter Access Enhancement Fee generates another 10 percent - 3 percent from the $2 residents pay and 7 percent from the $10 nonresidents pay.
The current budget for the state's entire Hunting Access Enhancement Program - which includes Block Management, Access Montana (which focuses on public land access) and Special Access Projects (regional species-specific projects) - is about $6.5 million. Of that, about $4.1 million covers landowner payments, funding for six regional coordinators, 40-45 seasonal workers, six warden positions and all program operations.
This budget has almost doubled over the past 11 years, growing from about $3.5 million in 1996 to $6.5 million in 2007.
"We're trying to provide a hunter management program," Charles said. "The dollars we offer are going to have to increase, but we'll never compare to lease dollars. We're designed to keep hunters as the primary tool to manage game numbers."
In addition to Block Management, FWP has also purchased easements across private lands to public property.
In Western Montana, near the small town of Glen, FWP paid $30,000 for a mile-long easement.
"They're expensive and complex deals to work out," Charles said. "But we're not seeing that the Bureau of Land Management or state is interested in doing it."
The state has also purchased term easements for five or 10 years.
"If we can secure easements, it might be dollars more well-spent," Charles said.
FWP has also launched a program to mark state and federal lands across the state to make public areas easier for sportsmen to find, allocating about $15,000 to $20,000 a year for the program.
And although BLM and the state sometimes formulate land trades to consolidate public holdings and make them accessible, "it's a slow, contentious, bureaucratic process," Charles said. "And I don't see it as a big priority for the state or BLM."
That leaves sections, and pieces of sections, of state and BLM land landlocked by private holdings, keeping them inaccessible to the public.
As time goes on, hunter access to private land is bound to become more and more difficult, Charles said.
"I'm fighting to make sure people have an opportunity to hunt.
By BRETT FRENCH
Of The Gazette Staff
Although almost 30 percent of Montana is public land, access to private land is essential to the state's big-game hunting seasons.
Figures from the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks show why.
In 2006, 69 percent of the deer, 81 percent of the antelope and 36 percent of the elk killed in the state were taken from private land.
But hunter access to private land is, and always has been, at the pleasure of the landowner - a tenuous agreement. And as hunting pressure has increased, land has changed hands and leasing of private lands has increased. The result has been more hunters trying to gain access to an ever-shrinking amount of land.
"The more people you have on fewer acres, the more problems you have," FWP's Alan Charles said.
In 1985, FWP stepped in. The state would lease private land, helping landowners manage hunters and allow public access. The program was dubbed Block Management. Charles now manages it.
Coffee Creek landowners Hugo and Judy Tureck have had their central Montana ranch enrolled in the program since 1996.
"We're pleased with it," Hugo said. "It allows us a lot of control."
The Turecks allow two parties of three to four hunters a day to hunt deer and upland birds. Access is walk-in only to the almost 9,000 acres of private and public land in the Arrow Creek Breaks. The Turecks average about 240 to 250 hunter days a season, or 150 hunters.
Hugo said they aren't doing it for the money.
"I have a pretty strong commitment to public hunting," he said. "I could lease this out for much, much more.
"But the game does not belong to me, it belongs to the people of Montana. My job is to protect the landscape."
Over the years, Block Management grew exponentially before finally topping out and declining. Last year, 1,258 landowners enrolled 8.14 million acres in the program. That compares with 1,244 landowners enrolling 8.29 million acres in 2006. Those figures are down from the 9 million acres enrolled in 2005.
"We have about 10 percent of private land in the state in block management," Charles said. "We've had about a 3 to 5 percent attrition rate for landowners."
The reasons for leaving the program are as varied as the landowners, Charles said, including death and illness (many landowners are elderly); the sale of property, which Charles said is becoming more common; dissatisfaction with the program; hunter behavior; a desire to generate more income than the program can provide; and a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with the program itself, such as dissatisfaction with federal polices like wolf or bison management.
In 1999, as part of an audit, 121 landowners no longer enrolled in Block Management were asked why they did not re-enroll. Of the 121 landowners contacted, 61 responded. The top four reasons cited by the respondents were: 27 said the monetary incentives were not enough to compensate for hunter impacts; 23 said there were too many disruptions by hunters; 20 said there were too many hunters; and 20 said the Block Management Program was not what they expected.
Outfitters have another 6 to 10 percent of private land leased in the state, depending on who does the counting, leaving about 80 percent of the private lands with some type of mixed usage. Some landowners may allow no hunting, others are leased by private clubs, others may allow only friends and family to hunt, and some turn no one away as long as they act responsibly.
Although the Block Management Program's acreage has shrunk, use of the program rose in the past two years. In 2005, more than 439,000 hunter days were logged on block management, compared with more than 441,000 in 2006.
"Certainly we see a fluctuation that matches more what's happening everywhere else," Charles said. "The trend is for more hunter days in general across the landscape."
Block Management is funded from a mixture of five sources - 90 percent of which comes from nonresident hunting licenses.
For every $110 nonresident upland bird license sold, $55 goes to block management for 6 percent of the funding. The state's SuperTag lottery for moose, sheep, goat, elk or deer, which costs $5 per ticket, funds 4 percent of the program. Nonresident outfitter-sponsored big-game licenses generate the largest amount for the fund, 76 percent. Another 4 percent comes from federal Pittman-Robertson funds, which aren't broken down between resident and nonresident. The Hunter Access Enhancement Fee generates another 10 percent - 3 percent from the $2 residents pay and 7 percent from the $10 nonresidents pay.
The current budget for the state's entire Hunting Access Enhancement Program - which includes Block Management, Access Montana (which focuses on public land access) and Special Access Projects (regional species-specific projects) - is about $6.5 million. Of that, about $4.1 million covers landowner payments, funding for six regional coordinators, 40-45 seasonal workers, six warden positions and all program operations.
This budget has almost doubled over the past 11 years, growing from about $3.5 million in 1996 to $6.5 million in 2007.
"We're trying to provide a hunter management program," Charles said. "The dollars we offer are going to have to increase, but we'll never compare to lease dollars. We're designed to keep hunters as the primary tool to manage game numbers."
In addition to Block Management, FWP has also purchased easements across private lands to public property.
In Western Montana, near the small town of Glen, FWP paid $30,000 for a mile-long easement.
"They're expensive and complex deals to work out," Charles said. "But we're not seeing that the Bureau of Land Management or state is interested in doing it."
The state has also purchased term easements for five or 10 years.
"If we can secure easements, it might be dollars more well-spent," Charles said.
FWP has also launched a program to mark state and federal lands across the state to make public areas easier for sportsmen to find, allocating about $15,000 to $20,000 a year for the program.
And although BLM and the state sometimes formulate land trades to consolidate public holdings and make them accessible, "it's a slow, contentious, bureaucratic process," Charles said. "And I don't see it as a big priority for the state or BLM."
That leaves sections, and pieces of sections, of state and BLM land landlocked by private holdings, keeping them inaccessible to the public.
As time goes on, hunter access to private land is bound to become more and more difficult, Charles said.
"I'm fighting to make sure people have an opportunity to hunt.