Op Ed: Elk Slaughter Bill Step to End Public Hunting

Montana is at a crossroads in our management of wildlife. We will either maintain our decades-long tradition in which everyone has equal opportunity to enjoy our public wildlife, or we hand control to a handful of wealthy landowners and outfitters to pick who gets to hunt.

A bill pending in the state Legislature would allow unlimited elk “B” cow elk tags in some areas to residents, and give non-residents who draw a bull elk license a second cow elk tag, in addition to the one they’re already guaranteed based on a law passed a couple years ago. There are no sideboards on which areas would be allocated these tags, leaving the discretion to the Fish and Wildlife Commission.

What’s really going on here is the privatization of our public wildlife resources to cater to a handful of large outfitters and landowners. SB 270 would create a system in which outfitters control nearly every aspect of wildlife, to their benefit to sell trophy hunts while elk herds continue to grow over the objectives set by the state. It was brought by the Montana Conservation Society, a dark money group run by an out-of-state lobbyist, outfitters and large landowners.

Sound wildlife management is based on getting a broad harvest of big game, spreading wildlife out across the landscape, and distributing hunters to ensure fair chase, ethical hunting. That requires a partnership between landowners and hunters. If a landowner has issues with the public’s wildlife, the public hunter needs to be part of the solution.

What’s the common denominator in these areas where some landowners are complaining about an overpopulation of elk? It’s locking the public out from its wildlife and purposely harboring animals to sell trophy hunts. The result when no cow elk are taken throughout the general season is burgeoning herds. This bill creates an incentive for landowners to harbor huge elk herds to profit off of them.

SB 270 would allow wealthy landowners who restrict all public hunting access to pick and choose who hunts, allocate tags for their friends, and facilitate elk culls by employees. Public hunting opportunity for what are supposed to be public resources would be eliminated.

It’s not far-fetched. In Europe, a few aristocrats come out to kill trophies. Then landowner staffers are brought in to kill hundreds of animals when they reach high population levels.

That approach isn’t just limited to Europe. In Wyoming, state wildlife officials are already culling elk on private ranches. Idaho took a similar approach several years ago, gunning down more than 200 elk in a night in what it called an experiment.

This is just the latest move by outfitters and wealthy landowners to privatize public wildlife. They’ve pushed through landowner licenses based on acreage, expanded elk “shoulder seasons” that last six months, and given preference to non-resident hunters who hire an outfitter.

SB 270 represents the next step in destroying the public trust doctrine for our wildlife, in which it’s held by the state for all citizens, and making us a system in which people buy access. It would end decades of cooperation that made Montana successful in managing our elk for everyone.

Write your state House and Senate member and tell them to vote NO on SB 270.

Nick Gevock is a Montana hunter who serves as a campaign organizer for Northern Rockies wildands and wildlife for the Sierra Club.