Bill Advances to End Preference to Nonresident Landowners for Big-Game Hunting Licenses

Montana lawmakers are considering a proposal to unwind parts of a 2023 bill that guaranteed large nonresident landowners access to a big-game hunting license.

House Bill 907 strikes portions of House Bill 635, which narrowly passed the Legislature two years ago. HB 635 established a new nonresident preference pool program that effectively guaranteed nonresident landowners with 2,500 acres of land access to a big-game combination license good for one elk and one deer.

Proponents of HB 907 say that it preserves the desirable portions of HB 635 — which sought to recognize large landowners’ contribution to wildlife habitat by facilitating access to bull elk tags, which are difficult for nonresidents to obtain — while expanding public hunter access to hunting opportunities on private land. HB 907 does that, they say, by specifying that nonresident landowners must enroll their properties in a state-administered program like Block Management in order to receive the combination license. The bill also significantly reduces the acreage for nonresidents to participate, dropping it to 640 acres — a square-mile section. This change will expand landowner participation in the program, broadening the private acreage available to public hunters, proponents contend.

Opponents argue that the HB 635-authorized program is still in its infancy and lawmakers should give it longer to demonstrate proof of concept. They also say that the new legislation could encourage the subdivision of larger, intact properties to the detriment of wildlife habitat and that revisions requiring public access will be viewed as “punitive” by participating landowners.

During a hearing before the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee April 1, Steve Platt, president of Helena Hunters and Anglers, said he supports HB 907 because it incentivizes landowner participation in Block Management and does away with the “no-strings-attached” system that provides large nonresident landowners with up to five big-game combination licenses.

“It’s in keeping with the North American model of wildlife conservation for the public to have equal access to our wildlife,” Platt said.

Several HB 907 proponents said they reluctantly supported the nonresident preference pool program in 2023 but changed their minds after finding the public access component of the proposal didn’t develop as hoped. (Under the existing program, nonresident landowners who open their property to an FWP-administered access program can purchase an additional bonus point to improve their odds of hunting in districts with limited hunting opportunities, but landowners who are only interested in hunting their own property can opt out of the bonus point and keep their property closed to the hunting public.)

“[HB] 635 failed in some of its promises. We were told it would move up to 30,000 hunter days a year from public to private. Reality is, we know from Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ data only 131 licenses were given out,” said Jock Conyngham with the Montana Sportsmen Alliance. “There’s no way … They would have had to hunt for 7.5 months [to reach] that figure.”

Missoula resident Kevin Farron said he’s worried that leaving HB 635 in its current form will draw the state closer to a transferable-tag scenario, which members of the hunting public have long resisted in Montana.

“Once we’re giving these five tags to these non-resident landowners, what’s next? What’s to stop them from coming back next session with a bill to give them transferable tags they can sell?” Farron argued. “I really think we need to draw the line somewhere.”

Opponents countered that more public access may develop as the program matures and that terminating it now might drive ranches to rethink their coordination with groups like the Wounded Warriors Project, which connects combat veterans with hunting opportunities. Opponents also flagged the potential for unintended consequences.

“By trying to incentivize 640 acres, what you really end up doing is giving real estate agents even more fodder to sell smaller acreages for landowner preference,” Montana Conservation Society lobbyist Ben Lamb told the committee. “What you’re doing here is disincentivizing conservation.”

Bob Hoverson, who spent the past 10 years managing hunting and recreation on a large ranch outside Helena, described HB 907 as “just another attempt to achieve public access by forcing landowners into a program, rather than simply providing landowners a license and working with them to find an access program that works in their particular situation.”

“Approaching landowners with your hand extended in friendship goes a lot farther than expecting a quid pro quo,” he told legislators.

Craig Jourdonnais, a retired FWP game warden and biologist who now works for the MPG Ranch in the Bitterroot, echoed Hoverson’s concerns.

“This [nonresident preference] pool releases some of the negative pressure and sentiment non-resident landowners currently feel,” Jourdonnais said. “It signifies that they have some value, and it offers a more welcoming spirit than the contempt that they feel. Securing a license or permit for full price is a vital step toward being able to hunt your own property, and eliminating this piece would send public access backward and potentially harm Montana’s long-standing conservation ethic.”

Ian Wargo, who formerly served on the FWP Elk Advisory Group and Mule Deer Advisory Group, said he likes that the existing program takes nonresidents out of competition with resident public-land hunters like himself by specifying that their license is only good for hunting their own deeded land.

“I think in the future, you’re going to see more utilization,” he argued. “We’re trying to figure out any way we can to relieve some of the DIY nonresident hunting pressure.”

HB 907 passed through the House 74-24 on April 5, garnering support from all of the chamber’s Democrats and more than half of its Republicans. On April 15, it will go up for a public hearing before the Senate Fish and Game Committee.