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Bill to publish district-level hunting data draws broad support from conservation and sporting groups
Summary
HB175 would require FWP to publish an annual district-level public report on licenses, estimated hunters, hunter days and harvest by residency. Supporters said it uses existing survey data to improve transparency for season-setting and hunter planning; FWP said the data exist and a summary report is manageable.
Representative Shannon Maness introduced House Bill 175, which would require Fish, Wildlife and Parks to publish an annual public report that breaks out licenses sold and estimated hunter effort and harvest by hunting district and residency (resident versus nonresident). "It takes advantage of the best available data to inform wildlife management decisions," said a Backcountry Hunters & Anglers witness, summarizing proponents’ views that district-level transparency improves season-setting and public participation.
Proponents—including conservation organizations, the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association and the Montana Wildlife Federation—told the committee that the department already collects these metrics through random-sample phone harvest surveys and that the bill’s intent is to make that information easier to find and use on the FWP website. Matt Leo (BHA) said the bill would make existing practice into policy and enable more informed recommendations during season-setting.
Quentin Kujala, chief of conservation policy for FWP, described the department’s phone-survey methodology: a random sample designed to reach an 80 percent confidence interval at district and regional scales; the calls collect number of hunters, hunter days, and harvest and identify whether callers were residents or nonresidents. Kujala and Emily Cooper told the committee that the requested summary report would be manageable given current data storage and survey procedures.
Committee members asked about overlap (hunters hunting in multiple districts or purchasing multiple licenses) and whether aggregation will inflate district numbers; FWP responded that the random-sample approach and statistical weighting produce district-level hunter and hunter-day estimates and provide confidence intervals.
Several witnesses asked the sponsor to consider expanding the bill’s scope to include large carnivores and additional species in the future; the sponsor said the current bill sticks to deer, elk and antelope but that stakeholders could discuss expansions later.
The hearing closed after staff and stakeholders discussed data availability and implementation; no committee vote was taken during the session.
