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Fish, Wildlife and Parks outlines how nonresident licenses and drawing mechanics shape hunting opportunity and revenue
Summary
FWP staff reviewed license types, statutory residency limits and drawing mechanics, showing nonresident combinations produce the bulk of deer/elk license revenue and explaining how leftover quotas, surplus sales and SB281 affect future nonresident sales.
Emily Cooper, licensing bureau chief with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, told the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks committee the department uses licenses and permits as distinct management tools: a license authorizes harvest and possession of an animal while a permit modifies a license’s opportunity.
Cooper described A licenses (targeting antlered animals) and B or antlerless licenses (used to directly manage population size). She said the department manages population size, age structure and male-to-female ratios with a combination of hunter numbers, methods, season length and timing, bag limits and access programs.
The presentation laid out how statutorily limited nonresident combination licenses are allocated. Cooper said the big-game/elk combination bucket has a combined quota (the 2024 drawing used a 17,000 combined quota example) and noted…
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