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Committee narrows sharing of recent wildlife GPS data; HB264 amended to limit pinpoint releases for one year
Summary
After extended debate, the committee amended and advanced HB264 to allow Fish, Wildlife and Parks to share wildlife location data with research partners and government agencies under data-sharing agreements but to redact exact lat/longs for the most recent period; the committee adopted a one-year buffer and forwarded the bill to the floor.
Representative Karlin presented an amendment to House Bill 264 clarifying that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks may share wildlife location data with research partners and other government entities under data-sharing agreements. The amendment was framed as a response to concerns about recent requests for exact GPS coordinates of collared animals and to give the department tools to protect vulnerable animals and private landowners while still permitting research and infrastructure planning with partners.
Committee debate was vigorous and focused on public access, fair-chase hunting concerns and the scope of the data-sharing carve-out. Representative Schubert argued that the public should have broad access to government information and urged a no vote on a provision that would allow the department to limit access. Representative Carlin and other proponents said the change was narrowly tailored to prevent real-time pinpoint coordinates from being publicly available and pointed to examples (wildlife crossings, coordination with the Department of Transportation) where partners legitimately need data under agreements.
Members proposed shortening the buffer period for recent data; after a roll-call amendment vote the committee approved an initial amendment, then adopted a conceptual amendment to change a proposed three-year buffer to one year. The committee later adopted the bill as amended; the final recorded roll-call on the amended bill was 17 ayes, 3 noes. Supporters said the change balances transparency with protection of animals and private lands; opponents raised concerns about limiting public access to government data and argued data-sharing agreements could be used to exclude independent researchers.
The bill as amended allows sharing through formal agreements with research partners and government agencies, while restricting release of pinpoint latitude/longitude information for a limited recent period (one year under the conceptual amendment adopted in committee). The committee voted to advance the amended bill to the House floor.
