Montana FWP struggles with more hunters as there are fewer private lands to hunt

Much like the current U.S. economy, Montana’s most-prized hunter access program is facing a K-shaped conundrum.

On the one hand, the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ Block Management Program is seeing increased demand, rising from around 250,000 hunters in 1999 to close to 700,000 in 2024, a 180% increase.

That’s the rising side of the K.

On the decline side is the number of acres enrolled by private landowners in the popular program, which has declined from a peak of 8.8 million acres enrolled in 2002 to 6.8 million in 2025, a nearly 23% decline.

As a result, more hunters are being squished into less space, and they've been vocal in demanding FWP address their crowding concerns.

Surveying landowners

Jason Kool, FWP’s landowner sportsmen coordinator, told the Private Land/Public Wildlife Committee at its recent meeting that a series of surveys has been sent to Montana landowners to assess what might incentivize them to participate in the state's public access programs.

The Legislature has already raised the fees paid to Block Management participants, with $12.3 million paid out last year compared to about $5.5 million five years ago.

Maybe other incentives such as nontransferable hunting licenses or permits, or free bonus points to use in drawings for hard-to-get hunting permits might work, Kool suggested. Or maybe the landowners would prefer assistance like fencing repair in exchange for providing public access.

FWP is hoping answers from landowners, only about 1,200 of which have responded so far, will help guide its future decisions.

Staff outreach

In addition to surveying landowners, Kool said FWP will be asking its regional staff to prioritize participation in its access programs by emphasizing that staff develop relationships with landowners and local agricultural organizations.

Another goal is to simplify and communicate the existing programs to landowners, possibly by producing a comprehensive guide that outlines options and incentives, as well as an outreach campaign to increase awareness of what FWP has to offer.

“A lot of these landowners out there are unaware of this stuff,” said PLPW member Paul Ellis, owner of Sunday Creek Outfitters. “I think the department needs to do a better job of reaching out to all landowners, and not only on this subject, but just overall season setting, population objectives and those kind of things too.”

PLPW member Dave McNaney, of Hysham, agreed and went beyond Ellis’ suggestion.

“If there is more landowner input to season settings and season quotas I think you would have a lot more landowner participation in these access programs,” he said.

Right now, he said landowners are “just told how many elk and deer we want, and this is how many you're going to feed.”

Mike Mershon, board chair and president of the Montana Wildlife Federation, suggested the department prioritize contacting landowners with property bordering public lands to focus its work.

Last year, PLPW compiled its own list of possible factors affecting landowner enrollment, including a lack of trust in FWP, a lack of understanding of access programs, concerns about a landowner losing control of their property if they enroll and the purchase of traditional ranches by new owners who are using the land for their own hunting.

“So we've identified what we would like to do, and now we need to go through the planning process,” Kool explained.

Access program audit

FWP is under pressure to react following a 2024 legislative audit that criticized the agency for mismanaging its Unlocking Public Lands access program, which is just one of the state’s six offerings. FWP administers five of the six.

“To enhance access, the state should streamline and consolidate its public land access programs, allocate resources for operations, and improve the availability and quality of spatial data for the public,” the audit recommended.

The agency has so many programs that its own staff “found it challenging to keep track of all the different programs and their nuances,” the audit found.

“Other states tend to have one flagship program that provides public access in multiple ways,” the audit said. “Each program increases the administrative burden on the agency to successfully manage these programs. Limited staff resources are diverted from more successful access programs."

FWP, which was led by an interim director at the time, concurred with the auditors’ recommendations.

More funding challenges

Further complicating the issue this year is that funding for the Block Management Program may be cut by as much as $1 million due to a decrease in nonresident hunting license sales, the funding source for the program.

The agency is predicting a drop for two reasons. One is that the Legislature raised the base hunting license fee for nonresidents from $15 to $50 and Kool said FWP is worried there may be some resistance to the price increase. The second is that mule deer hunting opportunity has been restricted as the animal’s population has declined. Last fall the Fish and Wildlife Commission reduced the sale of nonresident deer licenses by 2,500.

Interestingly, both could have been worse. The initial base license fee for nonresidents was proposed to climb to $100, and the commission considered cutting 5,000 nonresident deer licenses before backing down.

The department won’t know the full impact of the changes to its budget until this summer or fall, Kool said.

Investing in tech

Another hurdle facing FWP — its overwhelmed staff — was raised by the agency’s chief financial officer, Lena Havron, in an October 2025 PLPW meeting.

Havron said she’s hopeful that FWP can invest in technology to lighten the existing staff’s workload before adding more people.

“We're still in process and still continue to work on components of that,” Kool said. “Block Management reservations are pretty much high priority, and getting that off the ground would be the first piece that should free up some staff time. The contracting system is also in the works.”

Yet he added, “We haven't progressed too far with the tech pieces as it relates to access programs yet. We're still working through that.”