The older this letter gets, the more truth was in it..........
TO: Region 7 Commissioner William Lane
and other FWP Commission members
From: Dean Parisian, Montana Non-Resident land-owner, tax payer, 50-year
Montana hunter and trapper
I listened intently last evening, Jan. 4, 2021 to the online meeting at the
Region 7 HQ in Miles City conducted by FWP personnel. It was a good meeting,
all in attendance were respectful and courteous. Mr. Lane, in 1969 I started
work on the Garber Ranch outside of your hometown of Ismay and worked there for
four summers. My father was in Law Enforcement with the Bureau of Indian
Affairs and retired out of Crow Agency in 1985. We have never met but I know
you know well the Garber Land & Livestock property which has been a very
good ranch in the Block Management Program. Back then, coyotes were under
assault from strychnine “getters”, there were few eagles, elk were just getting
a good start in the Powder River country, we saw a bighorn ewe once in the
Powder River breaks and mule deer and antelope were far plentiful. Fast forward
to the good old days of 2022!
Here are my comments for the Commission:
As appointed public officials we all agree that your duty and responsibility is
to the resource first and then be accountable to the Montana hunting community
for your actions and votes. As a non-resident, we all know that non-Residents
pay the freight at FWP ,yet they have zero representation in Montana outside of
MOGA. Outside of big-game outfitters there aren’t that many things hated in
Montana as much as wealthy non-resident landowners. Non-resident landowners
control a large amount of land and those lands sustain a tremendous amount of
wildlife in the State of Montana, I’m one of those guys. We fawn approximately
80 to 100 whitetails, feed 150 deer year around and provide winter cover for at
times, 300 deer on my two mile stretch of the Yellowstone River. Listening to
the discussion last evening was eye-opening. The FWP, Big landowners, MOGA, the
MT Statutes, the Commission, everyone seems to have an agenda that for some
reason, well obvious reasons left here unsaid, don’t work entirely together. I
heard enough last night to weigh in. The social aspects, the science, the
politics, hard to swallow. Who is looking out for the resource? When I went to
work on Wall Street in 1982 I learned to follow the money. Some things never
change.
It was mentioned that every decade there is a survey done of the Montana
hunting community. The last time I believe they said was 2011 if memory serves.
Honestly, there is an absolute great opportunity to survey all Montana hunters,
both resident and non-resident when the post-season telephonic surveys are
completed. I would bet my saddle horse that most hunters would answer an
additional 5 to 8 questions honestly and openly when called. Those callers are
good, professional and respectful in my mind. I am one of those Montana hunters
that is concerned about the mule deer resource.
The Region 7 mule deer population is
extremely unstable, contrary to what the FWP biologists are saying, with all
due respect to Steve Atwood who I personally like, we just disagree on mule
deer being at “objective”. Look, they say they fly the Region every year and
take turns making observations. How can anyone make accurate predictions and
set rational seasons if you don’t have accurate data inputs? Elk are nomadic,
those elk move, how can you accurately assess population numbers on one
fly-over? Get these biologists in the air two or three times a year or pay
private contractors to get an accurate assessment of numbers. The deer numbers
in the Custer Forest are way, way down. Mule deer numbers north of I-94 are
way, way down. Ask any outfitter, any hunter, any FWP Warden. Todd Anderson,
FWP Captain is a great hunter and trapper, he will tell you what is going on if
you don’t believe me. Allowing residents to kill 7 mule deer does a year is
stunningly wrong. I buy mule deer doe tags (at non-resident prices) and throw
them away as do many of my friends. Do any of you study what other states are
doing with their mule deer herds? Does anyone at FWP study other states models?
Stop listening to hunters and cut the season back. Listening to hunters on
setting season dates is like listening to a drug addict tell you much they want
to quit after their next fix. If you can’t kill a deer in 4 weeks do you need 5
or 6? Shut down the season on November 15. Stop all those big breeding bucks
from getting killed during the rut. With the Montana population influx you will
eventually have to go to a lottery system sooner or later anyway. And for
heavens sake, if deer hunters in Region 1 or 2, have a 3 week season, I am sure
they will want to trot out to eastern Montana and put the Ford Sneak on a big
buck during the rut. Make the seasons across the board, protect the resource,
do the herds a favor. And one more simple request, make those Region 1 and 2
tags good for only that Region.
As for elk, there isn’t a need to run a “shoulder season” until February 15th.
Heavens, you shoot a cow elk in a herd of 140, they run for miles, getting away
from good feed and cover and that only does one thing, puts more stress on the
entire herd. There just isn’t a reason to drop a cow elk in February, walk up
and gut it out while the calf is already good size. If you can’t work with a
rancher between September and say January to get a cow elk killed you don’t
need an elk killed on Valentines Day. For grins, think about this, build a web
site, match up potential cow elk killers with ranchers. Let them know what the
access fee is going to be, provide a clearing house of sorts, it can’t be that
hard on a Region basis. I could probably build a clearing house page on
Facebook in the time it takes to drink a thermos of coffee. It’s just the
stress of running animals, deep snow, cold temperatures more fences coming
down, the Montana resource doesn’t need it, Montana ranchers don’t need it.
Regarding the whitetail DOE tags in Region 7, there should be no issue with
allowing (non-resident) hunters who are landowners to purchase two tags.
Enhancing revenue and helping landowners manage their property regardless of
the severity of EHD, CWD, coyotes, drought, etc. should be an easy decision for
the Commission. As a non-resident rancher and sustaining such a large number of
animals is so disappointing when family members are unable to draw A tags in
the lottery draw. There is no one looking out for the biggest revenue
generators to FWP and they probably want it that way. Guys like me, wealthy
non-resident landowners who do more to sustain the resource than anyone don’t
feel like letting locals on to hunt when the State of MT won’t allow family
members to draw tags.
While I am on the subject, as a life-long trapper of cats and canines across
many states over the years, it is difficult to justify why non-residents can’t
trap beaver, mink, muskrats, bobcats. Sure we can pound on fox and coyotes but
the lack of access to those animals may do some good and would allow
reciprocity for Montana trappers who trap out-of-state.
On my final note, running a pheasant season to February 1 is going to start a
beautiful caravan of die-hard pheasant hunters from Minnesota and North Dakota
come January. Probably not a single biological reason to not allow killing of
roosters all winter, the single greatest threat is of course hunters and dogs
beating winter cover to death and not allowing those birds to get tucked in
properly when bad weather hits. The local die-hard Montana bird hunters don’t
usually follow possession limits on pheasants anyway and will get their limit
daily no matter what. Enforcement doesn’t seem to stop them. My comment is to
leave the season alone the way it is. Give the birds a break
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