Region 6 deer management seasons begin with registration; elk hunters will be drawn from roster  

Based on high populations of white-tailed deer in the Milk River Valley and pockets of abundance elsewhere in Region 6 following the five-week general hunting season, FWP will propose a management season later this month for antlerless whitetails in several hunting districts. Other management seasons and game-damage hunts will be conducted for antlerless mule deer.

The preferred method of selecting participants for these opportunities is to utilize a roster of hunters who submitted their names electronically to FWP back in June and July. This game-damage roster is intended to provide wildlife managers with a list of hunters who could be called on short notice to participate in a post-season hunt. But because the registration process was new this year, and because hunters weren’t thinking about late-season opportunities back in shirtsleeve weather, the deer roster for Region 6 is relatively short.

“We have just a handful of names on the deer roster, but because we are required to exhaust the roster before we can utilize other hunters, we’re going to call up those hunters first,” says Pat Gunderson, FWP’s regional supervisor in Glasgow. “We know that we need additional harvest, so we want to build a second list of people interested in and able to participate in a management season or game-damage hunt.”

In order to develop this list, hunters are required to contact FWP’s Region 6 headquarters in Glasgow. Participants are requested to email fwpr6gd@mt.gov or fax 228-8161. As a last resort, hunters can stop by the office on U.S. Highway 2 West in Glasgow or call 228-3700. The window for registering for these seasons is from 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 13 through 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 15. Calls, faxes and emails received after that deadline will not be considered for this winter’s deer roster.

When you contact FWP, please be prepared to provide your name, your ALS (unique license) number, your phone number and address and the number of unused 2006 deer licenses you possess. You must also identify which hunting district you are interested in. Management seasons and/or damage hunts for antlerless deer may be held in the following hunting districts:

600 (Blaine County north of Highway 2)

620 (Phillips County south of Highway 2)

630 (Valley County south of Highway 2)

652 (McCone/Garfield counties west of Highway 24)

670 (Valley and Phillips counties north of Highway 2)

680 (southern Chouteau and Blaine counties)

690 (central Chouteau, Hill and Blaine counties)

FWP will compile a roster of deer hunters by hunting district, assign them a random number, then prioritize them based on their order. Those hunters will then be contacted and given details of the hunting opportunity.

“It’s important that hunters and landowners know that by law we can only activate management seasons on land that was open to free public hunting during the general season,” said Region 6 Wildlife Manager Harold Wentland. “Because of that requirement, not all property in designated hunting districts will be open. Eligible hunters will be given a map detailing management-season boundaries, dates of the season and details regarding what licenses can be used.”

Wentland said that unused 2006 deer licenses from any hunting district in the state will be activated during the management season, and that participants will be able to purchase one additional antlerless deer license for some Region 6 deer management seasons.
 

ELK MANAGEMENT SEASONS

At this time, FWP is proposing only one management season for elk, in District 622 located in southern Phillips County. Hunters for that opportunity will be selected from a game-damage roster that was compiled last summer. If additional hunters are needed for this elk management season, participants will be selected from the pool of unsuccessful hunters who drew general season either-sex and antlerless elk permits for the district.

After concurrence from the Breaks Elk Working Group last Thursday, FWP initially will select participants from the 24 hunters who registered last summer for the game-damage roster in District 622 and adjacent District 620. An additional 31 hunters will be pulled from the elk rosters in districts 621, 630, 631 and 632. These initial hunters will be given the opportunity to harvest either an antlerless elk or a spike bull in District 622.

“Our intent is to maximize the harvest of elk in the Larb Hills portion of District 622,” says Mark Sullivan, FWP’s wildlife biologist in Malta. “We think we can kill more elk by putting a relatively small population of hunters on the ground for a relatively long period of time. By allowing a very limited harvest of spikes along with cows, we can affect all segments of the population without turning this management season into a trophy hunt.”

Sullivan noted that elk surveys last winter documented an abundance of bulls in District 622 and adjacent District 621. He counted nearly 2,300 cows and calves and another 820 bulls.

“Management seasons are designed to bring game populations down to objectives but also to manage harvest to reflect the overall population,” says Sullivan. “Our goal is to harvest up to 100 elk from District 622, and we will shut down spike harvest when hunters take between 25 and 30 spikes, males without brow-tined or branched antlers. We’ll be able to control the harvest with mandatory reporting requirements of participating hunters.”

If additional elk hunters are needed, FWP will build a second roster from those hunters who drew antlerless or either-sex elk permits in District 622, but didn’t harvest an elk during the general 5-week season. The names of eligible hunters will be gleaned from hunter surveys that were mailed by FWP to District 622 permit holders this fall. If you do not return the survey by Wednesday, Dec. 20 you will not be eligible for consideration for the management season.

“At this point, there’s no guarantee that we will activate this second roster,” says Sullivan. “But we’d like to have those names prioritized so we can call on them if we need additional harvest.”

Management seasons and damage hunts for deer and elk are designed to trim herds that are above population objectives in order to minimize damage to agricultural crops and keep the populations in balance with available forage. A combination of overwinter survival, high reproductive rates and limited hunting success during this fall’s regular big-game season all contributed to the high deer and elk populations in the region.

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