ACCESS SUCCESS

BY TAMARA CHOAT

For hunters, it can be hard to get a shot.

Not just a trophy buck in the sights, but a chance to find a place to go hunting. Many hunters say their time-honored tradition has become more difficult to enjoy as landowners have limited casual hunter access or leased to outfitters. Conversely, many landowners feel the crunch of abundant wild game, yet are not ready to throw the gates wide open like in “the good old days” due to property destruction and liability.

Enter state government-managed private landowner access programs.

Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota and other states offer contracts between private landowners and state departments of wildlife to open access to the licensed general public. Most programs provide compensation to landowners in return for the impact of the public and their time in managing hunters. Databases of accessible lands are available for in-state and out-of-state hunters to reserve and plan their hunts. Contract details vary by program and by state, but overall, benefit landowners and hunters alike, while controlling wild game to manageable levels.

Levi Forman owns and manages the Cecil Brown Ranch, named for his grandfather, near Knowlton, Mont., along with his family. PHOTO BY TAMARA CHOAT.

Levi Forman is a fourth-generation owner on the Cecil Brown Ranch at Knowlton, Mont., in the wildlife-abundant southeastern corner of the state. Here mule deer, whitetail deer, antelope, elk, turkey and upland game birds thrive on the private grasslands interspersed among the shelter of pine buttes and rough draws. His family ranch has been in Montana’s Block Management program since 1993 – one of the longest in the state, but was open to hunters even before that.

“My dad let people hunt before block management existed,” says Forman. “He wasn’t a hunter but he always felt people should have places to hunt even if they didn’t have the money for an outfitter or to travel somewhere. When Block Management came along it allowed him to still provide a place for regular folks to hunt and make a similar amount of money to what an outfitter would pay to lease hunting rights.

“Of course there are more hunters than there would be with an outfitter, but he considered that a bonus as well since he tended to feel we had more deer than we needed, especially when they were breaking into his haystacks in the winter.”

Travis Muscha is the hunting access coordinator for Montana’s Region 7 in the southeast corner of the state. His area is the largest in the state in number of acres and participating landowners both. He develops contracts between landowners, coordinates the database of participating lands, maintains signage and sign-in sites, and serves as program liaison.

In 2019 the area had 2,138,356 acres in 259 Block Management Areas. Montana as a whole had 1,200 cooperators (private landowners) opening a total of 7.2 million acres to the public. Last year hunters signed in for approximately 500,000 hunter days through the program, with success rates right at 30 percent.

“Hunting is the number one tool we have as an agency to control wildlife and avoid damage to the landscape from overpopulation,” says Muscha. “We always recommend hunting as a first control tool, and without Block Management agreements, we would have a harder time controlling populations.”

Block Management formally began in Montana in 1985, but significantly expanded in 1996. In 2020 cooperators are paid a $250 enrollment payment and an impact payment of around $13/acre, give or take slightly depending on limiting factors such as season length or species restrictions, which a landowner can choose to incorporate. If there is ever a loss of livestock due to hunters, a

separate livestock loss reimbursement is available. Additionally, one complimentary sportsman’s license, which covers hunting most species along with fishing, is also offered to a participating cooperator, immediate family or employee.

Travis Muscha collecting hunter use slips from a sign in box. PHOTO COURTESY MONTANA FISH, WILDLIFE & PARKS.

“This payment is not in any way a lease, but it’s compensation for possibly having roads rutted up, spread of weeds, and time spent by the landowner administering the program,” says Muscha.

One of the most appreciated aspects of Block Management is the ability of landowners to set the rules. They decide which segments of their land to open, what days and times they take calls or requests, how many hunters can be on at one time, and if they allow motorized access or walk-in only.

“It’s not a cookie-cutter program where we tell them what to do – they tell us what they want and we customize a contract and access description based on their requests,” says Muscha.

The Cecil Brown Ranch enrolls their entire ranch in the program, for all seasons. Rifle season for deer is by far their most popular sign-in, but they also get antelope, elk and turkey and upland bird hunters. They allow people to drive on established pasture roads as long as it’s not muddy, and ATVs are allowed only to retrieve game difficult to carry out. “I usually tell people if they’re leaving tracks then they need to get out and walk, and most people respect that,” says Forman.

Forman says that his number of requests has increased in the past few years, and he has had to turn more people down. “I feel bad saying no but if there are too many people on the place no one will have a good experience and that’s the situation on a lot of public land our hunters are trying to escape from.”

As they go into their 27th year in the program, the Formans have made a lot of close friends through it. “We have some hunters who go back to when their dad was getting permission from my grandfather. Some families have been coming long enough that the original people have passed away and their kids and grandkids are coming to hunt. It’s pretty cool to see that.”

When Forman’s dad, Mark Forman, passed away in a ranch accident in 2008, the state director of Block

Management at the time sent several work crews and materials to the Formans to fix fence and build a hay corral. “It was a real boost for us to have people willing to help those first few years while we were trying to learn how to run the ranch without Dad,” says Forman.

Forman does have a list of people who are no longer allowed to hunt – but it’s a very, very short list. One group in particular comes to his mind, as they were acting rather odd, something seemed off. “It didn’t occur to me until after they left that they were staggering drunk. And the reason it didn’t occur to me was that it was 8 in the morning!” Later his neighbor saw the group parked alongside the road and two were in the ditch having a fistfight. Outside of the rare bad apples and entertainment factor, Forman says he enjoys the contact with the hunters, and feels it helps to build a mutual respect. “The vast majority of people who come to hunt are respectful of my time and property.”

Muscha says in his experience the public really appreciates having places to hunt, especially with kids and family, and landowners are just as satisfied – surveys show 99 percent are satisfied with the program and 92 percent are satisfied with the hunters. “It’s a win-win for hunters and landowners both.”