Dear FWP and the Elk Management Citizen Advisory Group -
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on your ‘Access Plus Program’ proposal.
The Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers supports the general idea of Access Plus and recognizes the overlap between parallel conversations happening around the idea of a similar, Type 3 Block Management Program, which is mentioned in this description. In theory, expanding access and creating new opportunities in premier areas or private lands seems like a reasonable trade off in exchange for higher levels of required hunter/landowner education and standards of ethics and proficiency.
If this expands access and opportunity, it could be a valuable tool to manage current inaccessible elk on private lands. These property owners could relax a bit knowing the caliber of hunters that are allowed to participate. This sounds like a viable strategy to us.
That said, there are few guarantees that this program would be successful or that it wouldn’t result in existing block management participants simply changing from Type I or II to III rather than attracting new landowners to the program.
The time commitment required for a course of this magnitude – especially with an in-person marksmanship component - would likely deter the masses from completing the training, leaving a smaller but qualified pool of potential sportsmen and women to participate in the early phases of the Access Plus Program. As noted by FWP, we too see this being very similar to the existing Master Hunter program.
Because of this, however, we are concerned that this will be tough to expand to reach the number of participants needed to make a real impact here, especially considering how unreasonable it may be to expect non-residents (a significant part of our current problem in regard to hunter behavior) to travel long distances for this required training.
We encourage the department to consider revamping existing, digital hunter/landowner relations education curriculum to use as the required course/training to qualify for not just this program, but any private lands enrolled in any public access programs administered by FWP (so existing Type I and II BMAs, hunt rosters, 454s, upland game bird enchantment areas, etc). That way we could improve hunter behavior and landowner relations across the board while allowing existing private programs like the Montana Master Hunter Program to continue to operate in this exclusive, small-scale way.
And yes, we agree that for this program proposal and many others, that mandatory harvest reporting would be helpful. We encourage FWP to implement this change.
Thank you again for the opportunity to comment on your ‘Access Plus Program’ proposal, and we appreciate your careful consideration.
-The Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers