Mule Deer Management Workshops Held

As Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks develops a new statewide Mule Deer Management Plan, several public workshops around the state provided key insight to what hunters are thinking, what things they’d like the plan to include and opinions on key concepts for the plan.

“In parts of the state, especially eastern Montana, there’s a lot of concern over mule deer,” said FWP director Christy Clark. “We recognize our great state’s wildlife are the public’s resources, and we need to manage them for present and future generations.”

These workshops weren’t only important for the public to have a voice, but also critical for agency staff to hear directly from hunters who are concerned about mule deer management and have ideas for the future.

“It’s important for people to know they are being heard when they voice their frustrations with the mule deer populations and how we’ve seen significant decline,” said Quentin Kujala, FWP chief of conservation policy. “People were very willing to participate in these interactive meetings and provide invaluable feedback for us to implement in our new plan.”

Nearly 150 people attended the seven workshops held at each of FWP regional headquarters offices. At the workshops, attendees rotated in small groups through interactive discussions on harvest, habitat and health management. Attendees then chose what they felt was the most important objective that arose from each session. FWP looks to use these objectives as guidelines to draft a new management plan, with several more opportunities for public input to come.

The new Mule Deer Management Plan, slated for the end of 2026, will reflect public concerns FWP has heard over the past several years, as well as the latest science and research around mule deer numbers and management.

Eastern Montana Workshop Review In recent years, concerns about declining mule deer numbers have been loudest in eastern Montana where mule deer populations are still the highest in the state. Passion for mule deer hunting on the eastern Montana prairies is not only high with local hunters, but it also draws in nonresident hunters from around the country.

The workshops in Miles City and Glasgow were well attended. In Glasgow, some of the conversation focused on CWD management, and opinions were diverse with some hunters wanting to address the disease and others wanting to see FWP take a less active role in managing the disease.

But the most engaging conversation happened around mule deer harvest.

“Our harvest management station definitely had the most interest in the room,” said Scott Thompson, FWP Region 6 wildlife manager. “The main takeaways were reducing hunter crowding and providing better opportunity for Montana residents.”

In Miles City, harvest management also dominated the discussion, and participants recognized the conflicting opinions being expressed.

“It seems like we have two contradictory things,” said landowner/outfitter Todd Steadman. “Most people want to see older class bucks, but if they are more likely to have CWD and the plan is to get rid of them, we may need to increase the public’s understanding of this concept.”

Mule deer management continues to be a complex issue, and a lot of times public opinion focuses on what hunting opportunities look like from year to year, which is understandable.

“Discussion on harvest management focused primarily on the increase in nonresident hunters, as well as what steps could be taken to increase mule deer populations when they are low,” Dorak said. “The public wants to see us increase populations by reducing antlerless harvest on all land ownerships, which is part of our strategy.”

Here are more ideas from the eastern Montana workshops: • Increase mule deer populations by reducing doe harvest on all land ownerships.

• There needs to be scientific delineation of mule deer winter range with telemetry information and better protection and management of those areas.

• FWP needs to improve habitat education and outreach.

• We need to learn how to manage reducing buck-todoe ratios and buck abundance with managing for an acceptable mature buck segment.

• Mandatory reporting should include physical inspections of harvested bucks.

• Overcrowding is a problem and pits resident against nonresident.

• Reduce the number of nonresident licenses within each hunting district.

• Management should increase the number of bucks and the average age of the bucks.

• Shorten the general season.

• There should be a cap on nonresident numbers by hunting district or region.