Biennial Hunting Season Setting Process Underway
Hunting regulations often are the subject of debate, curiosity or even consternation with hunters around Montana. Hunters who want to see changes in regulations or have ideas to improve the regulations will have a great opportunity to make a difference in the coming weeks.
FWP is hosting scoping meetings. While several meetings have already taken place around the state, there are still opportunities in some regions to participate. Scoping meetings are not the same as public comment meetings.
On odd years, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks does a complete run through of hunting regulations to consider both large and small changes. This process is called “season setting” and starts off with scoping meetings around the state to gather ideas from hunters and to answer questions about suggested changes that FWP staff are considering.
FWP staff will listen at the scoping meetings and capture the general themes. Staff will use this information to develop draft regulations, which will be released for public comment as proposals for the Fish and Wildlife Commission in October. FWP will hold additional public meetings in early November to answer questions about the draft regulation proposals. Comment on the draft regulation proposals will be collected through the FWP website during the fall public commenting period. The final decision on regulations will come at the December Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting.
Biennial Season Setting to Discuss Concepts All meetings from 6 to 8 p.m.
Region 6 June 26: Glasgow – Regional office Join meeting via Zoom Region 7 July 8: Miles City – Regional office July 9: Glendive – Dawson Community College in the Ullman Center, Room 102 If you missed your local meeting or cannot attend an upcoming one, we still want to hear from you. If you have ideas on what changes you’d like to see in the hunting regulations, please let us know by going online and filling out this short survey.
The input we receive from both the online survey and the in-person meetings will be vital in helping us craft regulation proposals, so now is the time to let us know what you think.
Officials will take input via the online survey through July 20.
