Gerald Martin
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2009
- Messages
- 9,002
Well folks, its been a long and interesting process since February of 2024 when nine concerned Montana residents sat down to discuss the state of mule deer in Montana and see if we could identify some problems and advance what we believe can be solutions to some of the problems surrounding mule deer management.
Most everyone is aware that there have already been two draft proposals drawn up and released for consideration and discussion and changes made in response to public feedback.
As a group we have made further revisions to our proposal based on feedback since we released draft 2.0 and are now releasing what we intend to formally present for FWP Commission consideration during the upcoming season setting process.
During the Legislative session that recently finished up, we were asked by quite a few people what our group’s name is. Ummm…”nine dudes who care about mule deer” didn’t seem to register in the minds of folks who were asking so we talked it over and decided to adopt the name “MT- Citizens for Sustainable Opportunity.” Or MT-CSO for short. We’ll be identifying ourselves and associating our proposal with this name from here on out.
Version 3.0 has some fairly significant changes from 2.0 and 1.0. Those changes are by and large driven by some of the most common responses from folks who liked our intent but had specific concerns and also by folks who were opposed to our proposal altogether unless we made some changes.
In brief, we will be keeping a six week archery season, even though we’re changing the dates.
General elk season will begin Oct. 25 which is essentially unchanged from current season dates.
Hunters will no longer have to choose between deer species but rather between “ Early Deer” or “Late Deer” and may hunt whichever deer species is open during their chosen season.
We’ll be linking a PDF that folks can download and distribute as they please as well as posting up some graphics and screenshots of pages of the proposal for folks reading who may not be forum members and can’t download the PDF.
One official note of recognition that we want to convey as we release what we intend to be our final version. We realize that in other mule deer threads on this forum there have been a lot of comments and frustrations directed towards MT FWP in various forms and fashions. I’ve probably expressed some opinions myself that have been less than charitable at times. However, as we’ve been working through this process and have asked for individual input from FWP biologists and calls and meetings with department personnel they have been incredibly accommodating and willing to listen and engage with us with both feedback and thoughtful questions. My note here is not to infer FWP endorsement as they have not. It is to acknowledge that we appreciate their willingness to engage with us in conversation throughout this process.
I know that there’s a lot of folks who read this forum who may not comment on these threads that are the boots on the ground when it comes to the study and management of our resources and they care as deeply about the resource as we all do. At times it’s a thankless job but the more that we as MT-CSO have organized and engaged in this proposal process the more we have come to appreciate the biologists and resource mangers entrusted with the wildlife resources we love. We may not always agree
but we do appreciate their work.
Your comments and response are welcome as always, but the release of this version is more for public information than it is to continue to craft additional versions. We’ll do our best to answer questions as we can, but we’ll probably try to avoid debating why one strategy or another would be a better path forward.
There have been numerous other ideas presented during the this process that could also deserve consideration by the FWP Commission for consideration. For those folks who feel strongly that ideas they have should be considered but aren’t in our proposal, we encourage you to organize those ideas and present them to the Commission in the same manner that we are.
Most everyone is aware that there have already been two draft proposals drawn up and released for consideration and discussion and changes made in response to public feedback.
As a group we have made further revisions to our proposal based on feedback since we released draft 2.0 and are now releasing what we intend to formally present for FWP Commission consideration during the upcoming season setting process.
During the Legislative session that recently finished up, we were asked by quite a few people what our group’s name is. Ummm…”nine dudes who care about mule deer” didn’t seem to register in the minds of folks who were asking so we talked it over and decided to adopt the name “MT- Citizens for Sustainable Opportunity.” Or MT-CSO for short. We’ll be identifying ourselves and associating our proposal with this name from here on out.
Version 3.0 has some fairly significant changes from 2.0 and 1.0. Those changes are by and large driven by some of the most common responses from folks who liked our intent but had specific concerns and also by folks who were opposed to our proposal altogether unless we made some changes.
In brief, we will be keeping a six week archery season, even though we’re changing the dates.
General elk season will begin Oct. 25 which is essentially unchanged from current season dates.
Hunters will no longer have to choose between deer species but rather between “ Early Deer” or “Late Deer” and may hunt whichever deer species is open during their chosen season.
We’ll be linking a PDF that folks can download and distribute as they please as well as posting up some graphics and screenshots of pages of the proposal for folks reading who may not be forum members and can’t download the PDF.
One official note of recognition that we want to convey as we release what we intend to be our final version. We realize that in other mule deer threads on this forum there have been a lot of comments and frustrations directed towards MT FWP in various forms and fashions. I’ve probably expressed some opinions myself that have been less than charitable at times. However, as we’ve been working through this process and have asked for individual input from FWP biologists and calls and meetings with department personnel they have been incredibly accommodating and willing to listen and engage with us with both feedback and thoughtful questions. My note here is not to infer FWP endorsement as they have not. It is to acknowledge that we appreciate their willingness to engage with us in conversation throughout this process.
I know that there’s a lot of folks who read this forum who may not comment on these threads that are the boots on the ground when it comes to the study and management of our resources and they care as deeply about the resource as we all do. At times it’s a thankless job but the more that we as MT-CSO have organized and engaged in this proposal process the more we have come to appreciate the biologists and resource mangers entrusted with the wildlife resources we love. We may not always agree
but we do appreciate their work.Your comments and response are welcome as always, but the release of this version is more for public information than it is to continue to craft additional versions. We’ll do our best to answer questions as we can, but we’ll probably try to avoid debating why one strategy or another would be a better path forward.
There have been numerous other ideas presented during the this process that could also deserve consideration by the FWP Commission for consideration. For those folks who feel strongly that ideas they have should be considered but aren’t in our proposal, we encourage you to organize those ideas and present them to the Commission in the same manner that we are.
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