Montana Judge Says Landowners Don’t Have ‘Absolute Freedom’ to Kill Elk, and Allowing Public Hunting Doesn’t Infringe on Their Rights

[lynlan1819]

Landowners are the biggest Poachers of them all,always has been that way.
Back in the 90's had a guy in Enterprise Utah sitting behind his house shooting Deer/Antelope without a tag every single year,not one neighbor said anything.

 

[Treeshark]

Politically DIY public land hunters are lone wanderers in the wasteland of the American Politics.

You said it, man- agreed. That is a big part of the reason that I’m critical of attempts to further fragment us by state.

 

[Cornbread]

This is a complex issue. I see a couple ways to resolve it.

1. Create a private land only license for permit areas grossly over objective population. This puts more pressure on the private pushing elk onto accessible areas.

2. Cow only seasons until elk are under population objectives.

The Elk B tag only allows me to take a cow on private land. Change this so I can take a cow with that tag on USFS land!! I asked Game commission,: do you think the elk know where the property boundries are? If one wonders over on to public land, why shouldn't that tag be good?

 

[Cornbread]

That is why i appreciate the wording of this ruling basically says the state already has programs to help their problem, if they refuse to use the programs its on them. Hopefully the access program will see a slight bump.

And more importantly, the judge said: when you bought the land, you should have known that there were elk on the land. You bought it at your own risk. That is stunningly obvious but needed to be said by the judge.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Change this so I can take a cow with that tag on USFS land!!

No, that's how we got to the situational problem of all the cow elk on private land! Too much pressure on USFS land.

 

[Forkyfinder]

No, that's how we got to the situational problem of all the cow elk on private land! Too much pressure on USFS land.

Yup. And the elk that permanently reside on private are still there...

 

[Eric Albus]

There is limited pressure on private, making cow tags valid on private will push elk onto accessible land.

 

[Eric Albus]

I took Eric's post to mean private land tags to be sold to the public, not provided to the landowners to sell or transfer. Why would a landowner suddenly open up his ranch if he had tags to sell when he could have charged an access fee without them?

I meant it nothing like the picture you’ve just painted.

 

[Eric Albus]

I think objectives are low in places, not so in other places.
Objectives should be for carry capacity on accessible land, to landowner tolerance on private.

@Eric Albus - do you feel like the objectives are low for elk

 

[Dave N]

There is limited pressure on private, making cow tags valid on private will push elk onto accessible land.

So how do people get access to these private lands?

 

[Carnage2011]

So how do people get access to these private lands?

I haven’t found it that hard personally. I’ve had conversations with several landowners in units with shoulder seasons that haven’t had a single person ask.

 

[R.K.]

I haven’t found it that hard personally. I’ve had conversations with several landowners in units with shoulder seasons that haven’t had a single person ask.

Out of curiosity- how do you get in touch with them? Drive up to the house and knock? Look them up in the phone book?

 

[Carnage2011]

Out of curiosity- how do you get in touch with them? Drive up to the house and knock? Look them up in the phone book?

Ah yes, I should have clarified. Mine has been through knocking on doors or meeting people at different events. I’m fairly social and tend to meet people at random.

 

[Elky Welky]

I’m going to resurrect this thread just to let you all know that UPOM appealed this ruling to the Montana Supreme Court, arguments were held last fall, and we still don’t have a ruling from the Court.

The Chief Justice recused himself from the case, which makes for an even split court. Opinions take a long time to write, particularly if there are dissents. However, the fact that it is taking so long to get a ruling out is disconcerting.

 

[Treeshark]

@Elky Welky, any thoughts on what UPOM’s end game may be with resurrecting this?

It seems unlikely that it’s merely to combat overpopulation of elk on private land, considering there are much easier pathways to address that particular ‘problem’ imo.