MT Legislature starts Monday

[Ben Lamb]

We're getting out of the gate early this session, it appears.

http://laws.leg.mt.gov/legprd/LAW0240W$CMTE.ActionQuery?P_SESS=20171&P_COM_NM=%28H%29+Fish%2C+Wildlife+and+Parks&P_ACTN_DTM=&U_ACTN_DTM=&Z_ACTION2=Find

Thursday is the first day of committee for House Fish & Game. They'll be considering three bills:

HB 108 would allocate licenses for Bison to Tribes, Treaty Tribes would recieve 2 licenses per if there are over 40 tags issued in general.

HB 69 would extend the paddleish caviar program sunset date.

HB 98 would reclassify the nefarious civet cat/stripped skunk

Tuesday, Jan 10th will see some meatier issues:

HB 128 would change the waiting requirements for Bighorn Sheep tags.

HB 96 would revise free elk license/permit for landowner providing free public elk hunting

Montana Wildlife Federation is working up their bill tracker and it should go live next week. I'll post that link once it's live. Here we go, 90 days of pain and suffering. Gear up and bring your gatorade.

 

[golfer]

So HB 69 if I understand it correctly would be adjusting the program to process fish longer than the hours of operation such as all night or as long as fish are coming in?

 

[Ben Lamb]

So HB 69 if I understand it correctly would be adjusting the program to process fish longer than the hours of operation such as all night or as long as fish are coming in?

HB 69 extends the sunset date on the program to 2020 rather than letting it expire in 2018. It also changes the word "could" to "may" on page 1, line 30 in regards to establishing educational displays about paddlefish. The bill does not change the program, just keeps it functioning for 2 more years while cleaning up some ubiquitous language.

 

[Schaaf]

Don't know if I'm quite figuring out the website. On HB 128, what would the new waiting requirements be?

 

[Ben Lamb]

Don't know if I'm quite figuring out the website. On HB 128, what would the new waiting requirements be?

it would make the 7 year waiting period applicable to those who take a 3/4 curl or better ram in the unlimited districts.

 

[Schaaf]

I thought it was already in place that if you took a legal ram in the UL's you had a 7 year wait before purchasing/applying another tag?

 

[theat]

it would make the 7 year waiting period applicable to those who take a 3/4 curl or better ram in the unlimited districts.

Darn, so I could have been hunting rams the last seven years!

 

[----]

There was some catch about the Tendoy hunt, where if you killed a lamb you got hit with the 7 year wait. I think this gets rid of that.

It also makes it so if you kill a ram under 3/4 curl on the same hunt, you can apply the next year.

That's how I'm reading it anyways.

 

[Schaaf]

 

[Ben Lamb]

Here's the change to statute as proposed by HB 128:

(b) Except as provided in 87-1-271(2) and 87-2-815, a person who takes a mountain sheep with both
25 horns equal to or greater than a three-fourths curl using an unlimited mountain sheep license,
26 as authorized by 87-2-701, is not eligible to receive
27 another special license for that species for the next 7 years. For the purposes of this subsection (4)(b), "unlimited
28 mountain sheep license" means a license that is valid for an area in which the number of licenses issued is not
29 restricted.

The way I read it is that it would change the waiting period requirement in all unlimited areas to 3/4 curl or better, as opposed to the current statute which is for all.

Randy is correct that this was to get at the Tendoy hunt, but it seems to be broader in scope than that.