Recently
noted statistics indicate that Montana has a large unmet demand for
public bison hunting and harvesting.
In
2019, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks received over 18,000
applications, each with a $10 non-refundable fee, for only 93
available licenses to harvest a bison near Yellowstone National Park.
Over 17,000 of these applications were from Montana residents.
Also
in 2019, American Prairie Reserve conducted a higher-quality bison
hunt adjacent to the area pertinent to the Coalition’s goal of
restoring public-trust bison on the Charles M. Russell National
Wildlife Refuge. Although legally classified as livestock, APR’s
bison roam across a very large containment area, much like wild
bison. In a less publicized process (compared to FWP’s license
process), APR offered 16 permits, at $300 each, to harvest bison.
They received 2,500 applications.
This
huge unmet demand for bison hunting/harvesting indicates one large
potential in restoring a public, wild bison herd on the CMR National
Wildlife Refuge:
to
provide opportunities for recreational hunting, including cooperative
family hunts that share and benefit from the large effort needed to
put hundreds of pounds of meat for many Montana dinner tables;
to
enhance local economies with monies spent by resident and
non-resident hunters for transportation, food and lodging;
to
provide opportunities for guiding, outfitting and carcass
retrieval/processing businesses in rural areas.
Furthermore,
the data indicate that proceeds from state license sales could
provide much or all the income needed by Montana FWP to fund the
management needed, under state law, for any newly established public,
wild bison herd.
(Montana
has not restored a public, wild bison herd. Hunted bison from
Yellowstone Park are seasonal visitors from Wyoming. Human predation
has long been a predominant selective force that created the modern
bison species (see
“Bison Hunting & Wildness”).
Thus, carefully managed hunting is a management tool that would
complement other natural selective forces, maintaining the wild bison
genome.)
Jim Bailey, Coordinator
