BILLINGS – Wildlife Manager Brett Dorak, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Director Dustin Temple held a press conference to address the status of eastern Montana's mule deer.
"Our job at FWP is to manage Montana's wildlife resources by providing full contextual, transparent, accurate data with full context," Director Temple said. "Across the state, we are making the effort to ensure our management of mule deer is based on the best science and data."
FWP biologists have completed annual spring surveys. For Region 5, the numbers are below the long-term average but are trending higher. Quotas for B licenses are already at the low end of the approved quota, so there is no change. As for Region 6, where spring survey results are 16 percent below long-term average, FWP is reducing B licenses by 54 percent. Lastly, Region 7 spring survey results show an increase of 20 percent over the last year, but total numbers are still 40 percent below long-term average. Just like Region 5, B licenses are already at the minimum of the approved quota range, so there is no B license change.
"Improved weather and habitat conditions across eastern Montana had led to increased fawn ratios observed this spring in eastern Montana and some increases in total mule deer observed, as well," FWP Region 7 Wildlife Manager Brett Dorak said. "Currently though, most mule deer populations are below their long-term average."
A few other major changes to this year's hunting season regarding mule deer are:
Antlerless mule deer in Regions 6 and 7 can only be harvested on private property this coming fall, which is a change from years past.
Beginning in the 2024 hunting season, only antlered buck mule deer may be harvested with a General Deer License in all Region 5 hunting districts. In six of the 10 Region 5 deer and elk hunting districts, youth hunters aged 10-15 may harvest either sex mule deer with a General Deer License.
Nonresidents may only purchase one Deer B License unless they drew a combo, which allows them to purchase two total. Before this year, nonresident hunters could purchase up to seven Deer B Licenses.
Decade snapshot of Montana mule deer population mule deer graphs
These graphs show mule deer populations trends along with Mule Deer B License sale trends for the same regions.
Mule deer populations across eastern Montana are somewhat variable in their trends. The three main drivers for mule deer populations are weather, habitat and disease. Mule deer populations across eastern Montana have decreased mainly due to unfavorable weather patterns with multiple years of extreme drought conditions and some hard winter. Drought conditions have had major impacts on habitat for mule deer. In response to mule deer population decreases, FWP has decreased B licenses in eastern Montana and in some cases to historically low quota numbers. More specifically, Region 7 has decreased B licenses by 91 percent over the past couple years, and Region 6 had recently decreased their B licenses by 54 percent in response to mule deer numbers.
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