Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is developing a new online registration system for participants to determine their place in line for vehicles on opening day of antler hunting season on the Blackfoot Clearwater Wildlife Management Area.
Online registration will open a few weeks before May 15, the opening day. FWP is still deciding if a first come, first serve system or a random drawing will be the best way to distribute numbers for waiting in line on opening day. There will be phone-in options for those not using a computer.
“This is year one for a new system,” Randy Arnold, FWP regional supervisor, said. “We will be adaptive and see what works and what doesn’t this year. We are very open to comments through this process.”
Disincentivizing the traditional lineup of vehicles that stage along Highway 83 is the bottom line fueling new proposals. For the past ten years Montana Highway Patrol has been asking FWP to make a change to stop the lineup of parked cars along Highway 83.
In 2023 cars began parking along Highway 83 in front of the Game Range west gate up to a month before opening day. Safety hazards on opening day included foot traffic from camping across Highway 83, and groups of people forming alongside the staged vehicles bordering Highway 83.
“We know that horn-hunting is a well-loved activity,” Loren Flynn, FWP parks and recreation manager, said. “It’s a social activity that generations have enjoyed and we don’t want to change that.”
The lineup of vehicles along Highway 83 weeks before opening day has been a concern of highway patrol and they are no longer going to give grace for parked cars, citing Montana law prohibiting parking or leaving vehicles on public property.
“If someone chooses to violate this law, they should be prepared to suffer the adverse consequences for so doing, which include ticketing and towing,” Andrew Novak, Montana highway patrol sergeant, recently said in an email to the Pathfinder.
FWP came up with proposals to open the Game Range east gate from Woodworth Road to vehicles on opening day at the traditional noon opening time as a solution in 2024. Other new changes include opening the west gate off Highway 83 only for foot traffic and horseback riders at noon. Horse trailers will have designated parking areas flagged across from the Harpers Lake turn-off, near the west gate, and possibly on the game range access road across from Salmon Lake. In 2023 that entrance was not opened to traffic due to construction vehicle parking for the Highway 83 project.
The “starting line” will be on the road within Game Range boundaries from the east entrance. There will be parking spaces for numbers one through ten, then 11 through 20. Vehicles will only have to be in line before noon. Coming very early will not be necessary, Arnold said.
At noon on opening day, the lineup of cars will be led by a game warden’s vehicle into the game range. When the pilot vehicle reaches the west gate, the west gate will be opened to vehicles.
Camping will be limited to designated campgrounds, or dispersed camping away from the entrances. No camping will be allowed across from the west entrance or along Woodworth Road.
FWP hosted a meeting Feb. 15 to discuss changes to opening day. Twenty three people including FWP staff connected through Zoom from the Seeley Lake Forest Service office, online and the Missoula FWP office.
Comments during the meeting suggested going back to the midnight opening time that was changed to noon years ago.
“We don’t want to go back to a midnight opening,” Arnold said. “One reason is the safety concern of people’s activity in the game range at night with grizzly bears, plus the staffing concerns that a midnight opening contains. Also, having a standardized opening time for all the state WMAs is a goal.”
Other comments brought up changes to the popular opening day for Jackson Hole, Wyoming’s Wildlife Habitat Management Area, which has gone to a lottery number system and closed opening day to people from out of state.
“We are not going to limit the opening day to only Montana residents,” Arnold said. “There are very few out-of-state attendees.”
One commenter wondered if this change was a step to limit public access to public lands.
“There is no intention of limiting public access,” Arnold said. “Numbers are only necessary for those who want to be in the queue for the earliest entrance. There is no limit to the number of people.”
“Fundamentally the WMA is for wildlife and habitat,” Arnold said. “There aren’t any concerns for resource use at this time that would cause concerns for numbers of people.”
Sign up for project updates and/or submit comments to: https://fwp.mt.gov/conservation/wildlife-management-areas/blackfoot-clearwater-antler-hunting
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