Public Hearing on New Hunting Regulations Comes to Missoula

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks reconsiders its hunting regulations every two years and right now, proposed regulation changes have been approved for 2014 and 2015, but they won't be stamped with final approval until after the public has a chance to weigh in.

"Now we're in the public comment process for the new hunting regulations," said Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks spokeswoman Vivica Crowser. "As a part of that, you can view the proposals online and make comments. We get thousands of comments that way. You can also come out to one of the public meetings around western Montana between now and the 23rd of January."

There are a lot of big changes under consideration this year.

"This year we have quite a few proposed changes to hunting regs in western Montana, particularly in the Bitterroot," Crowser said. "We are looking at things such as some hunting district bounding changes, potentially going to unlimited permits for elk in some districts in the Bitterroot. On the scale, there's some pretty big items for people to consider, and we've had a higher attendance rate this year than we've probably had in the past 10 years."

The public hearing tour will be held in Missoula on January 21. It begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Double Tree Hotel.