Milk River antlerless whitetail management season begins Dec. 22

Andrew McKean

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Milk River white-tailed deer management season begins Saturday  

A select group of hunters will be asked to help reduce exceedingly high populations of deer in the Milk River valley starting this Saturday, Dec. 22, when a special management season for antlerless white-tailed deer begins on properties that allow free public hunting.

 

This whitetail management season initially will involve only those hunters who signed up last summer for inclusion on Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ game-damage roster for deer hunting districts 630 and 670. Each eligible hunter will be permitted to use any unfilled Deer A or Deer B license from the 2007 regular season. In addition, eligible hunters will be permitted to buy up to five additional antlerless whitetail tags.

 

Fish, Wildlife & Parks hopes to harvest 500 antlerless whitetails during the Milk River management season. If additional hunters are needed to reach the target, FWP will activate hunters who weren’t signed up on the game-damage roster. The season will extend through Feb. 15 or until the harvest objective is reached.

 

Only antlerless whitetails will be able to be harvested in this season, and only land from Saco downstream to Nashua that was open to free public hunting during the regular season will be eligible for inclusion in the management season. This includes participating Block Management property, public lands and private property that FWP determines was reasonably open to public hunting. Selected hunters will be given a map that illustrates land open during the season.

 

Any landowners who think they are eligible to participate in the management season are encouraged to contact FWP’s Region 6 headquarters in Glasgow at 228-3700 to complete an eligibility worksheet.

 

“Our surveys indicate that white-tailed deer numbers in the lower Milk River are about 50 percent above their long-term average,” says FWP wildlife biologist Kelvin Johnson. “Depredation to agricultural crops is widespread, and is exacerbated by limited hunting access. Even with increased numbers of antlerless whitetail licenses issued for the regular season we are unable to effectively pressure the deer population along the Milk River. The management season is one tool we have to help landowners who provide access and we encourage participating hunters to get out and harvest this overabundant resource.”

 

All regulations indicated in the 2007 big-game hunting regulations will apply to the management season, including the requirement to wear hunter orange and obtain landowner permission. Only hunters who are activated by FWP are eligible to participate in the season.

 

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