In 2019, the Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted the new Mountain Lion Monitoring and Management Strategy. This strategy outlines the scientific basis for conserving, monitoring and managing harvest of mountain lions in Montana.
An integral part of implementing this strategy is the formulation of a committee in each of the three western ecoregions, beginning with the northwest ecoregion. The northwest ecoregion committee consists of citizens representing a broad spectrum of mountain lion stakeholders who reside within or close to the ecoregion.
The committee will work with FWP to define a planning strategy where the objective is to manage the northwestern lion ecoregional population for population sustainability at a target level that maximizes public satisfaction related to lion hunter opportunity, lion conflict, and ungulate population trends.
The committee will specifically focus on developing recommendations to the commission regarding:
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Target population trend (Increase, Decrease, Stable)
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Degree of ecoregional population size change (% up or % down)
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Lion Management Unit (LMU) emphases (e.g., older-age class harvest, conflict reduction, aid ungulates, more opportunity, or others)
The committee is not charged with recommending season structures, license types, or specific allocation of quotas among Lion Management Units (LMUs).
