Landowners and hunters benefit from 25 years of FWP’s Block Management program

This popular access program started locally across Montana in the mid-1980s. However, through HB195 in the 1995 Legislative Session, it created the program as it's formally known today starting with the 1996 hunting season. Block Management provides public hunting opportunities on private land across the state and has created positive working relationships among landowners and hunters. 

Funding for Block Management comes from the sale of various licenses, including a portion of the resident and nonresident base hunting license, nonresident upland gamebird licenses, nonresident combination deer/elk licenses and chances sold in the Supertag license lottery.

For the 2020 hunting season, nearly 1,300 landowners enrolled about 7.2 million acres of land in the program.

FWP staff recently visited with landowners in the southeast, south central and northeast areas of Montana who have been involved with the Block Management program since its early days.

Southeast Montana

‘You could make it what you wanted to make it’

In 1988, after being approached by a biologist from FWP, southeastern Montana rancher Clint McRae and his father, Wally, decided to give a new public hunting access program a try.

It was a chaotic time. Rosebud County had just been hit by the Early Bird Fire, one of the biggest the area had ever seen. Rocker Six Cattle Company was one of very few ranches that allowed hunting access, and they were inundated with hunters. Nearby, Colstrip was booming due to the development of the coal mine and power plant.

“One of the things that really attracted us to the program is that you could make it what you wanted to make it,” Clint McRae said of Block Management, as it came to be called. “We were so busy with cow work that we did not have time to deal with the inundation of hunters.”

FWP offered to provide a resource manager on site to administer access and act as a buffer.

“That helped us manage not only the game, but also hunters,” McRae said.

It seemed like a viable step for the operation that McRae’s great-grandfather had established along Rosebud Creek in 1882. That original homestead, run by a cousin, is just up the creek from Rocker Six’s current headquarters on the Rosebud, and the southeastern boundary is the Tongue River.

“We said, ‘Let’s do it on a trial basis,’ and I’ve joked with the [FWP] region that we’ve been on trial ever since,” McRae said.

In the program’s infancy, there were few properties enrolled and not much financial incentive to join. Eventually, FWP was able to offer some funding, but for several years, the McRaes donated it back to help grow the program and take some pressure off their lands. They felt having an on-site manager was compensation enough.

Today, the ranch offers almost 31,000 acres of public hunting, including a couple small parcels of state and federal land accessed through the private property. It is excellent habitat for mule deer and white-tailed deer, antelope and upland birds.

This past season marked Hunting Access Technician Omer Krueger’s 20th year of administering permission to hunt Rocker Six land from his trailer on Rosebud Creek Road, along with his wife, Jeanette. McRae credits the Kruegers for much of the successful operation, along with the flexibility that the program offers.

A bad hunting experience shaped the way McRae wanted to regulate access on his family’s land. While hunting as a college student on public land, he rose up from a deep coulee to view an elk through his rifle scope, and his vision suddenly filled with orange as another hunter crossed his path.

“It really scared me. I didn’t even know anybody was in the area,” he said.

For that reason, the McRaes only allow one group of hunters in designated areas per day.

“That’s the way I would have wanted to hunt, so that’s the way I wanted to set it up,” he said.

McRae feels one of the big misconceptions about the program is that, “If you go into Block Management, FWP tells you how to set up the program, and that just simply is not true. It’s flexible enough where you can form it to work for you. They don’t dictate how you graze cattle, or that you rest and rotate [pastures].”

The contract has worked well for many years. There were certainly times when dismal cattle markets made the family question the wisdom of staying in Block Management versus outfitting or leasing their land. But another major fire – and incredible generosity shown by sportsmen and women ­– convinced McRae to continue in the program.

“The acid test was in 2012, with the Ash Creek Fire,” McRae said. “We lost 8,000 acres of our place in a matter of hours. That was the worst day of my life. There were 26 miles of fence lying on the ground after that first day. I can’t stress what a hit that was; it was such a helpless feeling.”

“To the credit of [FWP] Region 7, and specifically a game warden by the name of Bill Dawson, he put a crew together of 20-some people – most I didn’t know – from sportsmen’s groups from across the state,” McRae recalled. “He pulled up in his personal pickup, heaped with wire and supplies donated from as far away as the Bitterroot Valley. We put in 6 miles of fence in really rough country, by hand, in one day.”

Without it, the cattle and horses could have roamed for miles after the fire burned 250,000 acres.

“Those hunters kicking in was really appreciated,” McRae said. “They didn’t have to do that.”

“I am deeply indebted to the hunting public in Montana for doing that,” he said.

McRae has always been happy to let people come out and hunt, particularly the locals, whom he knows appreciate it. He has even designated a Hunter Education area for first-year hunters to harvest their first deer.

“That’s pretty important, and builds relationships and builds bridges,” he said.

By now, McRae is seeing second, and third generations come to hunt, which pleases him. One of his longtime hunters is Darrell Brabec of Colstrip. Brabec met Wally McRae and his wife, Ruth, in church in the 1980s.

“Wally told me he started in Block Management, and to come on out – he needed some does shot,” Brabec recalled. 

Brabec has been coming ever since. His son, Brandon, started coming at age 12, and he’s now 45. Next came the grandkids. Brabec has also brought many friends with him, along with their kids and grandkids.

“It’s been a longtime family hunting tradition,” he said.

Brabec likes the Rocker Six’s signup process, diverse habitat and convenience.

“We can leave here in the morning and be out there to hunt without spending a lot of travel time,” he said.

Brabec is a member of the Colstrip Sportsman’s Club and attends the Block Management appreciation dinner in Miles City every year. He and his wife help to round up door prizes for cooperators honored at the event. It’s one way he can show appreciation for the program and for families like the McRaes.

“They’re allowing hunters to keep our tradition and get out in the hills and hunt,” Brabec said.

“He’s just a good guy,” McRae said of Brabec. “Those kinds of things I certainly appreciate. He knows there’s pressures we feel, and we don’t have to do this.”

One of those pressures is a steady increase in nonresident hunters, who for the first time, outnumbered locals this year. McRae is happy to welcome visitors, but he thinks some education is needed. This year he drafted a letter sharing his philosophy about access and had Krueger give it to every hunter.

“It’s a privilege, and we have to treat it as such; I think that word needs to get out,” McRae said.

Summing up his 32 years in Block Management, he said, “It’s a three-way agreement between sportsmen, landowners and the department. It has lasted the test of time and is worthwhile to carry on. There are trials, tribulations and changes, but we have to carry on.”

“I’m very comfortable with this program, and I appreciate the way I’ve been treated by the public and the department, and the public supports it,” McRae said.

South central Montana

A win-win situation

Dave Arthun considers himself more of a steward than an owner of land he ranches northeast of Joliet. It is a philosophy that he inherited from his father, who worked the rolling ranchland before him. Like his father, he feels an obligation to share the land with others.

“We’ve always allowed hunting,” Arthun said. “But it was kind of disorganized.”

So, in 1996, his father, Stanley, enrolled the family ranch in the brand-new Block Management program created by FWP. He was one of 32 south central Montana property owners who signed up that first year and who still participates in the program.

For Arthun, Block Management is a win/win. Hunters have very little impact on the ranch and FWP manages the access. People can hunt on more than 4,000 acres of the Arthun place and he gets enough compensation to help pay his taxes. Hunting is more organized, and FWP has a means of managing wildlife populations.

After his father passed away, Arthun said, he chose to stay with Block Management because the FWP program allows a widely available hunting opportunity – it is not for just a select few.

Block Management is not for everyone, Arthun admitted. People who live where properties are small or houses are close together justifiably don’t allow hunting, he said. And some ranchers just do not want unfamiliar hunters on their land.

Arthun has not developed relationships with any of his hunters, he said, because he rarely has contact with them. Hunters sign up at a box next to his gate. They rarely need to drive up to his home or contact him directly.

He recently talked with one of his hunters at a Billings business, however. When the store employee saw his name, he asked if he was the Arthun enrolled in Block Management out of Joliet. The man said his daughter harvested her first deer on the Arthun Block Management Area and he appreciated the opportunity. With that, the man waved down some other people in the parking lot and had them load Arthun’s supplies into his truck for him.

A collaborative effort among landowners,  hunters and FWP

When it comes to problem-solving, Bill Milton is all about collaboration. As a facilitator, coordinator and participant in working groups, he has seen what folks can accomplish when they work together.

Milton, a rancher in northern Musselshell County, saw Block Management as an opportunity to collaborate when he joined the program at its inception 25 years ago. He is one of 32 south central Montana property owners who signed up for the FWP’s hunter access program that first year and who still participate. Today he sees it as a valuable collaborative effort among landowners, hunters and Fish, Wildlife & Parks.

People were hunting on Milton’s ranch, which is intermixed with public land, before Block Management. But it was sloppy, he said, and nobody was happy. He thought the more collaborative approach of Block Management access to wildlife was a way to address that.

Things have worked out pretty well for Milton. Hunters stay on the roadways and generally do not abuse the ranch resources. Hunting and access are reasonably managed by FWP, he said.

In northern Musselshell County, some of the alternatives to Block Management are not working that well, Milton said. Private land with limited or no public hunting, can make it difficult to manage herds, which can impact neighboring landowners as the bigger issues of population numbers and disease go unaddressed. A ranch is not an island that works at its best without collaboration with landowners around it, he said. If everyone does not work together to manage the herds, it can cause problems for neighbors.

While Block Management works well to manage public access to hunting, Milton said, more collaboration is needed. He would like FWP to help ranchers better understand the biology of the animals and wildlife herds. Wildlife working groups, for instance, can look at the social and biological aspects of the wildlife, not just the public access, he said. “Out here, how many antelope can we run? Personally, I’d like to have much more understanding of how decisions are made.”

Milton has developed some relationships with hunters who have taken advantage of Block Management on his place over the years. Last year one of them, a grandson, wanted to take his grandfather hunting, but the gentleman didn’t walk very well. “So, there was one area that had some deer and we told him where he could drive,” Milton said. The grandfather harvested his buck.

Northeast Montana

Seventy-seven landowners have been in the program for 25 or more years

In northeast Montana’s Region 6, an amazing 77 cooperating landowners have been involved in the program for 25 or more years. The Region 6 program quickly climbed to over 1 million acres by the late 90s, and today Region 6 Block Management includes nearly 1.3 million private land acres. 

The program has been changing steadily since current hunting access coordinator Tim Potter took over in 2014.

“Our region has regularly been increasing in enrolled acres,” says Potter. “Thanks to the willing landowners that enroll their property and hats off to the biologists, wardens and Block Management technicians that help keep this program growing.”

Two landowners who have been involved with Block Management from the beginning are former Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Richard Stuker and Henry Gordon of Chinook. Both Stuker and Gordon are part of the North Blaine Block Management Area, which encompasses more than 85,000 acres. The area is a large mix of public and private land in northern Blaine County.

“We knew people were already hunting out there, and the mix of public and private land caused a lot of confusion for hunters,” says Gordon. “Putting this property into block management made it easier for hunters to get around. Plus, we were worried about hunters starting and leaving campfires and not having anyone out there to keep watch.”

 “The major reason we remain in the program is that we have FWP staff in our area during the hunting season keeping an eye on things,” added Stuker.

“Block Management is a good way to get a few dollars back for when people drive off trails or break fences,” says Gordon, “and we have wardens and seasonal Block Management technicians who can patrol and help enforce the rules of the BMA.” 

Block management technician Tim Roth has been a “super person to work with,” says Gordon. “He’s stopped all kinds of people from driving off-road and finally has most of them educated.”

“Tim does a great job, along with the wardens, in keeping most of the problems under control,” added Stuker.

Both Stuker and Gordon enroll other portions of their property in Block Management, as well. According to Stuker, there are several advantages to enrolling land in Block Management as opposed to leasing or outfitting.

“I have a number of friends and family that I wanted to ensure had the ability to continue to hunt on my property,” said Stuker. “Also, we have an abundant deer population on the ranch, and if you lease, it’s tougher to control deer populations.”

Leonard Swenson, the current president of the Silver Dollar and Whittmayer Grazing Associations in Valley County, was one of the original members of the associations that enrolled their collective deeded property in Block Management back in 1996. 

According to Swenson, the grazing associations are “part of the cow business, not the hunting business,” but Block Management was a good way for the associations to gain a few extra dollars in impact payments for hunters that were already hunting on or near their land.

Both grazing associations have acres “with a lot of federal and state land and some deeded, and it seemed like an easy way to allow hunting,” says Swenson.  “FWP marks the boundaries pretty well and has sign-in boxes at most access points. Although we still have some problems of people driving on muddy roads and leaving gates open, it has worked out pretty well.”

Even though there are some issues with certain hunters abusing the rules, landowners know that most hunters appreciate the program. 

Swenson has some of his own property near his home place enrolled as a BMA, and has developed many positive relationships with hunters over the year. “I have had hunters come back year after year, and sometimes they’ll bring homemade jelly or Wisconsin cheese.” 

“One time, a guy left a $100 and an apology note in the sign-in box, that he said it was to help fix a fence post that he broke,” added Gordon. “That was pretty neat, and I appreciated it.” 

“I get a lot of repeat hunters and we exchange Christmas cards with some of them every year,” said Stuker. “Also, hunters know the rules for my BMA, and if they see violations, they will tell FWP or myself. They know it’s a privilege to hunt on my private property, not a right.”

Hunters from Montana and other states know and appreciate the opportunity that Block Management provides.

“There just isn’t anything like it in any other state that I’ve hunted,” said Minnesota resident Bill Landgren, who has hunted a variety of Block Management properties for more than 10 years in Region 6. “I find the maps and rules easy to follow, and Block Management provides a great opportunity for me, especially for the agricultural land and bird hunting opportunities that I’m looking for.”

“The ease of access to so many different kinds of properties are why I hunt Block Management,” says Tim Zabrocki, a Montana resident hunter. “Compared to what I have experienced in other states, there is no comparison. To get the same kind of access in other states that landowners provide through Montana BMAs, you would likely have to pay large sums of money.”

Not only is Potter the hunting access coordinator for Region 6, his family has had their own property enrolled in Block Management for the last 10 years or so. 

“I figured if I talk the talk, we better walk the walk,” laughs Potter. “Being enrolled in Block Management allows me to experience the same things that our cooperators do. Yes, sometimes there are issues when hunters aren’t following the rules. But for the most part, it’s a great way to help continue the great tradition of hunting in Montana.”

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