Governor Greg Gianforte signed it into law May 8, 2025. This “study bill” does not immediately change hunting seasons, license quotas, or resident/nonresident allocations. Instead, it directs Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to collect and analyze information that can be used to inform future decisions.
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Under HB 568, FWP must conduct a study of the impacts of nonresident hunting on deer, elk, upland game birds, and waterfowl hunting, both statewide and within each of FWP’s administrative regions.
The study is intended to use multiple types of information rather than relying on a single measure of hunting pressure. The law specifically identifies data including:
Hunter days and hunting activity
Harvest reporting
Use of lands enrolled in hunting-access programs, including Block Management Areas
Hunting pressure on public lands
Deer and elk population trends
Licensing information
The law requires FWP to complete the study and publish a publicly accessible report by December 1, 2026. The report must include:
A comprehensive assessment of the data concerning nonresident impacts on deer and elk hunting, both statewide and by administrative region.
Information explaining how the data used in the study was collected or obtained.
Identification of specific issues for consideration by the Montana Legislature, FWP, and the Fish and Wildlife Commission concerning nonresident impacts on deer and elk hunting.
In other words, HB 568 is designed to create an information-gathering process before future changes to Montana's hunting structure are considered. The study itself does not make any changes. It is intended to provide decision makers and the public with a more comprehensive picture of impacts of nonresident hunting on deer, elk, upland game birds, and waterfowl hunting.
Currently Montana offers nonresidents three general hunting combination-license options through a drawing: the General Deer Combination, General Elk Combination, and General Big Game Combination, which includes both deer and elk. A nonresident may apply for only one combination license each year.
The number of General Elk Combination and General Big Game Combination licenses is limited by statute to 17,000. The General Deer Combination is subject to a separate statutory quota of 4,600.
Each nonresident combination license includes:
A season fishing license
A season upland game bird license, excluding turkey
The applicable general deer, elk, or deer-and-elk hunting privilege
In an individual region, hunting district, or area, the number of big-game licenses or permits issued to nonresidents may not exceed 10% of the total issued. This is a maximum allocation rather than a guaranteed share. As a practical matter, a specific quota must include at least 10 licenses or permits before one can be issued to a nonresident.
Additionally, legal precedent directs that Montana can treat nonresidents differently in terms of the cost of licenses, but it cannot discriminate against nonresidents. In essence that means Montana can limit the number of licenses available for nonresidents but cannot provide hunting opportunities for residents that it won’t provide for nonresidents.