BOZEMAN — With hopes of reducing hunting conflicts by encouraging better behavior, a citizen’s group has taken first steps toward developing an educational and media campaign to encourage Montana hunters to use good ethics.
The initiative by the Region 3 Citizen’s Advisory Council evolved out of reports in several areas of southwest Montana this fall where hunters surrounded herds of elk and shot into them.
“These are the incidents that ticked us off. It motivated us,” said council member Ken Sinay.
The council’s efforts are already being noticed.
The Montana’s Outdoor Legacy Foundation has indicated it would consider helping the campaign, said Region 3 supervisor Sam Sheppard.
Also, other citizen councils in other regions have expressed interest in the campaign.
For the past month, the group has worked to develop its mission statement and its goals, but it has not been easy. The issue is complex, as illustrated in Thursday night’s council discussion that took almost three hours.
While some people read this fall’s reports and assumed the only people involved were “slob hunters,” that’s not the case, said Warden Sgt. Joseph Knarr.
“It’s impossible to pigeonhole people, even though that might make your job easier,” Knarr told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
Sometimes, the things hunters do are not illegal but they’re unethical, such as shooting into a group of animals, shooting without a clear view of an animal or taking long-distance shots.
Helena hunter Rod Bullis said wardens have told him that 80 percent of the people are good people who have gotten caught up in the moment and made a mistake.
“We have cause-and-effect. Herd-hunting is the effect but what is the cause?” Bullis said.
The group brought up many contributing factors.
For example, kids learn the right way to hunt from hunter education but then learn bad habits from parents. Or adults visit or move into the state who have little or no hunter education or mentoring.
Both public and private land access is dwindling while elk herds increasingly congregate on private fields, leading to hunter frustration.
The group agreed that their initiative would address just one piece of a larger, ongoing problem. But by encouraging hunters to practice good ethics, make better decisions and police themselves, the program may cut down on some of the problems.
It would be best to have a positive message encouraging people to do the right thing, council member Mike Dailey said.
Examples of positive messaging included Montana’s “Respect our Rivers” campaign that addressed several aspects including fishing etiquette and the dangers of introducing invasive species.
On Thursday, the group created subcommittees to develop the messaging; the eventual vehicles such as videos, brochures, social media or advertisements; and funding.
The group plans to have the preliminary slogans and messaging fleshed out in a month to present a proposal to the Montana Outdoor Legacy Foundation.
“Social approval drives ethics. We can’t change values, but we can maybe change behavior,” Sinay said.