Chapter IV - Block Management Effectiveness 



However, if the department decides to provide benefits such as 

 additional licenses, special drawing permits/tags, preference points, 

 etc., legislation will have to be enacted since current statute only 

 seems to allow benefits in the form of compensation, gates, signs, 

 etc. If the types of benefits are expanded, administrative impacts 

 (signing, patrolling, paperwork in the regional office) will have to 

 be reviewed to determine if resources are available to allow the 

 program to grow. 



The department agreed it may take statutory changes to provide 

 desired types of non-monetary compensation. Both the Block 

 Management Working Group and the Private Land/Public Wildlife 

 Advisory Council intend to address this issue and offer 

 recommendations . 



Recommendation #5 



We recommend department officials explore options for the Block 

 Management Program to provide benefits to landowners other 

 than money and a single resident sportsman license or non-resident 

 big game combination license. 



Contract Amounts Which The current system requires regional staff to determine the actual 



do not Fluctuate Every number of hunter days on each BMA at the end of every hunting 



^ ear season. If the amount did not fluctuate more than 20 percent from 



the previous season, the landowner is paid the same amount the next 

 year. If the amount went up or down, the payment is adjusted 

 accordingly. Using this system, the department does not know from 

 one year to the next how much it is going to have to pay landowners. 

 Two regions have had to "borrow" money from other regions to pay 

 for their contracts. Region 6 contributed approximately $9,000 to 

 Regions 4 and 5 each of the last two years to help the regions pay 

 their landowners in the program. 



Field staff are not happy with the annual system and many suggested 

 a base contract amount with a longer contract term be used. That 

 way the landowner would know how much he/she would be getting 

 each year for a number of years, and the department/regions could 

 budget better in a biennium. Over a number of years a base contract 



Page 43 



