New web service offered to help control game damage

New web service offered to help control game damage

Doecowhunt.com – Recently, a Montana company launched a free online service for Montana farmers and ranchers experiencing game damage problems. Doecowhunt.com is a new web service aimed directly at excessive numbers of wildlife damaging croplands and haystacks. The website is simple, easy to use, and loads quickly on rural dialup internet connections.

Currently, the only recourse landowners have to control wildlife is to open their land to public hunting, either through the FWP Block Management program, or through a self managed system. Both methods have their drawbacks. Most hunters are looking to harvest bucks and bulls while farmers and ranchers need to harvest does and cows. Therein lies the rub.

Doecowhunt.com offers a novel solution: matching hunters willing and even eager to harvest female wildlife with landowners suffering crop damage. The website works by first registering a landowner’s contact info in a secure, password protected database. The landowner then enrolls their land parcels in the database according to hunting districts and species available.

Beginning May 1, 2009, doe/cow hunters will be able to view the number of acres enrolled in their hunting districts. If enough acres have been enrolled to interest them, hunters may then proceed to register and purchase a listing in the hunter database. Hunters will choose districts or regions and species for which they have doe/cow tags. A profile page may be filled out with a picture and info describing themselves to landowners.

Prior to the hunting season, landowners will be reminded to return to the website and begin inviting hunters who have registered in their districts. Invitations will be generated through the website, protecting the identity of both parties. Once an invitation has been accepted the website has done its job for both the landowner and the hunter. Hunters get tasty backstraps while helping out a local farmer or rancher with their crop damage problems.

Doecowhunt.com is owned and operated by Carl and Patti Lee of Belgrade, Montana. Carl is a lifelong hunter and 20 year Montana resident. Patti is a 5th generation Montanan with homesteader roots in the Sweetgrass Hills (Tomshek family) and Brockway (Haglund Ranch) areas.

Landowners interested in this concept of wildlife control are invited to visit the website to learn more and enroll their properties. Areas with more land enrolled will attract more hunters for landowners to choose from when setting up their own doe/cow hunts.