Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks have released a study to emphasize how important big game hunting is to the state’s economy. FWP Communications Director Ron Aasheim explains.

“It really is interesting to see the kind of money that is generated by the interest,” said Aasheim. “Really we have pretty remarkable unmatched resources as far as the kind of opportunity for North America big game and literally in the world, as far as diversity and unique opportunity. That is the reason for the interest and we just want to let people know this is a big deal in Montana.”

Big game hunting expenditures in Missoula County were over $11 million, but that is just a fraction of the total amount in the state.

“Total fishing and hunting in Montana, direct expenditures 1.26 billion, that is direct expenditures based on hunting and fishing activities, Aasheim said. “Fishing is 907 million and hunting is 347 million. We have really interesting information by county and we can show the kind of economic impact hunting has.”

FWP created an interactive story map to better illustrate this information. The story map allows people to see the information by different county and hunting district levels.

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