No additional reservations available
TWIN BRIDGES – Due to high interest from hunters and limited space, all available hunting opportunity on private lands in the Ruby Valley chronic wasting disease (CWD) management hunt area has been booked for the remainder of the season.
The management hunt area includes almost exclusively private lands south of Twin Bridges along the Beaverhead and Ruby rivers. Hunting on private lands within the management hunt area is by reservation only, and no additional reservations are available.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks staff are grateful to landowners and hunters for their participation in the management hunt to continue studying and managing CWD in this area.
The lower Ruby Valley is known to have a high prevalence of CWD. The goals of the management hunt are to reduce the white-tailed deer population and increase the CWD test sample size from a localized herd of mule deer to improve the accuracy of prevalence estimates.
CWD is a fatal, contagious neurological disease that infects deer, elk and moose. CWD surveillance across southwest Montana over the past three years, including broad CWD management hunts, continues to illustrate a localized area of high prevalence among deer in the lower Ruby Valley, surrounded by an area of low prevalence. To learn more about CWD management in Montana, visit fwp.mt.gov/CWD.
If hunters are looking for additional hunting opportunities in Montana, late-season elk hunts are open in several hunting districts in the state. For more information, check the current hunting regulations or visit fwp.mt.gov/hunt/regulations.
