A popular U.S. Forest Service road in southwest Montana will be open when sportsmen and women head into the backcountry in search of antler sheds.
East Fork Blacktail Road, about 25 miles southeast of Dillon, usually opens May 15 annually to shed antler hunters but there was a chance it would be permanently closed. Instead, the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation is purchasing an easement.
“The road is a big deal,” Eric Hull, access technician for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, told the Montana Standard. “If it would’ve been closed, it would’ve been a very big deal.”
The road is located in a portion of the state where RMEF carried out quite a bit of public access work.
(Photo source: John Morton