Off-highway vehicles in Montana: popular and a growing part of the economy.

• Author: Sylvester, James T.
• Position: Statistical data

Montanans are enthusiastic owners and users of off-highway vehicles, with about 77,200 registered in 2013. They buy and register about 5,000 machines each year for fun and for work. The recreational activity days Montanans spent using OHVs nearly quadrupled from 2007 to 2013. Montana OHV users spend between 4.2 million and 5.9 million days recreating.

The economic and recreational impacts of Montanans' OHV activities are significant. Residents spend about $208 million per year on OHV activities, nearly all of that for gasoline. OHV users buy about 6.6 million gallons of gasoline per year. With a base tax of $0.27 per gallon, resident OHV users in Montana generate more than $1.8 million in revenue for the state highway trust fund.

Nonresidents also participate in OHV activities in Montana, particularly during hunting season. The dispersed nature of OHV use makes estimating nonresident use difficult, so we focused on Montana residents. If nonresident OHV users were included, the numbers would be much larger.

At the request of Montana State Parks, the Bureau of Business and Economic Research conducted a survey of 523 Montana households whose members own registered OHVs. Of these households, 281 of these completed interviews asking about their OHV use. An additional 200 OHV households were mailed a questionnaire, and 33 were returned. Following are summaries of our findings.

OHV Numbers

OHV owners who use their OHVs on public lands are required to register with the Montana Department of Justice, Title and Registration Bureau. Figure 1 shows the number of OHVs registered since 1995. Changes in the titling of OHVs in 2005 resulted in a large increase in the number of registered machines, as people with unregistered OHVs took advantage of the permanent license for recreational vehicles and trailers. In 2007, about 54,000 OHVs were registered with the state of Montana. Data are unavailable for 2009. There were 77,200 OHVs registered in Montana in 2013. About 5,000 OHVs are registered each year in Montana. These yearly registrations are a combination of newly purchased machines and used OHVs being registered by new owners. OHVs for commercial use are also included.

Residents of rural southern Montana counties are more likely to own an OHV than in urban areas, which have very low per capita ownership. Per capita ownership of OHVs in southwestern Montana's Granite County is 0.52 per person. In other words, about half of Granite County residents own an...