Guest Profile - Montana Wildlife Federation

Embracing and celebrating the Winter Solstice

January 3, 2023December 21, 2022 by Guest Profile

Written by Morgan Marks

Photos by Ilona Wilde

Dear Friend,

With magic and mysticism in our hearts, we’re thinking about the meaning of the Winter Solstice in regard to wildlife, habitat, public access, and our work in advocacy.

There are two solstices, winter and summer, and both yield beautiful opportunities to reflect, get outside and think about how the sun “stands still” on these two days of our annual calendar. Each solstice occurs on days that the sun seemingly stalls in its progression around the earth, a movement the sun has been taking since the dawn of our species, since time immemorial.

The light will return as it always does, but only after it becomes the darkest it’s been all year. While the day itself is short and often cold here in Montana, it can be an excellent time of year for wildlife. While all may appear dark and seemingly silent, we’d urge you to get outside and see what creatures are stirring, what noises you hear and what wildlife still abound because of their urgency to feed before deep winter sets in.

The point of Winter Solstice is to celebrate the rebirth of sunlight after the darkest period of the year. What better way to celebrate than to get outside and immerse yourself in the outdoors?

Here are a few ideas to get your mind thinking about celebrating this important day and getting outside:

First and foremost, prepare for dangerous and extreme cold – dress in layers, bring extra water, bring snacks, put blankets in your car, know where you’re going, and make sure someone else knows, too!
Take a local adventure, and put on your winter boots with great traction or fit your Yak-Trax to your sneakers and take a walk around your neighborhood. Check the temperature ahead of time and prepare for a short time outside this week!
Choose an even more local adventure and step barefoot in your own backyard to connect to the earth by grounding through your feet in your own space.
Seek out a new place to access public land or go to your well-trodden stomping grounds and take a hike, check out wildlife tracks and try to identify them. Or, simply stand and witness what you can feel, see, hear, and touch by experiencing a new place for the first time or an old place with new eyes.

No matter what you choose, even if it’s kicking back indoors with a hot beverage of your choice and slippers on, know that we’re rooting for you and celebrating with you.

Stay well and safe, and we’ll see you outside,

The MWF Team

Winnett ACES, Habitat Restoration and Heart Work

December 15, 2022December 14, 2022 by Guest Profile

LTPBR or Low-Technology Process Based Restoration and the potential benefits cannot be understated. MWF is grateful to be apart of LTPBR work and have staff that can lend capacity support to the work through our partnership with National Wildlife Federation that yields support for landowner groups like Winnett ACES.

Check out the blog written by our Field Representative, Morgan Marks.

“We often don’t realize how much a landscape has changed over time unless we’ve witnessed it. Jay King, a local landowner and rancher who has benefitted from LTPBR work, expressed his sentiments about LTPBR when he shared the following:

“I like water and there’s a creek on the property that has seen dry years with no water – 6 years of drought. Moisture matters. When we irrigate even a half-acre, it’s more productive.”

Jay explained how his family ranch has experienced flooding some years, such as 2011, 2013, 2014, 2018 and his goal is to keep the water on the land for as long as possible. When the water table is higher, green patches occur which means the habitat and land are healthy. This process benefits Jay’s livestock and in turn, wildlife on his property.

Another local landowner and rancher, Brenda Brady, agreed with Jay, stressing that ranchers want to keep water on the land for as long as possible. More water means more forage, more forage means sustaining their way of life on the land.

Brenda said, “We want to preserve what we have and work to restore streams to what they once were.”

By MWF Field Representative, Morgan Marks.

Deep Gratitude this Thanksgiving

December 8, 2022November 23, 2022 by Guest Profile

Everyone at Montana Wildlife Federation is taking time to reflect and recognize that this Thanksgiving holiday has many meanings, and that we must take action to not only give thanks, but remember and continue to learn. We hope you get to spend meaningful time with family and friends, travel safely, perhaps engage in acts of service, take a pause to rest and get out into the wilds of Montana.

MWF staff wanted to share what we are grateful for at this time of year, as well as recognize that the Thanksgiving holiday is known by some of our valued partners in advocating for wildlife, habitat and access as a National Day of Mourning. Out of respect for Indigenous people in Montana and across North America, we believe the day can serve as a reminder of our nation’s difficult history of injustices. We commit to finding ways to right wrongs and do meaningful, informed and positive work by building bridges, trust and relations – to move forward in good ways, and move forward together.

This November we’re reflecting on, recognizing and celebrating Native American Heritage Month and we’re feeling gratitude for the Indigenous peoples who have stewarded and cared for the lands now called Montana, the same lands that we all work, play, hunt and fish on, and advocate for.

From filling our freezers with wild game to accessing public lands to hunt and the memories made and shared in the in-between moments, our gratitude runs deep. Practicing gratitude isn’t just an action to take this week, the week of Thanksgiving, or only in the weeks following, but an action we highly recommend taking the whole year through.

Every time we pull a package of wild game from the freezer, we remember that animal, that hunt, the people we shared the experience with and perhaps even sweat, bled and cried with, and we give thanks, over and over again. That is the beauty of hunting – the experience stays on and sustains us, and our hearts and minds.

We’re hoping you and yours have a wonderful week and however you’re celebrating and remembering, that you enjoy the time. We’re grateful for you and thank you for being a part of the work and advocacy of the Montana Wildlife Federation.

A few reflections on gratitude from our staff:

Sonya Smith, our Communications Director, shared that she’s “thankful for hunting with my family and raising our girls to know they are capable of anything.”

Morgan Marks, our North-Central Field Representative, shared that she’s “thankful to have gone out on her first solo hunts this season, remembering the hunters in her life who can no longer get out – those walks with her rifle greeting the sunrise were for them.”

Ilona Wilde, our South-Central Field Representative, shared that she’s “so thankful for the opportunity to spend time outdoors and enjoy the change of the seasons with the ones I love.”

Garrett Titus, our Data Manager, shared that he’s “thankful to have the opportunity to come full circle to take my grandpa and dad hunting with my dog.”

As the father of an active duty service member, Executive Director, Frank Szollosi, is grateful for the dedication earlier this month of the National Native American Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. “I look forward to visiting and reflecting upon the sacrifices made by Indigenous men and women in military service, defending freedom.”

New Guidance from Bureau of Land Management Will Conserve Wildlife Movement and Migration Pathways

November 16, 2022November 16, 2022 by Guest Profile

The Bureau of Land Management’s new policy to conserve and restore wildlife movement and migration pathways by working collaboratively with state fish and wildlife agencies, Tribal nations, and private landowners will benefit fish and wildlife and is a positive step forward in tackling the nation’s biodiversity crisis. The new Instructional Memorandum provides valuable guidance that directs the agency’s state offices to consider fish and wildlife movements and connectivity pathways in land use planning.

“Wildlife must migrate and move in order to survive, so this new guidance to conserve and restore wildlife pathways will benefit elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and many species of fish,” said David Willms, senior director for Western wildlife and conservation at the National Wildlife Federation. “It is especially heartening to see the emphasis on collaboration with state and Tribal leaders and private landowners to connect and restore wildlife habitat and remove invasive species, which will have tremendous benefits for wildlife and humans alike.”

Restoration of wildlife movement to maintain healthy animal populations and promote human safety include wildlife-friendly fencing and wildlife crossings, which have both yielded successful results for minimizing wildlife-vehicle collisions as well as restoring wildlife migration pathways connecting across landscapes, especially for pronghorn.

“More data is needed to identify such movements and wildlife migration routes,” said Naomi Alhadeff, Montana Education Manager at the National Wildlife Federation. “We’ve been working to gather Montanans together to use the app WildlifeXing, as a way to leverage community and citizen science to support gathering data. The data is used to identify hot spots and pinch points along Highway 2 and throughout Montana, where wildlife are seen on roadways, dead or alive.”

Wildlife crossings benefit more than just big game species; turtles, rabbits, coyotes, skunks, and myriad other smaller species of wildlife also utilize these crossings. The movement and migration of wildlife in the United States are vital to maintaining healthy animal populations. The continuing fragmentation and disconnection of habitat is resulting in increasingly isolated animal populations; the inability to reach important winter, summer, or breeding habitat; and higher rates of negative wildlife-human interactions.

“It will take intentional collaboration between federal, state, and Tribal land managers – as well as private landowners – to fully safeguard wildlife movement. We welcome today’s new guidance from the Bureau of Land Management. Now we need help from the public. We’re asking every person to download and input data regarding what they see along Montana roadways,” said Morgan Marks, North-Central Field Representative at the Montana Wildlife Federation. This data will be modeled at the end of 2023 so it’s crucial that as many people as possible serve as citizen scientists before that deadline.”

The National Wildlife Federation and Montana Wildlife Federation applaud the Bureau of Land Management’s new policy and commitment to work with state fish and wildlife agencies and Tribal nations to ensure that connectivity is an integral part of their wildlife management.

By MWF North-Central/Eastern Montana Field Coordinator Morgan Marks.

Feature photo by Director of Wildlife Programs at National Wildlife Federation Kit Fischer.

Land of the Larch: A Deeper Look into Montana’s Golden Conifers

November 14, 2022November 14, 2022 by Guest Profile

There are few things in this world as glorious as Montana in the fall. The crispness in the air, the bugling wildlife, and the golden hues highlighting the hillsides and high peaks collide to form a season of beauty and bounty. There are multiple species of trees that contribute to the warm glow of autumn colors in Montana, but few are as unique as larch trees. Larch trees, classified in the Larix genus and Pinaceae (Pine) family, are deciduous conifers that lose their needles in the fall. The Larix genus is divided into two groups: three North American species and seven Eurasian Species.

Subalpine larch along a trail in the Anaconda-Pintler Wilderness (left) and Western Larch dotting the hills around Holland Lake (right). Photos by MWF Staffer Ilona Wilde.

Montana is home to two of the three native North American species of larch: Subalpine larch (Larix lyallii) and Western Larch (Larix occidentalis). Conifers are usually distinguished by their cones, needle-like leaves, and evergreen branches. Larch trees are an outlier in the Conifer family, with their needles turning a bright gold every autumn and dropping to the forest floor. During this process, the tree sequesters nutrients (mostly nitrogen) from its needles for storage. Shedding foliage in the fall not only relieves weight from the larch’s branches but also reduces the surface area of the tree from high winds. Without their summer needles, snow can fall through the branches rather than collect on the tree, reducing the likelihood of branches breaking from the weight of snow or the force of the wind. These deciduous adaptations help larch trees thrive in high elevations and extreme winter conditions.

Subalpine Larch: Larix lyallii

Subalpine larch in the Pintler Mountains. Photos by MWF Staffer, Ilona Wilde.

With both species of larch turning golden in the autumn, the easiest ways to differentiate the species are from their size, habitat, and distribution. Looking closely, alpine larch have wooly hairs covering buds and recent twigs, four sided needles, and usually have broad irregular crowns. They can grow in pure groves, small groups, or as isolated individuals. Alpine larch grow in very cold, snowy, and windy environments, with their record low temperatures near the Continental Divide reaching -50° C (-58° F). These conditions usually stunt the tree’s growth to around 30 to 50 feet tall, but in a wind sheltered basin alpine larch can reach up to 80 feet. These small trees commonly grow near the treeline on slopes covered with granite, quartzite talus (boulders) or in cracks of massive bedrock. Their current range consists of small pockets along the east side of the North Cascades in Washington, and the Rocky Mountains of Idaho, Montana and Canada. Within this distribution, alpine larch is most common in the highest areas of the Bitterroot, Anaconda-Pintler, Whitefish, and Cabinet Ranges of western Montana. Growing between 8,400 and 9,200 feet of elevation in southwestern Montana, alpine larch are usually the dominant trees on high mountain peaks.

Western Larch: Larix occidentalis

Golden western larch trees surrounded by evergreen conifers. Photo by MWF Staffer, Alec Underwood.

Western Larch, Larix occidentalis, is the largest of the larch genus and grows up to 150 feet tall and can live over 700 years. The world’s largest recorded larch tree can be found near the western shore of Seeley lake, Montana; a 163 feet tall western larch revered locally as “Gus”. Other than size, western larch can also be identified by their three sided needles and cones connecting to the branch on short stalks. In comparison to alpine larch, this species has a much larger distribution across Montana and surrounding areas. Western larches span from the Cascades in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon to the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, northern Idaho, and Western Montana. Found in moist to wet forests, western larch thrive in cool slopes and valleys to lower subalpine terrain. Unlike alpine larch, which can be solitary, western larches are dependent on growing alongside other tree species, like Douglas-fir and Lodgepole Pine.

Written by MWF’s Western Field Representative Ilona Wilde, featured above in a grove of subalpine larch.