Guest Profile - Montana Wildlife Federation

MWF Youth Pilot Program

April 4, 2022April 4, 2022 by Guest Profile

By MWF Ambassador Anne Joliff.

High schoolers need help. We often like to think of them as becoming self-sufficient; growing up and getting ready to strike out on their own – believe me, they think that about themselves as well. As a high school teacher, I know better; I know that they struggle with mental and physical health. As a conservationist, I know one way to help: nature. I’ve taught high school English for nine years. My favorite grade? Sophomores. Am I crazy? A little. I have taught students who need specialized reading help as well as students who probably should have been in college. One thing they all have in common is personal struggle.

The class I created, Outdoors Literacy, is designed to help students mentally and physically, inside and outside the school building. I wanted to bolster reading comprehension and interest by providing novels and articles that would strike our primal souls; books that rang true and called us outside where we can heal our minds and bodies. There are multiple studies linking reading comprehension to background knowledge as well as hands-on experiences. The most natural fit is the outdoors.

When I was approached regarding an opportunity to link my class to Montana Wildlife Federation by piloting a youth program, I jumped. The connections the class has made because of the work provided by MWF staff have made the class more meaningful and robust for the students. Because of their hard work, my students have had amazing outdoor adventures and been able to interact with people who have made the outdoors their life.

Our first trip with Montana Wildlife Federation’s help was to North 40 in Great Falls. The students received a casting clinic and fly identification from Fred Telleen. While we were there, two fisheries biologists from Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks talked to them about the ecology in the surrounding bodies of water, how they found their passion, and paths kids can take if they were interested.

Above: Students learn different fly patterns from Fred Telleen.

The fishing connected with Norman Maclean’s A River Runs Through It, naturally! We also practiced casting on our football field, walked to the river behind our school to look at the river’s ecology, and tied flies in class.

The next connection was Naomi Alhadeff with the National Wildlife Federation. She created an educational unit for use in schools titled WildlifeXing. This unit is expansive and covers traditional Native lands as well as migratory patterns and how Montana’s department of transportation is working with biologists to assist safe crossings for migratory species. Students were able to research, map data, build crossing models, and make atlatls. The discussion surrounding migrations and the ebb and flow of animals on landscapes coincided with reading Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac.

Around the same time frame, we entered a competition through Samsung: Solve for Tomorrow. It’s a STEAM competition for high schoolers across the country. Our class entered by submitting a project to modify the bottom wire on fences to aid Pronghorn migrations. Although we didn’t expect it, we won the state portion and are the only winners in the state of Montana. 100 projects in America received this designation. The students in my class then created a video to show the judges in the next round how we will carry out our project and what it does to better the world. The results will be released on March 17, with only 10 teams making it to the next level.

I know that high school students aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but they really are the future. If we can’t pass on the importance of conservation to their generation, what will happen to our wild places and spaces? The students I work within this class are amazing individuals. Many had little to no interest in the outdoors at the beginning of the class, they just needed somewhere to be. Now, half of them want to go into an outdoors or conservation-based career. Three of them struggle with mental health – they have confided in me that when they feel overwhelmed, they now head outdoors if they can because it helps. If the next generation learns how vital nature is to our overall well-being as humans, nothing will stop them from making sure it still exists. It just takes a little work, a little time, and a whole lot of compassion.

Above: Students went ice fishing (many for the first time) with Brian and Steph Clemen and Jesse Taylor.

Ice Fishing Women’s Workshop

April 1, 2022 by Guest Profile

Group photo of the women who attended the First Annual Women’s Ice Fishing Clinic at Lake Mary Ronan; Photo taken by Sonya Smith/MWF.

When the world was still dark, 20 women, of all ages, gathered at Mountain Meadows near the shore of Lake Mary Ronan. It was cold, and everyone came bundled up and ready to be on the ice all day. Head lamps lit the early morning, new faces met one another, signed the required paperwork, learned about ice safety, shared their name and where they’re from, and then, all together, they headed out onto the frozen lake.

The event was organized and supported by Montana Wildlife Federation and Artemis Sportswomen with support from North 40 (Great Falls), Chancy and Dave’s Fish Camp (Kalispell), Snappy’s (Kalispell), Fish Wildlife and Parks and Wild Montana Anglers (Columbia Falls).

Stephanie Adams-Clemen and Morgan Marks caught a perch using an HT Striker Pro Ice Fishing Hook Set Up System; Photo taken by Sonya Smith/MWF.

Planning took a few months of meeting almost weekly between two avid ice fishers, Stephanie Adams-Clemen and Kimberly (Berly) McCoy, and staff from Montana Wildlife Federation, Morgan Marks, the North-Central and Eastern Montana Field Representative, and Sonya Smith, the Communications Director. Sonya is also the Co-Lead for Artemis Sportswomen in Montana. Morgan had connected with both ice fishers separately and when she realized some magic could come from these connections, she brought everyone together to discuss hosting an event.

Stephanie started ice fishing when she met her now-husband, an HT Enterprise Pro Staffer, 8 years ago and greatly enjoyed the sport during long cold winters living in Minnesota and Montana. She shared that, “the Women’s Ice Fishing Clinic is a dream opportunity to share my enthusiasm for fishing and build community with other women in a meaningful way.”

Berly learned to ice fish through an FWP Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) class in 2019. Since then, she’s become an avid ice fisher, collecting more gear and feverishly anticipating the salmon bite each winter. “I had a ton of fun sharing my love of ice fishing with other women. Fingers crossed the Women’s Ice Fishing Clinic will become an annual tradition so we can continue to build a community of current and future women ice anglers,” Berly said. Both women were key stakeholders for this newly created, hopefully annual, women’s ice fishing event.

When the women hit the ice, the learning began. Some women had their own sleds, poles, and ice fishing gear, and others had never caught a fish before. The bravery it takes to show up, be willing to learn, and engage with other women cannot be understated. Both instructors got every woman set up with a pole and their own fishing hole in the ice and took turns sharing lessons, advice, and suggestions for how to fish for specific species, what gear was what, and what bait to use.

Berly McCoy demonstrating how to filet a fish on the ice; Photo taken by Sonya Smith/MWF.

There were smiles all around as women started jigging and the first fish was caught. “Woo woo” and “fish on” became familiar words spoken and yelled, as women celebrated each other when they caught a fish and cheered one another on.

Photos of women ice fishing taken by Sonya Smith/MWF.

During lunch, Alex Stokman of Venery Montana, a women’s hunting and fishing company, spoke on behalf of Artemis Sportswomen as she’s an Ambassador for them, living and working in Montana.

Artemis Sportswomen, an initiative of the National Wildlife Federation, is a group of “bold, impassioned sportswomen who are out to change the face of conservation. The Greek goddess Artemis is the protector of the hunt and of nature. She is usually depicted with her trusty doe deer, a bow and arrows. She knew it as her duty to protect wildlife and the sanctity of the hunt. Artemis sees her as an extremely fitting icon to represent our philosophy. We embody Artemis’ wild spirit and protective nature to boldly carry the conservation torch for the modern sportswoman by engaging in every facet of the sporting conservation life.” We’re grateful for Artemis’ support and for sending a representative to enjoy the day, engage with the women, and share more about the organization’s work in the conservation space.

Mountain Meadows Restaurant offered a special lunch menu for the event and our thanks abound for their hospitality and kindness. It was an overall, informative and beautiful day out on the ice!

Alex Stokman of Venery Montana speaking to the group during lunch; Photo taken by an attendee of the event; Credited to MWF.

Beautiful day on the ice; Photo taken by Morgan Marks/MWF.

How I became interested in Montana Wildlife Federation’s Legislative Action Team

March 31, 2022March 24, 2022 by Guest Profile

By Montana Wildlife Federation Ambassador Mike Mershon.

How I became interested in Montana Wildlife Federation’s Legislative Action Team is really a story of my childhood upbringing. From an early age, I have been fortunate to have had mentors in my life who shared their passion for the outdoors with me. I was shown the endless treasures that our public lands hold, taught how to hunt our public wildlife, and enjoyed our liberal stream access.

Some of my earliest memories are of pack trips into the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness with my grandfather and uncle, backpacking trips with my father in the San Juans of Colorado, and hunting squirrels and fishing streams with my brothers on the surrounding open spaces of our childhood home. As I outgrew the mentors who introduced me to the concepts of advocacy and had instilled a deep respect for our rich heritage I continued on my own to develop my passion for open spaces and the wildlife found within them. I further developed an appreciation for the work that is required to create, maintain and protect these commodities.

One of my early trips into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness was on a pack trip into East Rosebud drainage with my grandfather and uncle.

As an adult, like most, time becomes an increasingly precious commodity. I still dedicate as much time as possible to being out and enjoying the outdoors. However, I am only capable of dedicating so much time to my passions and have limited bandwidth to absorb all the information presented to me. With the changing of times I was seeing the unprecedented onslaught of changes coming down the line. I had noticed subtle changes on the public lands that I had spent so many days of my youth and childhood on. Access to certain trails was limited or denied. The ways our wildlife populations were being managed had shifted. I had growing concerns and questions, and I had begun feeling frustrated that I wasn’t being an effective advocate on my own, that my concerns were often not being heard, or more commonly, I didn’t even know who the correct persons were to voice my concerns to. Simply put, I wanted a better understanding of how these changes had come about.

This is when I found Montana Wildlife Federation’s Legislative Action Team (LAT). The LAT provides an easily digestible breakdown of the major concerns facing the conservation community and lays out the most effective actions needed from its members to counter these concerns. Not only does being a LAT member provide me with access to experts in the conservation world who can help answer questions, provide from-the-source data, and share insider information on upcoming legislation. I am also engaged in a diverse community of like-minded individuals because to be the most effective conservationist requires concentrated planning expressed as unified voices.

When I joined the LAT I gained an improved understanding of the legislative process along with how our fish and game committee works. I now know who is responsible for the decisions that are being made which affect our hunting, wildlife management and public lands. I have been given the tools and shown how to use them in a manner that allows me to effectively spend my time to impart the most impact on the process.

I have been incredibly fortunate to mature as a sportsman in such a wonderful time, enjoying plentiful opportunities in the game with access to seemingly endless tracts of public lands. Now, spending time hunting with my young nephew and helping him to harvest his first big game has shown me it is time that I concentrate on ensuring that the sportsmen and women of the future can enjoy the same opportunities that I have enjoyed. The LAT has equipped me with the necessary toolkit to continue our conservation legacy.

The next generation of conservation advocates, with his first bull elk taken on public lands.

Notes from the Field: Montana Department of Transportation and Trail/Game Cameras

December 20, 2021 by Guest Profile

While a little delayed, we wanted to share updates from the field from October because the month was filled with fieldwork projects. One of them was getting out in the field to support the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) with placing trail cameras outside Jordan and removing old game cameras outside Miles City.

MWF was pretty excited to get out and learn more about interactions that occur in Montana to support both wildlife and human safety.

Did you know that fences and roadways can have a large effect on habitat connectivity for a multitude of wildlife species?

Did you know that the MDT employs wildlife biologists and other environmental professionals whose work is substantial, and encompasses monitoring and tracking wildlife in an effort to make our roads safer for the public to travel?

Did you know that there’s something that you can do to support this work and make a difference? Read on, friends!

If you’ve never looked at a game camera up close, they’re very simple, easy to use devices. MDT Biologists’ use these devices to monitor for various wildlife species that move along and across roadways by taking date and time stamped photographs. These photos provide real time, conclusive data that is used to improve the safety of travelers by affecting change in the design of future road and bridge projects across the state of Montana.

Tracking wildlife movements to better understand what’s happening in a given area prior to and after a project’s development allows MDT to better position various “wildlife accommodations” to improve their effectiveness, and to insure the greatest return on their financial investment.

The main things to be aware of when setting up a trail camera is its location and angle so that it is placed in a good way to capture any wildlife movements (they take photos with any and all movement, so cows are captured too!), and that the game camera is secured to something sturdy so that no amount of any weather-related element will bother it.

Some folks may already know this, but if this sounds new to you, you’re not alone. There’s a lot of work occurring behind the scenes at MDT, from tracking and monitoring wildlife movements and connectivity, to tracking and monitoring human safety issues such as animal-vehicle collisions (AVC), and monitoring the various wildlife accommodations that have already been implemented by MDT.

Wildlife accommodations can be as simple and inexpensive as replacing right-of-way fences that are obstructing wildlife movements, to designing and constructing larger, more expensive wildlife overpasses and underpasses when appropriate. An example of the latter can be witnessed by everyone on U.S. 93 north of Missoula, and along MT Highway 200 in McCone County. MDT recently researched various wildlife-friendly fence designs for their effectiveness in providing for driver safety and, for the protection of the private property, i.e., livestock, of the adjoining landowners.

Highway and bridge projects in Montana can be in development and design from 3 to 6 years, over which time various design strategies are considered and vetted using various data points, and personal interviews with local folks before a project’s actual construction begins. The purpose of all this front-end effort is so that yours and mine and every other person’s tax dollars are allocated in a smart, efficient and safe way when it comes to highway improvements and road changes, with emphasis given to driver safety and the protection of private property, i.e., livestock. Makes sense, right?

A very important aspect of this work is the complete and full understanding of the reasoning that goes into the design and siting of wildlife accommodations by the adjoining landowners. Pictured above is a place in the fence where a landowner had to repeatedly fix the fence due to wildlife trying to get through. Photo taken by MWF staff, Morgan Marks]

To do all of this, MDT biologists pay particular attention to the daily, seasonal, and semi-annual migration patterns of various wildlife species, and records of animal vehicle collisions kept by MDT and state and local law enforcement entities. The acceptance of a wildlife accommodation by adjoining landowner’s and/or State and Federal land management agencies is a paramount consideration to a properly cited and successful wildlife accommodation.

If you’re interested in supporting these efforts and serving as a citizen scientist, there’s a really awesome app that was created by countless conservation partners to track wildlife and work on connecting places through citizen science, called Wildlife Xing. Check out the website and download the app – it’s free, easy to use, and can make a difference in keeping both people and wildlife safe. The Miistakis Institute in Alberta, Canada and the National Wildlife Federation have partnered to prioritize this work. To learn more, check out this video.

Also, if you are a high school teacher or know a teacher who is looking for a migration and connectivity curriculum focused on wildlife, please contact the National Wildlife Federation and Naomi Alhadeff to access their new Wildlife Xing curriculum and be a part of a very exciting pilot project! They’re also looking for community groups and individuals interested in learning about migration and connectivity work, so if you’re interested in learning more and getting involved, please get in touch!

A decade or more ago, MDT completed work along I-94 outside of Miles City to make a segment of this roadway safer, by funneling wildlife to specific locations with wildlife exclusion fencing, where they are able to pass safely beneath the roadway. This MDT Project has dramatically improved the safety of this roadway for travelers and wildlife alike.

Large bridge openings are often the best and most efficient way for wildlife to pass safely from one side of the roadway to the other, followed by large culvert openings when their overall length is kept as short as possible so that wildlife can see through the culvert, otherwise, they may not want to use it and may deem it unsafe.

A few aspects to keep in mind are that wildlife need to move from place to place to find food and habitat, so they’re going to move and find a way, and with that, they want to feel safe when they move. Wildlife prefer to move through spaces that are open, light-filled, and where they feel safe. A dark culvert or long culvert may not allow for light to effectively fill culverts, so they may not always be the best option for MDT to use to help wildlife cross a roadway safely, and they may not be willing to use it initially. Wildlife that can see a skyline likely feel safer and are more willing to attempt a quick passage through a confined space.

Of course, like many things, this work is often complex and not clear cut or straightforward. Gathering data costs money, and so does installing bridges and culverts, so at the end of the day, landowner acceptance and available funding often dictate final decisions. Local advocacy can also aid in these decisions and can help in the public’s understanding about what’s going on and why. The MWF thinks it’s very important to share this work with you and why it’s happening, and also give you action steps if you want to help and learn more.

Thanks very much for reading and taking the time to learn more about migration and connectivity issues! Check out the MWF Facebook page for upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, and to see when we’ll be showing up in a town near you.

Please help the MWF spread the word about the fieldwork we are involved in, and the work that is going on around the state by sharing blogs like this to your social media and forwarding them to your family, friends and any other folks who may be interested in seeing what we’re up to!

For questions, suggestions about fieldwork opportunities, to get involved as a volunteer, and to share upcoming events you think would be great for MWF to show up at, please email or call Morgan at 406-403-4464 or morgan@mtwf.org

See you in the field,

MWF Field Team

MWF Launches Ad Highlighting Need for Oil and Gas Leasing Reform

December 6, 2021December 1, 2021 by Guest Profile

Montana’s hunters and anglers call for common-sense reforms to oil and gas leasing to protect taxpayers and ensure treasured lands for hunting and fishing are protected.

Helena – Today, following the recent release of the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) new leasing report, Montana Wildlife Federation released a new ad calling for action to reform the federal oil and gas leasing program. The spot will run in the Billings and Great Falls media markets.

Montanan’s have been calling for reforms to the leasing system for decades, and this report concludes that reforms are necessary to ensure that public resources are being managed in the public interest. Federal rules for oil and gas leasing and permitting on federal public lands have not been substantially updated in over a century. Outdated rules have left Montana’s taxpayers far short from receiving a fair deal for resources mined in the state, encouraged speculative leasing, threatened the state’s outdoor recreation industry – which contributes $2.2 billion to Montana’s economy annually, inadequately ensured that wells are appropriately decommissioned and remediated, and put the state’s wildlife, lands and waters at risk.

“The Department of the Interior’s report confirms that the federal oil and gas program has been broken for decades—benefitting oil and gas CEOs, shortchanging taxpayers, and harming our public lands, wildlife, water, and communities,” said Frank Szollosi, Executive Director of MWF. “In Montana, our iconic public lands and wildlife are what bring people to the state, but this has all been threatened by the outdated federal oil and gas program that prioritizes oil and gas development over all other uses. Our local outdoor recreation economies, wildlife, and climate are depending on common-sense oil and gas reforms.”

The Department of Interior report of the current federal government’s standards for leasing mineral resources on public lands proposes common-sense reforms to ensure Montana’s taxpayers are receiving a fair return, that public resources are being managed in the public interest, and that appropriate protections are in place to preserve Montana’s lands and wildlife for all to access and enjoy.

MWF Youth Pilot Program

Ice Fishing Women’s Workshop

How I became interested in Montana Wildlife Federation’s Legislative Action Team

Notes from the Field: Montana Department of Transportation and Trail/Game Cameras

MWF Launches Ad Highlighting Need for Oil and Gas Leasing Reform

Jeff Lukas

Elk Campaign Manager