Elk Shoulder Seasons Approved by FWP

Elk standing in field - Skip Kowalski - Dec 2013 Photo Courtesy of Skip Kowalski

Now that the dust has settled and elk “shoulder seasons” have been approved by the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission, it’s time to step back and look at what it means for the future of hunting in the Treasure State. The commission in February approved these additional elk seasons in 43 hunting districts throughout the state in an effort to address populations that are over the targeted objective laid out in the statewide elk management plan.

That decision came after a process that was well over a year in the works, with more than a dozen Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists, game wardens and other officials meeting to craft a proposal to address overpopulated elk herds. And it followed a bill in the 2015 Legislature, SB 245, sponsored by Sen. Doug Kary, R-Billings, that would have written the opportunity for late hunting seasons into state law. The bill was vetoed by Gov. Steve Bullock, but in his veto statement he said FWP was working on alternatives to address elk management.

First off, what is a shoulder season, and how is it different than the game damage and management seasons that FWP was already using?

A shoulder season is a rifle hunting season that is established outside of the regular five-week general season and is printed in the hunting regulations. They cover entire hunting districts and can include additional permits, or use general licenses, as well as second cow elk “B” tags. They can start as early as August 15 and run as late as February 15.

In comparison, game damage and management hunts are held on a smaller scale, down to an individual ranch, to address either a point-source issue on a particular property as well as an elk population that is over objective. They happen through a process laid out in state law as well as in state administrative rules set by Montana FWP. They are smaller scale, and have eligibility requirements that include some level of reasonable public access during the general hunting season for landowners to qualify.

That’s important, because the five-week season is Montana’s time-tested method of managing our wildlife populations. It has worked for decades. And the law that requires that was requested more than two decades ago by lawmakers who saw what happens when some properties receive no hunting pressure throughout the general season.

MWF supports private property rights, and it is every landowner’s decision whom to allow to hunt on their land. But those decisions on hunter access can have major implications for wildlife management that can lead to adverse effects on their neighbors. Solid research has shown that elk learn where refuges with no or very little hunting pressure are. And once they do, other elk follow.

These areas are incredibly difficult for professional wildlife managers to deal with. With that knowledge, FWP worked to craft a proposal that creates incentives for landowners to allow enough hunting during the general rifle season to affect elk numbers, as well as to help redistribute them on the landscape. That’s key, because quality hunting and better wildlife management are dependent on spreading out hunters, as well as spreading out wildlife.

The elk shoulder seasons aren’t just extra seasons. They’re called “performance based” shoulder seasons and that performance is based on guidelines the Commission adopted in October. They’re meant to make the shoulder seasons more effective, and prevent them from becoming the old late elk seasons, which were ineffective at controlling elk numbers. Those seasons in many areas actually lead to growing elk herds, despite the length of the season running into mid-February.

The guidelines state clearly that the shoulder seasons are meant to supplement general season harvest and not replace it. Here they are, with an explanation of each:

1. The harvest of bull elk for three years during the archery and general seasons must reach half of the bull recruitment during the same time.
2. The number of cow elk killed during the archery and general seasons must also be half of the total number of cow elk recruited into the population.
3. The total number of cow elk harvested for all seasons combined, including the extended shoulder seasons, must be greater than the recruitment of new cow into a district’s population.
4. The three year harvest of all elk for all seasons combined must exceed the total number of elk recruited to a population.

The guidelines also lay out exceptions that allow for shoulder seasons in areas where hunters, landowners and FWP have worked together to reach agreement. But it is important that those are kept to a minimum.

Why are the guidelines so important? They ensure that Montana keeps its focus for harvest on our general season, to promote the democracy of hunting. This is when everyone has an equal chance to hunt elk. It’s when Montanans and their out of state guests schedule week-long hunting trips. And biologically, it’s the most ethical time of year to be harvesting elk, because cows aren’t far along in their pregnancies and calves can survive on their own.

Hunting pressure on elk in valley bottoms during the general season can help push them back to higher elevations on public land. That will help make for better elk hunting for everyone.

MWF will be monitoring the harvest data from these shoulder season hunts to ensure that FWP is sticking to the guidelines. If a district doesn’t meet the criteria, the shoulder seasons need to go away. We will be working to ensure FWP sticks with the guidelines as it works to improve elk management.

With the help of our friends and neighbors in the farming and ranching community, we can make these seasons a success and bring elk numbers back down to the objective population.

Stay tuned. Please feel free to provide feedback to Nick Gevock, MWF conservation director, as well as FWP biologists in your areas around the state.

Nick Gevock is Montana Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Director. You can send him questions or comments at ngevock@mtwf.org.

KEEPING THE BADGER-TWO MEDICINE WILD

TonyBynum - Badger-Two Medicine Photo Credit: Tony Bynum

I first ventured into the Badger-Two Medicine area when I was a troubled, struggling young man fresh out of the Marine Corps in 1986. It was there where I encountered my first wild grizzly, caught my first wild cutthroat, and killed my first wild mule deer. Good, wild medicine, indeed!

Last week, Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell announced the cancellation of oil and gas leases held by a company named Solenex within the Badger-Two Medicine, helping ensure the place remains forever wild. It’s a sweet victory in a long, ongoing battle that is not yet over. As Jamie Williams of The Wilderness Society puts it: “It is a turning point in the decades-long fight to protect the Badger-Two Medicine area of Montana. The Interior Department recognizes that the Badger is simply too sacred and too wild to drill. The cultural heart of the Blackfeet Nation deserves protection and respect.”

Ten years ago while serving as president of the Montana Wildlife Federation and working for Trout Unlimited I assisted a coalition of local hunters, anglers, ranchers, outfitters, businessmen and tribal leaders in a successful effort to protect a significant chunk of the Rocky Mountain front from gas and oil development, fairly close to the Badger-Two Medicine area. Working as a professional conservationist I had to be cautious about using emotional arguments, about calling a place “sacred,” but instead focused on the importance of hunting, fishing, clean water and wildlife to the economy. Being sacred is no longer enough to save a place; It has to be one form of human commodity or another. But when a local man from Choteau named Stoney Burke was accused of being “emotional” about places like the Badger-Two Medicine Area he pounded his fist on a table and shouted, “You’re goddamn right I’m emotional – if you can’t be emotional about a place like this then what the hell can you be emotional about?” He compared putting roads and gas wells along the Front to permanently scarring his daughter’s face. When someone mentioned that Forest Service lands are managed for multiple use, and so gas and oil development should be allowed, Stoney said, “Multiple use doesn’t mean you take a crap in your kitchen.”

Elk, bighorns, badgers, wolverines, lynx, mountain lions, wolves and an abundance and diversity of other wildlife thrive on this land. Clear, clean rivers sustain some of the last remaining healthy populations of Westslope cutthroat trout. Grizzlies still wander out onto the plains like they did when Lewis and Clark came through. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared it the “top one percent” of wildlife habitat remaining in the Continental U.S. It’s long been sacred ground to the Blackfeet Nation. Much of it has been permanently protected from gas and oil development.

Unfortunately, the 130,000-acre Badger-Two Medicine area – which borders Glacier National Park, The Bob Marshall Wilderness and the Blackfeet Nation – remains threatened. In 1981, the Department of the Interior began issuing oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine without full environmental review and consulting the Blackfeet people, violating laws that require they do so. Since then, some of the leases have been relinquished voluntarily by energy interests. However, a handful of companies have declined offers to buy-out or swap their leases for holdings in less sensitive areas. One of those companies, Solenex, filed suit in 2013, demanding access to their highly-contested lease area, precipitating the need to rid Badger-Two Medicine of leases once and for all. The recent cancellation of the Solenex lease is a promising step in that direction.

The Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance, made up of a diversity of local hunters, anglers, businessmen and other citizens, has been helping the Blackfeet Nation fight this battle since 1984, along with the Montana Wilderness Association, The Wilderness Society and several hunting and fishing conservation organizations. As the newly-hired western Montana field representative for the Montana Wildlife Federation, I look forward to re-engaging in this important effort to protect this unique and wild place.

While working along the Front a decade ago, I became acquainted with Chief Earl Old Person, Chief of the Blackfeet Nation. One time, while eating breakfast together at the Two Medicine Cafe in East Glacier, I shared with the Chief some personal struggles. He suggested a few remedies; one of them was the Badger-Two Medicine Area. “Go there,” he said. “You’ll feel better.”

I did. And I’ve gone back time and time again – backpacking, hunting, fishing and freely roaming the wilds. We need to ensure that people will always have that opportunity. By working together, we can all help achieve the vision of the Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance: “A child of future generations will recognize and can experience the same cultural and ecological richness that we find in the wild lands of the Badger-Two Medicine today.”

Dave Stalling is Montana Wildlife Federation’s Western Field Representative. He can be reached at dstalling@mtwf.org

WHAT’S NEXT FOR OTTER CREEK:

BONOGOFSKY-7107-140701web Photo Credit: Alexis Bonogofsky

Arch Coal’s announcement last week in regards to suspending its efforts to secure a permit for a mine at Otter Creek is a huge win for the coalition of ranchers, sportsmen, conservationists, tribes and local community members who have fought this project for decades.

While the collaboration between all of these different groups played an important role in defeating this project, what played an even more important role was market forces. As natural gas and new sources of renewable energy become more readily available, the coal markets have declined dramatically. Even though Arch Coal, Inc. still holds the leases and they could change their mind to pursue the project or sell the leases to another company, the longer the coal stays in the ground, the less likely the mining project will happen. The market is driving Montana and the rest of the country away from coal. And while mines that are up to standard will still be mining coal for up to 30 years, new mining sites will not be developed.

Our new job as sportsmen, conservationists and Montanans is to hold the coal companies accountable for the reclamation process of mines that are already developed. Currently, only 10% of the land in the state of Montana that has been mined has been fully reclaimed. Reclamation is critical to restoring the habitat that was lost during the mining process and making sure our water ways are kept clean and pristine. Reclamation will also provide good blue collar jobs for Montanans. It is our duty to hold the mining companies responsible, otherwise they will back out of their obligation to the land and we will be left holding the bill.

John Bradley is the Eastern Field Rep. for Montana Wildlife Federation. You can reach him at jbradley@mtwf.org

Habitat Montana helps traditional farms & ranches as well as hunters & anglers

Fall Sun
Montana’s incredibly popular Habitat Montana program is a favorite target of state lawmakers because it allows the state to purchase land for wildlife through a fund that hunters pay into.

What’s often left out of the conversation is the contribution that Habitat Montana makes to traditional farm and ranch operations. That’s because Habitat Montana primarily funds conservation easements that protect working agricultural lands – which tremendously benefit wildlife – and can help farmers and ranchers add to their operations and stay on the land.

This month that was well illustrated through four major conservation easements that came before the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission. The proposals total 33,800 acres on four ranches located in central and eastern Montana. These stunning landscapes include key habitat for mule deer, antelope, elk and numerous other game and non-game species.

Among those are sage grouse, a native prairie grouse that was nearly listed as endangered last year. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opted not to list the bird, thanks to extensive state and federal conservation plans aimed at protecting and restoring crucial sage grouse habitat in sagebrush-steppe environments. One of the projects proposed this month – the Machler Property in Fergus County north of Roy – includes nine sage grouse leks. The easement would protect 2,700 acres of the ranch that is located in core sage grouse habitat.

There’s another key element to these easements. They include a public access component to the properties that allows public hunting. And they also have the potential to improve public access to adjoining public lands, which would create more public hunting opportunity.

Another easement, the Rumney Foothills located near Cascade, would allow the rancher to expand the operation by purchasing more property. The area is comprised of foothill grasslands that provide important winter range for elk and mule deer, as well as riparian and shrub habitats where white-tailed deer thrive. In total the easement would protect 7,512 acres in two areas.

Montana lawmakers who don’t like Habitat Montana sometimes use language that FWP is trying to buy up the whole state. They state that FWP owns too much land, referring to our system of state Wildlife Management Areas that are strategically located in key wildlife corridors or on winter range. And last session, the Legislature through the budget process limited the ability of Habitat Montana to be used for new purchases, with the exception of those that were already in negotiations. Several lawmakers have called on the program to be ended entirely.

That would be bad for Montana’s hunters, anglers and wildlife watchers. It would be bad for the numerous businesses that thrive because of our abundant wildlife and the public lands that support it.

And as these projects demonstrate, it would be bad for our agriculture industry as well.

Nick Gevock is the conservation director for the Montana Wildlife Federation.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

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Arch Coal, Inc. announced last week that it is suspending efforts to secure a permit for the Otter Creek Coal mine in Southeastern Montana citing restraints related to its recent bankruptcy filing and the declining demand for coal.

The announcement comes after years of opposition from a coalition who would have been the most affected by the project. Hunters and anglers, ranchers and local communities, tribes and conservationists have consistently pointed out the threats to habitat, wildlife, and the local ranching and recreation economies that are the core of the region.

The proposed coal mine would have jeopardize some of the best wildlife habitat in the state and decreased public access and opportunity for sportsmen. This is a region rich in wildlife. Mule deer, white-tail deer, pronghorn antelope, elk, black bear, and hundreds of bird species rely on this intact habitat. Arch’s announcement is an incredible victory for the local ranchers and community members who call this place home, and for sportsmen who utilize this pristine land to chase game each fall.

Jeff Lukas – MWF Elk Campaign Manager

Jeff Lukas

Elk Campaign Manager

Jeff Lukas is a passionate conservationist who has been fishing and hunting his entire life. Whether it’s floating a small stream chasing trout, pursuing elk in the high country, or waiting in a blind for ducks to set their wings, Jeff is always trying to bring more people afield to show them what we are trying to protect. He loves being in the arena, and he will never shy away from conversations about the beautiful and unique corners of Big Sky country.