New Membership Renewal Membership Youth Membership

Sonya Smith

Celebrating Conservation and Access

by

Horsecreek Nick 2Hunters from the Glendive area gathered to celebrate 20,000 acres of new public hunting access through the Horse Creek Complex conservation easement.

A crowd packed the Cross Country Brewing Company in Glendive to thank the Stenson family for the project, which protects more than 15,000 acres of their cattle ranch near Wibaux. Taken together with the adjoining public lands, the project opens up nearly 20,000 acres that offer prime hunting opportunity for mule deer, antelope, and upland birds.

Conservation easements are one of our most important private land tools to preserve valuable habitat. They restrict subdivision and housing development while allowing a landowner to continue to raise crops or livestock. In addition, easements held by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks include a public hunting access component.

Horse Creek was needlessly held up for months by state Land Board members Matt Rosendale, Corey Stapleton and Elsie Arntzen, but was ultimately approved last month when Gov. Steve Bullock determined that easements do not require board approval. The project was unanimously supported by the state Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Horse Creek was paid for with Habitat Montana dollars. The program uses a small portion of hunting license fees to fund targeted land purchases, conservation easements, and fishing access sites. It has a tremendous record of success in conserving key wildlife habitat and opening more lands to public hunting. The project drew broad support from hunting and conservation groups including the Montana Wildlife Federation, Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, Montana Mule Deer Foundation, Montana Bowhunters Association, Montana Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, Montana Wild Sheep Foundation, Montana Trout Unlimited, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, National Wildlife Federation and the Montana Sportsman’s Alliance.

Keep It Public: Conservation Camp Out

by

IMG 0555 Last weekend, the Montana Wildlife Federation had the privilege to work with Keep It Public on their Conservation Camp Out on the Charles M. Russell (CMR) Wildlife Refuge. Conservationists from around the state met in Haxby, MT to remove old fence. Unfortunately, budget cuts to the CMR Refuge had to close the local field office in charge of this area. The Keep It Public workday focused on removing dilapidated fence and old abandoned farm equipment.

The specific parcel, once a private inholding, became public via the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). America’s most important conservation and recreation program, LWCF has saved places in nearly every state and every county in the U.S. LWCF will expire on September 30, 2018, without action from Congress.  MWF and Keep It Public are working hard to get LWCF fully funded before the program expires. Montana’s hunters, anglers, and wildlife are depending on it.

Wild Dinner Highlights the Locavore Movement

by

Wild Dinner The elk was local food. So too was the white-tailed deer, antelope and trout. And there was more than just game meat dishes that came from local products.

The third annual Wild Dinner last Friday drew more than 60 people to Free Ceramics Helena, where a feast of locally produced game meat dishes, breads and vegetable dishes awaited the crowd on a cold night. The event is a joint effort put on by the Montana Wildlife Federation, Alternative Energy Resources Organization and Helena Hunters and Anglers.

It’s meant to feature the contribution that game meat makes to kitchen tables throughout Montana, but also the fact that locally produced food includes a variety of grains, vegetables and other products, such as honey and locally raised livestock. It’s part of the growing “localvore” movement in which people work to consume as much food as possible from their own gardens, from the bounty of wildlife we enjoy and from local sources.

Wild Dinner That included local beer. Ten Mile Creek Brewery in Helena donated a keg of its Queen City Pale Ale. It complimented the big variety of local foods perfectly.

The night included a brief talk by MWF Conservation Director Nick Gevock on how hunting fits in with the localvore movement, and how it’s helping to recruit a new generation of hunters. That’s crucial for wildlife conservation as we continue to build on the work that hunters and anglers have done for decades to promote abundant wildlife and the habitat it depends on.

 

Missouri Breaks Still Worthy of Protection

by
Upper Missouri Breaks NM - CC License - Bob Wick
Upper Missouri Breaks NM – CC License – Bob Wick

President Trump’s executive order last month to review all national monuments established over the past 21 years is an exercise in government inefficiency.

Over the next six months, the Interior Department is going to review every national monument designated in the last 21 years. This review will find that each one of them is worthy of protection – for the incredible scenic, wildlife and cultural values that they were originally set aside for. In almost every case, these monuments were the result of lengthy discussions by local officials, conservationists, area ranchers and tribal interests as they worked to hammer out agreements to preserve multiple-use public lands and waters in special places around the nation.

That was certainly the case with the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, an expanse of incredible country in the rugged breaks that rise off of the Missouri River in central Montana. The monument was established in 2001, when President Clinton used the Antiquities Act to protect this remarkable landscape.

It’s a law passed in 1906 and signed by President Theodore Roosevelt, and since then eight Democrats and eight Republicans have used it to protect some of our most treasured cultural and scenic areas. The list includes the Grand Canyon and Zion national parks, as well as cultural sites like the Statute of Liberty and Pompey’s Pillar.

The Breaks monument didn’t happen until there were public meetings, discussions with local interests and a visit from then Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. And while not everyone supported the monument designation – never is there full agreement – the end product drew broad support from Montanans.

What we’ve seen since then is that the monument works. Hunters have still had access to pursue big game and birds on the monument. Ranchers with grazing leases have maintained those. And floaters who enjoy the river that Lewis and Clark came up two centuries ago still float this waterway. The monument designation kept this important area in the heart of Montana from being altered, developed, or taken away from the public for years.

That is all at risk now. The President’s executive order was shrouded in language about local control and state management, but that’s just a political talking point by anti-monument politicians who have already made up their minds. The Breaks, and all national monuments, are multiple-use public lands, and local voices have always had tremendous say through Resource Advisory Councils and other means.

The Upper Missouri River Breaks shows exactly how a national monument is supposed to work: it keeps our public land as it is: open to hunting and fishing, livestock grazing, and other traditional uses, rather than locking our lands up for large-scale oil and gas, mining, or other development activities that close off public use. That is good for hunters and anglers, good for ranchers, good for our Montana way of life.

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

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.