Groups encourage Sen. Daines and Rep. Gianforte to support the resolution aimed at keeping oil and gas development out of area sacred to the Blackfeet Nation.
Bozeman, Mont. – Several groups representing conservation and sportsmen interests in Montana applaud a resolution that Senator Jon Tester released this morning calling on the Department of the Interior to uphold its commitment to the Blackfeet Nation and defend its cancellation of oil and gas leases in the Badger-Two Medicine, an area sacred to the Blackfeet people and one they have used for thousands of years.
The 163,000-acre Traditional Cultural District adjoins Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness, and the Blackfeet Reservation in north-central Montana
“We thank Sen. Tester for holding the Department of the Interior to the commitment that it made to the Blackfeet Nation and to all Montanans,” says Kendall Flint, vice-president of Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance. “The Interior Department rightly canceled those old leases, ordered by prior Sec. Sally Jewell and reaffirmed by Sec. Ryan Zinke. They were illegal, to begin with, and their cancellation needs to be defended.”
In 2016 and 2017, the Interior Department canceled all remaining oil and gas leases in recognition that the government had violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, and other bedrock environmental laws when it issued the leases in the 1980s. One the largest lease-holders in the Badger, Devon Energy, voluntarily relinquished its leases in 2016, stating “it was the right thing to do.”
Solenex, LLC and Moncrief Oil challenged the cancellation of their leases in a Washington, D.C. district court. In 2017, the court ruled in favor of both companies. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke afterward vowed to appeal the decision of both cases.
Days before his confirmation hearing as Interior secretary, acting Secretary David Bernhardt pulled the department out of its appeal of the Moncrief decision (though not the Solenex decision).
Now the Department of Interior is actively trying to block several groups – including Pikuni Traditionalist Association, Blackfeet Headwaters Alliance, Montana Wilderness Association, National Parks Conservation Association, The Wilderness Society, and Glacier-Two Medicine Alliance – from continuing their legal defense of the lease cancellations in federal court.
“By robbing the Blackfeet people of their right to defend themselves in court and refusing to uphold the cancellation of illegal oil and gas leases, the Department of the Interior is perpetuating the same mistakes it made 30 years ago,” said Michael Jamison, senior Glacier program manager at the National Parks Conservation Alliance. “We simply can’t stand by and allow such a history of injustice to repeat itself. We’re all fortunate for Senator Tester’s leadership as a committed champion of Blackfeet heritage, and a real friend to the people and places that make Montana so special.”
In addition to its importance to Blackfeet, the Badger-Two Medicine’s undeveloped landscape provides important wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities for many Montanans, both of which are threatened by Interior’s recent actions.
“For decades, Montana’s hunters and anglers have been advocating to keep oil and gas development out of the Badger-Two Medicine, which is vital habitat for elk, grizzly bears, westslope cutthroat trout, and other sensitive species,” says Marcus Strange, central Montana field representative at Montana Wildlife Federation. “We are calling on Sen. Daines and Rep. Gianforte to stand with the Blackfeet and with Montana’s hunters and anglers in protecting this one-of-a-kind area from development.”
Neither Daines nor Gianforte has publicly commented on where they stand on the threat of industrial development within the Badger-Two Medicine area.
“For several years now, Sen. Tester has been trying to right this terrible wrong that the government perpetrated against the Blackfeet Nation back in the 1980s,” says John Todd deputy director at Montana Wilderness Association. “We’re now urging Sen. Daines and Congressman Gianforte to stand with the Blackfeet and all other Montanans by publicly supporting Sen. Tester’s resolution.”
Chartered in 2000, the Northern Rocky Mountain Grotto (NRMG) is Montana’s only statewide caving organization. A Grotto is a chapter of the National Speleological Society, which represents over 8,000 cavers across the country. The purpose of the NRMG is to promote the exploration, scientific study, and conservation of caves, karst, and cave-dwelling species. The NRMG also promotes safe caving and leave-no-trace conservation ethics within all caves.
Montana’s vast wilderness areas are prime areas for discovery. In 2014, Grotto members exploring the Bob Marshall Wilderness continued exploring Tears of the Turtle Cave, to a surveyed depth of -1629 feet, becoming the deepest limestone cave in the continental United States. America’s third deepest limestone cave is also in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Virgil the Turtle’s Greathouse Cave at -1586 feet. But there is no need to trek into the wilderness to explore caves; many mountain ranges around the state contain numerous caves, and Grotto members are out there exploring them all times of the year. Additionally, Montana’s first state park is also the state’s only commercial (show) cave, Lewis and Clark Caverns.
Volunteers from the Grotto have spent thousands of hours assisting biologists and geologists from MT Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the Montana Natural Heritage Program, the US Forest Service, National Park Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. They help agency staff safely access caves in order to monitor cave resources and wildlife. Since the deadly bat disease white-nose syndrome began to catastrophically impact bat populations across the US, Grotto members have played a large role in WNS surveillance and monitoring. As a condition of membership, Grotto cavers submit bat observations via online trip reports. Due to these efforts, the Grotto was recently recognized with the Wildlife Conservation Award from the Montana Chapter of the Wildlife Society and was also awarded the USFS/BLM Joint Conservation Project of the Year for 2019.
The NRMG holds monthly public meetings around the state called Pub Nights in hopes of spreading the word about caveand bat conservation. The NRMG hosts an annual business meeting every April where members present projects they are working on across the world. In the fall, NRMG members gather for “Cave Camp” in the Little Belt Mountains to teach beginners and expert cavers new skills and techniques.
At their annual meeting, the NRMG voted to affiliate with the Montana Wildlife Federation following a presentation by a local MWF representative. Their affiliation was approved by the MWF board on May 18th. The NRMG is excited to work with MWF to help spread the word about taking care of Montana’s fragile underground ecosystems and the wildlife that inhabit them.
It’s not a joke. The threat that feral swine pose to Montana’s wildlife, habitat and to our agricultural industry is very real. And it’s very pressing, with reports that feral swine are well established within a few miles of the Montana-Canada border in Saskatchewan.
Across the United States, feral swine cause an estimated $1.5 billion in crop and private property damage. They do a tremendous amount of damage to habitat by digging. And they kill numerous native mammals, amphibians, and birds. Feral swine, which are descended from Eurasian wild boar but also can descend from domestic pigs that become feral, also carry numerous diseases and parasites that are a threat to livestock, pets, and humans.
In 2015, MWF stood with our friends in the agricultural community to pass a bill to make it illegal to transport, or possess feral swine in Montana. It was the right thing to do. In Montana, we value our native wildlife populations and the world-class hunting and wildlife watching opportunities they offer. We live in a state with a dozen native big game species. We value these incredible resources and work to conserve them every day. We also value our agricultural producers and the contribution they make to our economy, as well as the private habitat they provide for our public wildlife.
The law passed in 2015 was very carefully crafted. We don’t allow the hunting of feral swine because we don’t want to develop a constituency for them, as we’ve seen in other states with feral swine populations. But landowners can kill them on sight if they’re threatening livestock or property.
The best solution to feral swine is to keep them out of Montana in the first place. Feral swine are found in an estimated 38 states, and we want to keep Montana on the list of states that don’t have them.
The 2019 Montana Legislature saw some big wins for the priorities of the Montana Wildlife Federation. Our collective work through our staff, lobbyist and dedicated volunteers, the constructive relationships we built with lawmakers, and the strong voice we had with our conservation partners organizations, paid off with gains that benefit our wildlife, habitat, and access for hunters, anglers, and other wildlife enthusiasts. We saw more than 80 bills introduced this session that affected our issues and had to be present in the Capitol every day to stand up for what’s important to all of us.
The Good: Wins for Wildlife This Session
Habitat Montana
Habitat Montana remains intact as our most important and effective conservation and access program. In contrast to previous Legislatures, Habitat Montana was left untouched in HB 5, the state capital improvement projects funding bill. Our one-on-one work with lawmakers and the strong voice of the Montana Sporting Coalition and many other conservation partners helped ensure that the program will continue to work to protect public access and wildlife habitat.
HB 265 (Rep. Kerry White, R-Bozeman) would have required state Land Board approval for conservation easements under Habitat Montana. It would have injected politics into the program, and cause uncertainty for landowners who work with the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) to craft conservation easements. MWF and our conservation partners with the Montana Sporting Coalition fought this bill at every step of the way. Even though it did pass the Legislature it was vetoed by Gov. Bullock after sportsmen and sportswomen showed overwhelming opposition.
FWP Budget a Win For Sportsmen, Wildlife and Fisheries
Montana FWP comes out of 2019 with the strongest budget it has seen in over a decade. The spending authority for the agency includes investments in personnel, equipment and information technology that give the professionals within the agency the resources they need to manage wildlife, hunting and angling, habitat and to enforce our fish and wildlife protection laws. In addition, the budget fixed the issue of how the state funds wildlife law enforcement in order to ensure compliance with federal law.
State Parks Funding
SB 24 (Sen. Terry Gauthier, R-Helena) is a big win for our state parks, trails, and recreational opportunities. The bill increases the optional fee on light motor vehicle registrations from the annual $6 to $9. The fee has been in place since 2003 and this is the first increase. The bill will raise an additional $2 million for our state parks, and for trails. This bill brought together a strong, diverse coalition with leadership from the Montana Wilderness Association and motorized trail users, as well as community leaders and health care providers.
Expanding Public Access to Private Land
SB 341 (Sen. Mark Blasdel, R-Kalispell) creates grants for FWP to issue to landowners for agreements to open easements to landlocked public lands. Proposals will have to be approved by the Private Land/Public Wildlife Council, and then be approved by the FWP director. Rules will be crafted to lay out guidelines for the grants and ensure that they protect public access rights and private property rights. This bill was another example of a broad coalition coming together, including sportsmen and agricultural interests, and MWF looks forward to working with other stakeholders to develop rules to implement the new program.
Protecting Fair Chase
Montana’s ethical, fair chase hunting heritage received a boost this session with the passage of SB 349 (Sen. Jill Cohenour, D-East Helena) to ban the use of FWP specific wildlife location data to hunt or harass wildlife. It’s a big win that allows FWP to collect needed data but keeps it from being used to violate fair chase. The Legislature also approved a study resolution, SJ 30 (also by Sen. Jill Cohenour) to further look at the issue and determine if FWP can deny public release of data in order to protect wildlife.
Hunting and Fishing License System Overhaul
The complete overhaul of the aging Automated Licensing System, FWP’s system to sell hunting and fishing licenses and allow people to apply for special permits, passed in HB 10. The current system is nearly 20 years old and has not kept pace with technological changes or public demands. This needed project will allow FWP to better manage its licenses and integrate other features like game harvest reporting in conjunction.
Sage-Grouse Conservation
SB 299 (Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta) sets into state law conservation measures to conserve sage-grouse habitat, continuing the effort started in 2015 to prevent the species from declining and needing to be listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. It includes a provision to require no net loss of sage-grouse habitat. The bill puts many aspects of the statewide Sage-Grouse Conservation Plan into law, strengthening the plan for the future.
Aquatic Invasive Species
HB 411 (Rep. Willis Curdy, D-Missoula) funds the aquatic invasive species prevention program some boat fees and a fee on hydropower generators. The program that includes boat inspections throughout the state and an education campaign was up and running from the 2017 session.
Sportsmen-Landowner Relations
A pair of bills to continue to create incentives for landowners who open their land for public hunting passed this session, both carried by Rep. Denley Loge, R-St. Regis. HB 43 allows landowners who enter into access agreements with FWP to receive a free, non-transferrable elk license for every four public hunters they allow on their land. The license can only be used by immediate family or a full-time employee of the ranch. In addition, HB 104 gives landowners who enter the Block Management program a free prerequisite license.
The Bad: Political Wildlife Management
Bills Defeated
The session saw several bills that would have politicized wildlife management and closed off public involvement.
HB 161 (Rep. Brad Tschida, R-Lolo) would have removed the requirement that the Fish and Wildlife Commission considers any public input and ignore FWP’s own social science in decision making. The bill was defeated by a strong grassroots voice from Montana hunters and from wildlife managers nationwide.
Two bills affecting bison passed this session but were vetoed by Gov. Bullock. They included HB 132 (Rep. Kenneth Holmlund, R-Miles City) which would have redefined all bison in the state as livestock and HB 332 (Rep. Joshua Kassmier, R-Ft. Benton) which would have given county commissioners a veto over professional wildlife management of bison.
MWF also worked to amend HB 497 (Rep. Wylie Galt, R-Martinsdale) to make it better. The bill would have allowed multiple cow elk B tags in districts with shoulder seasons. This would have written the shoulder seasons into state law and allowed for numerous elk per hunter. The bill was amended to give the Fish and Wildlife Commission the authority to issue one additional cow elk B tag where it deems appropriate.
HB 550 (Rep. Alan Redfield, R-Livingston) sought to redefine roads under the tax laws to remove routes that had been on them for decades. Gas tax maps are just part of the public record used to determine whether a road is a public road. The was defeated on the Senate floor 45-3 after strong opposition from hunters and public access advocates. It was supported by a handful of landowners from the east side of the Crazy Mountains.
Finally, MWF worked to amend SJ 6 (Sen. Mike Cuffe, R-Eureka). It called for the statewide removal of grizzly bears from the federal Endangered Species List, which ignored the Distinct Population Segments around the state and actually could have further delayed grizzly delisting. MWF worked with Cuffe to make the bill call for delisting in the two populations in the state that have met the criteria, and for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to review and update its grizzly recovery plan.
The Ugly: Hard Fights Waged, But Unsuccessful
Several bills that had the potential to increase public access to public land failed this session, despite strong grassroots support from Montana hunters and anglers as well as support from county commissioners and county attorneys. MWF worked on these practical measures to increase public access to public lands, but they died due to backroom deals by special interests that oppose public access.
SB 224 (Sen. Tom Jacobson, D-Great Falls) would have increased the fine for illegally gating county roads to public land from the current $10 per day, to up to $500 per day. The bill was amended in committee and passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support. However, it died in the House Judiciary committee. The bill was opposed by the well-funded anti-access group the United Property Owners of Montana.
In addition, SB 301 (Sen. Jason Small, R-Busby) would have required county commission approval for anyone to put an encroachment on a county road. This would create transparency and trigger a public process. The bill passed the Senate but died in the House Judiciary committee.
As always, the 2019 Legislative Session demanded vigilance because of the large number of bills that were introduced on wildlife, hunting and fishing, and public access issues. But thanks to our dedicated, grassroots volunteers who spoke up and showed up, we did well to achieve some good outcomes. We also couldn’t have accomplished without the help we received from our conservation partner organizations through the many coalitions that MWF took part in. A broad, unified voice from advocates for wildlife, public lands, and our hunting and fishing heritage helped us stand up in the face of tough opposition. Our professional presence in the Capitol and credible expertise on wildlife issues helped build the bipartisan relationships that we needed to be successful. And none of it would have been possible without the support of thousands of MWF members who spoke up for wildlife, habitat, and access.
After years of waiting, the Bureau of Land Management has finally released a draft Lewistown Resource Management Plan (RMP). The BLM states that their preferred plan is one which “makes the most of resources that target social and economic outcomes” – but they mean opening up public lands to more oil and gas leasing, roadbuilding, and development, instead of protecting wildlife habitat and public access. The new draft does not protect any roadless, backcountry lands, including Lands With Wilderness Characteristics, Areas of Critical Environmental Concern, or Backcountry Conservation Areas, which are essential to preserving the wildlife and the economy of this region.
Given the “Energy Dominance” mandate, the draft Lewistown plan prioritizes speculative leasing and development over all other uses of this public land. It threatens to permanently alter some of Montana’s wildest backcountry lands and richest wildlife habitats. Hunters, anglers, hikers, wildlife watchers, and everyone else who values Central Montana’s wildlife and outdoor heritage have the responsibility to speak up before the end of the comment period in August.
The public lands covered by the Lewistown RMP include crucial habitat that connects the Rocky Mountain Front to the Great Plains. With the new draft’s prioritization of oil and gas development, this habitat is going to be degraded and lost forever. Instead of drilling and roadbuilding, the plan should focus on keeping public lands intact for wildlife and people. Protecting habitat for elk, deer, pronghorn, and other wildlife will maintain world-renowned big game hunting — which also supports local communities across the region. In 2015, the hunting expenditures for elk alone in HD 410, 412, 417 and 426 totaled $3.8 million and gave a much-needed boost to the economy in counties within the Lewistown RMP range.
Protect these lands for future generations and speak up now. Public comment on the Lewistown RMP Draft will be open until mid-August and we are urging all stewards of this landscape to get involved.
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.
