Thanks to your hard work, Montana’s premier conservation and access program, Habitat Montana, was fully restored.
HB 5, the state capital improvement budget, passed the House in a final vote on Friday and is heading to Gov. Bullock for his signature. The bill includes Habitat Montana, a program paid for by hunter license dollars that provides funding for conservation projects.
For over two decades Habitat Montana has protected working farms and ranches through conservation easements, and allowed Montana to buy key parcels from willing sellers, securing hunting access and fishing sites. The 2015 Montana Legislature put a rider on the state budget that barred future purchase of land. Thanks to calls and emails from you and many other MWF members, legislators ended that restriction in this year’s budget.
Thank you for responding to all of MWF’s calls-to-action. And we also owe a big thanks to the coalition of hunting and angling organizations that came together this session to make restoring Habitat Montana the top priority in the 2017 Legislature. Working together, we are ensuring that future generations will also experience the hunting, fishing, and other great outdoor recreation we enjoy today.
Here we go again: the 2017 Montana Legislature will convene next month, and the Montana Wildlife Federation’s (MWF) members, volunteers, and staff will be taking a leadership role on issues that affect wildlife, habitat and public access.
MWF and our conservation partners had numerous successes in the last Legislative session two years ago. We helped pass a major overhaul of Montana’s hunting and fishing license structure and fees. That vital bill helped shore up the finances for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks for years to come, while also simplifying the complex system of hunting and fishing licenses.
MWF also addressed several key conservation issues, including getting ahead of feral swine before they reach Montana; cracking down on intentional abuse of replacement hunting licenses; and overhauling how hunters tag game animals in the field to make it easier for hunters.
2015 was, overall, a good session for wildlife, habitat and hunters. But there’s work to do next year. In 2017, we have a strong agenda to build on our conservation successes from two years ago.
The 2017 Legislature: An Overview
Republicans maintain their solid majority in the Montana House of Representatives, with a 59-41 seat advantage over the Democrats. In the Senate, Republicans expanded their majority to 32-18.
Governor Steve Bullock won re-election and will be working on some similar issues as last session, including infrastructure spending and early childhood education. He will also be advancing some proposals to protect and expand Montana’s public lands and public access, which will be of great value to Montana hunters, anglers, and other recreationists.
Budget issues will be front and center this session, with revenue projections down sharply and expected tough decisions on spending. Bullock has called in his proposed Fiscal Year 2018-2019 budget for some targeted tax increases on high income earners, as well as some special taxes on cigarettes and medical marijuana. He is also pushing for bonding roughly half of the proposed $292 million in infrastructure spending. In addition, what to do about the looming closure of two units at the Colstrip power plants will be a big theme this session.
So where does that leave wildlife, habitat, access and hunters and anglers? It is likely that our issues will not be at the forefront, although as always there will be bills that need scrutiny and debate. Montana FWP has a few bills it is proposing, mostly clean up measures.
The Senate Fish and Game Committee will have new leadership this session. Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, has served on the committee for the past two sessions and will take over as chair.
In the House, Rep. Kelly Flynn, R-Townsend, will return to chair the committee. Flynn is a rancher and outfitter who chaired the committee last session. He brought a bill to increase funding for the popular Block Management program last session, and has worked on an effort outside of the Legislature to improve landowner-hunter relations.
MWF’s Agenda
MWF will be bringing a bill to improve public access to public land. It is based on a bill we brought last time that would increase the fine for gating a public road that leads to public land. Currently the fine is $10 per day, far too low to serve as a deterrent for illegally blocking public roads. Our bill would raise the fine to a minimum of $100 per day.
We will also be working, as always, to maintain a strong defense against any bills that would interfere with scientific wildlife management. Already there are several bills in the hopper that look troublesome, including one that would require payments of hunter dollars to landowners for crop damage. These programs in other states have led to disastrous consequences, costing state wildlife agencies millions and leading to landowner tag programs that impede management and reduce public hunting opportunity.
MWF will also be working to gain some additional funding for livestock loss prevention work to keep grizzly bears out of trouble, as well as wolves. And we will be pursuing a bill to increase the payment to landowners in the popular Block Management hunter access program to create more of an incentive to join the program.
Finally, we will be working to ensure that full funding is restored to Habitat Montana, which is Montana’s most successful habitat protection program. The program uses hunter license dollars to pay landowners for conservation easements on private land, as well as to purchase key habitat for wildlife from willing sellers. Habitat Montana has increased available winter range for wildlife, helped keep working farms and ranches in business and helped reduce conflicts with wildlife. It has also increased public hunter access and opportunity.
Last session the Legislature put a budget rider on Habitat Montana that barred any land purchases that weren’t already in negotiation. That has caused some lost opportunities for FWP from willing landowners, and hurt hunters from Montana and around the country. It’s crucial that we get the program renewed and continue to protect key habitat in Montana.
Nick Gevock is MWF’s Conservation Director. Contact him at ngevock@mtwf.org.
Attacks on public land are so common these days that it seems hunters, anglers and other outdoor enthusiasts are constantly on the defensive.
But in fact, Montana hunters keep picking up wins on the public lands front. In fact, we’re adding public lands. And that’s a good thing for wildlife, for hunting opportunity and for wildlife watchers and other recreationists.
This week that can continue. The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider the addition of 640 acres to the Lost River Wildlife Management Area in Hill County, located in the north-central part of the state.
The addition will help with habitat for deer, antelope and numerous other non-game wildlife species. It will add to the area’s hunting opportunity for upland game birds and big game. And it will also have the benefit of increasing access to adjoining public lands.
It’s a win, win, win. Wildlife gains habitat on lands that are specifically for that purpose. Hunters have more state land to pursue game. And hunters gain even more hunting opportunity by gaining access to other public lands.
It’s exactly how the Habitat Montana program is supposed to work. It’s also why it’s so vital that this program that protects habitat and increases access continues.
Nick Gevock is the conservation director for the Montana Wildlife Federation.
Conservation easements and habitat acquisitions that will open up thousands of acres of public and private land to hunters will be considered this week when the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission meets in Forsyth on Thursday, October 13.
The Commission will hear several major projects to protect private lands and add to a state Wildlife Management Area through a donation of land in the Canyon Creek area northwest of Helena. They will also consider the annual plan to manage brucellosis in the special management area adjacent to Yellowstone National Park. They will also give final approval to the 2017 fishing regulations, as well as consider several fishing access site projects, including two land donations to enhance river access. And they will get an update on the large fish kill on the Yellowstone River.
Habitat Montana, the popular program funded by hunter license dollars, is proposed to be used for several of the conservation easements that will help working farms and ranches.
The projects include the proposed Coal Creek conservation easement covering 10,080 acres of private land in Custer and Prairie counties, as well as 5,440 acres of public lands. Another project – the Millage conservation easement – would protect from development 400 acres north of Bozeman along the base of the Bridger Mountains that is important mule deer winter habitat.
The Commission will consider accepting 729 acres along state Highway 279 in the Canyon Creek area. The land adjoins the north end of the Canyon Creek WMA and would provide more public access to thousands of acres of Helena National Forest land. The area is popular with hunters with opportunity for deer, elk, black bear and mountain grouse hunting. It also provides important habitat for moose and native westslope cutthroat trout. The donation is proposed by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation with support from the Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust and Lewis and Clark County Open Lands program.
The Commission meeting includes a social event with commissioners 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12 at the Forsyth Golf and Country Club, 47 Smith Creek Road. The regular commission meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 13 and will be held at the Haugo Center, 483 East Rosebud St. You can listen to the meeting online at the FWP web page.
Montana Wildlife Federation staff will be in attendance to support the habitat projects and offer comments on the elk brucellosis plan, as well as other issues.
To weigh in on a specific issue, contact MWF Conservation Director Nick Gevock at ngevock@mtwf.org.
Public lands have been under attack for several years, led by a small but vocal group of state legislators around the West and radical activists who want states to takeover federal public lands.
But while their voice is loud, the vast majority of Montanans and Westerners know that our public lands – state and federal – are the very reason we live in these stunning landscapes. And they’re the places where we all go to hunt, fish and watch wildlife.
In fact, while some people are bashing public lands, sportsmen and sportswomen see the value in adding to them to benefit wildlife and habitat. And sometimes, we get those for free, when a private landowner or conservation group make the choice to make their legacy one of conservation.
That’s happening on a key piece of private land that has been owned by Stimson Lumber Company northwest of Helena with the Specimen Creek addition to the Canyon Creek Wildlife Management Area.
The project would entail a donation of 729 acres by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to add to the existing 2,361 acre Canyon Creek WMA. The project truly has it all: it adds important habitat in a key area that has healthy populations of wildlife, but is also a key wildlife corridor near the Continental Divide. It would greatly increase the contiguous habitat in the area, and opens up public access not only on the land but also to adjoining national forest lands. And it includes a fisheries component, with two streams on the property that feed Canyon Creek and offer the potential for westslope cutthroat trout restoration.
With so much attention in recent years on our public lands, this project also illustrates just how important programs that help us protect and enhance wildlife habitat are. This project has the added benefit of being a donation, with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation offering to give the property to the state to add to an existing wildlife management area. Some lawmakers have expressed opposition, even to donations of land, which is ironic since many of them are often touting private property rights.
But in other cases, a landowner would like to make wildlife habitat part of his or her legacy, yet needs some compensation for it. That’s where Montana’s incredibly popular Habitat Montana program comes in. For two decades Habitat Montana has helped Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks add key parcels to our state’s system of wildlife management areas. It’s helped fund easements that protect working farms and ranches, while providing access for public hunters. And it’s helped leverage federal and private dollars to get these projects done.
Habitat Montana is one of Montana hunters’ greatest achievements, and yet state lawmakers are constantly berating the program and working to kill it. That has to stop.
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation deserves credit for working on this key project that will benefit not only elk, but numerous other game and non-game species of wildlife. The Specimen Creek project shows that when conservation partners work together, we can do great things for wildlife, public access and the future of our hunting heritage.
Nick Gevock is the Montana Wildlife Federation’s conservation director.
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.
