Guest Profile - Montana Wildlife Federation

MWF Awarded Seat on Grizzly Council

March 30, 2021August 6, 2019 by Guest Profile

adam willoughby knox snqARKTgoc unsplash — Photo by Adam Willoughby.

Montana Wildlife Federation Conservation Director Nick Gevock is among the 18 Montanans chosen by Gov. Steve Bullock to serve on the Grizzly Bear Advisory Council to help guide future management of our state animal.

“I’m thrilled to help bring the perspective of hunters, wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists to the grizzly council,” Gevock said. “This council is a chance to bring together Montanans from diverse perspectives to address the very real challenges of managing an expanding grizzly bear population.”

Bullock announced the council makeup recently after moving several months ago to create it. The group consists of farmers and ranchers, conservation interests, timber representatives and hunters. Its charge is to work to come up with innovative ways to reduce conflicts with grizzly bears and shape the future management of this valued native wildlife species.

Grizzly bears are Montana’s state mammal and were put on the federal Endangered Species Act list in 1975. More than four decades later, grizzlies have dramatically expanded their numbers and range in both the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem and Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem populations. The grizzly bear populations in both of these areas have met the threshold to remove ESA protections for them, but last year a federal judge blocked the delisting in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

At the same time, grizzlies have dramatically expanded their range and are now found in many valleys, where they come into contact with homes, farms and ranches, livestock and crops. The spread of grizzlies has led to conflicts in some areas where they’ve shown up for the first time in decades.

The council is set to meet eight times in the next year to make recommendations. Its specific charge includes enhancing human safety, ensuring a healthy grizzly population, improving response to grizzly conflicts, engaging all partners in outreach and conflict prevention, and improving coordination between government agencies and with tribal partners.

“MWF and the National Wildlife Federation, as well as many other interests, have for several years been working on preventive measures that protect livestock, grizzlies, and people by reducing conflicts,” Gevock said. “I’m confident that the council can continue to build on that work and other measures that make a difference for people and bears, and I’m eager to get started.”

For more information, go to http://fwp.mt.gov/fishAndWildlife/management/grizzlyBear/gbac.html.

The governor’s press release on the council is at https://news.mt.gov/governor-bullock-announces-grizzly-bear-advisory-council-members

Hunter Roundtables

March 30, 2021July 31, 2019 by Guest Profile

The Montana Wildlife Federation is hosting a series of hunter roundtables throughout the state in the coming weeks to focus on the current state of elk management in Montana.

MWF, our affiliate organizations and sportsmen groups around the state have become increasingly concerned with the use of elk performance-based “shoulder seasons” throughout many parts of the state. Hunters are concerned about the effects the seasons have on elk presence on public lands, elk behavior and the future of our sporting opportunities.

Shoulder seasons are rifle hunts that occur outside of the general five-week seasons in late October and November, and most run from Aug. 15 to Feb. 15. They were meant as a temporary tool to address elk herds that are over the targeted objective population, as well as to push elk off of private lands.

The shoulder seasons are guided by performance criteria that include getting at least half of the harvest of newly recruited elk during the general season to ensure a strong harvest at that time of year. They are also supposed to be for districts where the elk population is well over objective. Shoulder seasons were proposed for three years on a pilot basis and are undergoing a review to ensure they’re meeting the criteria.

But in several districts in western Montana’s Region 2, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is proposing to extend the seasons in areas where the elk herds are at or under the objective population.

MWF Conservation Director Nick Gevock will be reviewing how the shoulder seasons were implemented, the proposal before the Fish and Wildlife Commission for future seasons and the need for changes to the statewide elk management plan. The presentation will include ample opportunity for comments and discussion from hunters.

The roundtables will be held in conjunction with local sportsmen and sportswomen organizations. The current schedule is as follows:

Butte: Tuesday, Aug. 13, 6:30 p.m. in the gazebo at Stodden Park, just off Utah Avenue next to the Highland View Golf Course. The roundtable will be held in conjunction with the Skyline Sportsmen Association and the Anaconda Sportsmen’s Club and will include dinner.

Missoula: Wednesday, Aug. 14, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Goodworks Ventures, 129 W. Alder St. in downtown Missoula. The roundtable is being held with MWF affiliate Hellgate Hunters and Anglers.

MWF 2019 Voting Record

March 30, 2021July 10, 2019 by Guest Profile

The Montana Wildlife Federation has for decades put out a voting record on key bills that came up during the Legislative session. Now the 2019 version is ready for viewing.

MWF and our conservation partners saw some significant wins this past session on our key issues. That includes protecting Habitat Montana; the budget for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and on bills protecting our heritage of ethical, fair chase hunting.

It’s all included in the voting record, with descriptions of key bills and a record of where legislators came down on those measures. The voting record is not a scorecard and is not meant to express support for our opposition to any candidate. Rather, it’s an accounting of each legislator’s position on these important bills.

MWF is thankful to all of our grassroots volunteers who showed up and spoke up for wildlife, habitat, and access. Take a look at the voting record here, and thanks again for making the voice of dedicated sportsmen and sportswomen heard this past session in the state Capitol.

Sage Grouse Habitat Health and Looming Fire Devastation

March 30, 2021June 26, 2019 by Guest Profile

Cheatgrass is a known dirty word around the west these days. A quickly spreading invasive grass, with a short root system that is not only typically unappetizing to cows but is causing even bigger problems with one of the West’s current biggest nemeses, fire. Fire has become a part of our summer lifestyle and even though it is essential to certain ecosystems, it is not something that should be happening tirelessly throughout our sagebrush sea habitats. Throughout Nevada and Wyoming, the size and strength of fires have been increasing. Mostly due to the impacts of cheatgrass. The sagebrush sea once covered over 250 million acres of Western North America, but now it is half the size it once was. In the past two decades in the West, 75% of all acres burned were rangelands, which put ranchers at risk but also harms our favorite bird potentially facing endangerment, the sage grouse.

Cheatgrass is taking over a lot of areas that currently have sagebrush and some areas that have been previously burned. Sagebrush burns every 50 to 100 years while cheatgrass burns every 5 to 10. Montana, just like almost every other state in the west has become a hospitable home for cheatgrass, which is now widespread throughout our landscape. All of the sage grouse habitats within Montana is also habitat to the non-native cheatgrass. How can we get ahead of this habitat destroying invasive before it brings fire along with it? Land managers and landowners throughout Montana can work to plant natives, apply strategic herbicide, and use cattle grazing to help prevent the spread of cheatgrass and the destruction of sage grouse habitat.

Sagebrush habitat is essential to the Sage Grouse. Sage Grouse populations feed off of sagebrush leaves in the winter, lay their eggs on the ground under sagebrush, and rely upon the cover that sagebrush provides. Sage Grouse need the sagebrush sea to survive and with the addition of cheatgrass and the fire danger it brings, there is not a more important time than now to protect all areas of sage grouse habitat to give them a fighting chance in an ecosystem that seems to be changing too quickly for them to adapt.

Addtional Resources:

http://fieldguide.mt.gov/speciesDetail.aspx?elcode=PMPOA151H0

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/30/725713849/a-sea-of-sagebrush-disappears-making-way-for-fire-prone-cheatgrass

https://www.nifc.gov/fireandsagegrouse/

Hunting Opportunity Expands with Easements Near Garrison

March 30, 2021June 25, 2019 by Guest Profile

Montana hunters will find more opportunity to pursue elk, mule deer, and other big game and upland birds following the completion this week of two major conservation easements on the east side of the Garnet Mountains.

The state Fish and Wildlife Commission gave final approval to the Graveley Ranch and Warm Springs Creek conservation easements near Garrison. Combined, these projects will permanently protect 8,267 acres of ranchland and open them up to public hunting access.

The projects were put together by the Five Valleys Land Trust and the Montana Department of Justice Natural Resource Damage Program. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks under the easements will permanently handle the public hunting access component. The project did not require any funding from FWP.

The properties are a foothills environment that offers excellent habitat and hunting opportunity for elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, moose, and other game species, as well as mountain grouse.

The Graveley family plans to use the proceeds from the easement on its 5,167 acres to purchase the 3,100 acres Warm Springs Creek property from The Conservation Fund. It will then be protected with a conservation easement.

Hunters will gain a guaranteed minimum of 400 days in the field between the two easements. FWP will manage those through a sign-up system.

The easements are a win for not only hunters but also for the Graveley family and Montana’s agricultural sector by protected these ranch lands. MWF and our conservation partners wrote in favor of the project.

MWF is thankful to have strong conservation partners like the Graveley family who provide private habitat for our public wildlife, and who open up their land to public hunters to enjoy.

Nick Gevock serves as MWF’s conservation director.

Jeff Lukas

Conservation Director