Guest Profile - Montana Wildlife Federation

October Fish and Wildlife Commission Meeting Preview: Habitat Projects, Brucellosis, Fishing Rules

August 2, 2021October 7, 2016 by Guest Profile

Elk in water - David Stalling

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.

Montanans Speak Out: Don’t Giveaway our Public Lands!

August 2, 2021September 26, 2016 by Guest Profile

alc_crowd2

Representatives from the American Lands Council (ALC) spoke at the Swan Lake Community Center in Condon last Tuesday evening to push their agenda of transferring and selling our public lands – the lands where most of us hunt, fish, hike and otherwise enjoy the outoors. An overflow crowd of more than 100 people attended the meeting, and an overwhelming majority spoke against efforts to transfer or sell our unique public lands heritage.

ALC speakers blamed federal land management for wildfires, mountain pine beetles, increased crime rates in rural communities and even rape. (Seriously: One of the presenters claims that a woman was raped because the town where she lives had a “budgetary shortfall” from “lack of logging revenue” from public lands)

The ALC claims that states would do a better job of managing our public lands. But several studies and economic analyses conclude that states like Montana could not afford to manage all the lands now managed by the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies. Plenty of precedence shows that states like Montana would most likely have to sell these lands to private interests. (The state of Idaho has already sold more than 40 percent of their state lands because they could not afford to manage it all.)

The ALC speakers presented half-truths, misconceptions and distortions, grossly oversimplifying and misrepresenting complex issues such as forest health, wildfire and wildlife management while dismissing sound, scientific research and ignoring we hunters, anglers, hikers and other local citizens who use, understand and cherish our public lands.

The American Lands Council and other industry-led efforts to sell or transfer our public lands insinuate that management decisions are dictated by bureaucrats from Washington DC. Actually, these decisions are made by local district rangers, foresters, engineers, wildlife biologists and other resource professionals who live and work in our communities — people who are our friends, family and neighbors. Their decisions are based, in large part, on local public needs, desires and input. Balance is achieved through the concepts of “multiple use,” or, as the first man Theodore Roosevelt appointed as Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, put it: “The greatest good for the greatest number of people.”

Efforts to sell and transfer our public lands are funded by out-of-state developers who would like to get hold of our lands for the sole purpose of unsustainable logging, mining, and vacation home development without safeguards to protect our fish, wildlife and wild places – safeguards brought about through the tireless efforts of we local hunters, anglers and others who enjoy public lands. The people behind the push to transfer and sell our public lands don’t really seek balance or compromise; they selfishly and greedily want it all. They don’t care about the health of our wildlife and wild places, and the hunting and angling opportunities they provide; they care only about profit. They’re not trying to find solutions to complex problems; they’re trying to rob us of our unique American heritage.

If the ALC truly wanted to support a “lawful, peaceful path to restore balance for a healthy environment, abundant outdoor recreation, and safe, vibrant communities,” they would not suggest selling and transferring public lands — they would, instead, support efforts such as the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project (BCSP). The BCSP is a locally-driven, grassroots collaborative effort to protect and enhance a variety of traditional land uses – including hunting, fishing, hiking, wilderness, logging and snowmobiling — in the Blackfoot and Clearwater Valleys while creating and maintaining jobs and helping local communities. It achieves true balance and protects and enhances true, traditional Montana values and activities.

It’s cooperative efforts like the BCSP that cut through the divisive rhetoric that often dominates discussions about public lands and achieve compromises and solutions that benefit us all. As the people of Condon made very clear last week — selling or transferring our public lands is not a viable or acceptable solution.

Thanks to all who defend our public lands legacy. As Theodore Roosevelt said of the public lands he so passionately fought to protect and defend: “We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.”

Dave Stalling is Montana Wildlife Federation’s Western Field Rep. To reach him about the Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project or other issues email him at dstalling@mtwf.org

Study Shows Backcountry Hunting Boosts Economy In Fergus and Petroleum Counties

August 2, 2021September 21, 2016 by Guest Profile

img_5114-for-web

Lewistown, MT – Expenditures from hunting contribute significantly and sustainably to local economies, according to a new study released today by Headwater Economics, an independent, nonpartisan research group.

According to the study, big game hunting in 2015 accounted for nearly $4 million in economic expenditures in four different Fergus and Petroleum County hunting districts, with $3.8 million coming from elk hunting alone. Most of the expenditures by hunters were from HD 410, in Petroleum County, home to some of the larger blocks of prime roadless habitat on BLM land.

All four of the hunting districts include lands the BLM will address in the Resource Management Plan (RMP) the agency is currently working on for the Lewistown Field Office. The RMP will guide how the BLM manages these lands for the next 20 to 30 years. Local hunters, business owners, and conservationists are urging the BLM to keep certain places managed by the Lewistown office as they are, to ensure they remain productive wildlife habitat and a strong contributor to local economies.

“Hunters are filling up at our gas stations, eating in our restaurants, staying in our hotels, and they’re buying guns, ammunition and gear from my store,” says Charlie Pfau, owner of Don’s Store, a sporting goods store in Lewistown. “Like many businesses in our small town, mine largely depends on the public lands right in our backyard, which offers some of the best big game hunting you can find in the U.S.”

The four hunting districts include the Chain Buttes, Horse Camp Trail, and Dovetail Creek areas. Local hunters, business owners, and conservationists are asking the BLM to retain the wild character of these lands by prohibiting development, road proliferation, and resource extraction in these areas, as well as in Blood Creek, Arrow Creek, and Carter Coulee to ensure they too continue to be secure habitat for big game.

“These areas represent some of the most productive ungulate habitat anywhere in North America, and that’s because these areas are largely roadless and undeveloped,” says Bill Berg, a career employee of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and former deputy superintendent of the Charlie M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge. “If we want to continue having big game populations that are this healthy, we need to keep these areas the way they are.”

The Headwaters Economics report shows that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks recorded more than 25,000 elk hunter days in 2015 on the four Fergus County hunting districts. Of those days, seven percent overall were represented by non-residents, but expenditures by out-of-state hunters comprised about half the total. The study, which did not include figures for bird hunter days, indicates big game hunting provides a consistent and significant economic impact to the region from Montanans and non-residents alike. Additionally, the study cited research from the American Journal of Agricultural Economics showing that, “protected natural amenities—such as pristine scenery and wildlife—help sustain property values and attract new investment.”

“Our big game populations and wild backcountry are why we live in this area, and now we know they are crucial to our economy as well,” says Doug Krings, a local sportsman and member of the Montana Wildlife Federation. “We can’t urge the BLM enough to pay attention to this report and then make the kind of management decisions that will ensure our big game populations continue to thrive, so we too can continue to thrive.”

Economic Impacts of Elk Hunting In Hunting Districts 410, 412, 417, & 426

More Public Lands Means More Access

August 2, 2021September 12, 2016 by Guest Profile

Mike Mueller Specimen Creek
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.

MWF Specimen Creek Additional Comments

Floating Fish and a Sinking Economy:

August 2, 2021August 29, 2016 by Guest Profile

Yellowstone River Fish Kill Photo Credit: MT FWP

This summer, Montana’s world-renowned rivers and cold-water fisheries have experienced record low water flows and extreme high temperatures. This dangerous combination has caused hoot owl closures since June. Over the last few weeks, it has contributed to a dramatic fish die-off on the Yellowstone River.

By now, most people know that Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) officials have completely closed 183 miles of the Yellowstone River to all public use due to a massive die-off caused by an outbreak of proliferative kidney disease (PKD). Research shows that PKD can kill between 20 to 100 percent of fish during an outbreak. Up to this point, outbreaks of PKD have been pretty rare outside of Europe. In the US, they have occurred in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, and the parasite that causes the disease has been found in two isolated spots in Montana.

FWP’s biologists have identified record low flows and high temperatures in the Yellowstone as key factors in the PKD outbreak. Research has shown that high water temperatures fuel PKD outbreaks by weakening fish and increasing the virulence of the PKD parasite.

The closure of the Yellowstone River is having dramatic impact on the local community and economy. Hopefully, the swift response from FWP will lead us on a path to recovery in this important fishery. And despite this incident, there are still plenty of incredible angling options in Montana for residents and visitors to enjoy.

At the same time, we need to recognize that the Yellowstone die-off foreshadows a bigger threat to Montana’s outdoor heritage: climate change. The low flows and high temperatures facing Montana rivers today are consistent with the effects of climate change, and representative of what most scientists expect will become the norm as our snowpack disappears and runoff happens earlier. Fisheries biologists have identified climate change as a significant threat to the aquatic environment and our fisheries.

If the current trend continues, hoot owl closures that limit our recreation are going to become the norm for Montana. And new pathogens that threaten our fish will become widespread. In fact, scientists have specifically cited PKD as a disease that will be aggravated by climate change.

In addition to threatening our outdoor heritage, these changes bear an economic cost. Last year, MWF commissioned a study that predicts – conservatively – a one-third decline in angling days over the next 40 years, with an economic loss of $49 million and 1,800 jobs, if nothing is done about climate change.

The Yellowstone fish die-off shows us that outdoor economy job losses due to climate change aren’t just numbers in a report. Incidents like this demonstrate the real, tangible impact climate change will have on real people and communities.

Our decision-makers need to take action on climate change to protect our fisheries, outdoor heritage, and outdoor economy. Common sense investments in reducing pollution and growing our renewable energy economy can reign in climate change. Protecting riparian habitat to keep our rivers cool and improving angler awareness about pathogens can help reduce the impacts that scientists are forecasting.

Montana is home to some of the best cold-water fisheries in the world. With continued scientific management of our rivers and common-sense action on climate change, future generations will be able to experience the trout fishing we enjoy today.

Jeff Lukas

Conservation Director