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Conservation Celebration

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SAVE YOUR SPOT

Registration is required.

4/30/21 10 AM

Want to learn how to become a conservation advocate in your spare time?

Join the Montana Artemis Alliance for a live podcast recording of the Artemis Podcast. In this episode, they’ll dive into how to become an outdoor advocate and chat with an MAA member about her journey to being a conservation advocate. Bring your questions as Marcia and the gang will be answering your questions live.

4/30/21 4 PM

Everything you need to know about bear hunting in Montana

Join Joe Kondelis, President of the Western Bear Foundation, for everything you need to know about bear hunting in Montana. We’ll dive into everything from scouting to field dressing.

5/1/21 5 PM

Voices in Conservation

Join panelists Kathy Hadley, co-lead for Artemis Sportswomen Alliance and Montana Wildlife Federation board member, Jimmy Flatt Hunters of Color Founder, Anna Le Field Instructor at Yellowstone National Park, Jayne Henson of Queers and Camo, and DeAnna Bublitz founder of DEER Camp as they discuss how hunters and anglers are speaking up for wildlife and wildlands while diversifying the outdoors.

Save your spot!

Registration is required and the cleanup will be capped at 16 participants.

5/1/2021 9 AM

Willard Creek Trailhead Cleanup

Join us at the Willard Creek trailhead to do some cleanup, sign installations, and light fence repair. The trailhead is 35 minutes from Helena in the Elkhorns. The intent is to give the public better access to the trailhead. 

Have questions? Reach out to our Programs and Partnership Director Marcus Strange at mstrange@mtwf.org. 

MWF requests veto of seven anti-predator bills

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MWF requests veto of seven anti-predator bills

The Montana Wildlife Federation submitted a letter to Gov. Gianforte this week requesting vetoes of seven bills that amount to an extreme change in decades of management of predator wildlife species in the state.

“Our ethical lines are meant to maintain fair chase for all wildlife, protect other wildlife species from incidental capture and injury, and uphold values and practices that sustain the public’s respect for hunters and hunting,” Tom Puchlerz, MWF president, said in the letter. “That line is clearly being crossed this legislative session through a suite of bills that amount to an all-out fervor against predator species.”

The letter requests vetoes of bills that collectively would allow snaring, night spotlighting, and baiting of wolves. They would also create a bounty for wolves, and allow the take of multiple wolves with one license in an effort to drive their numbers down to a bare minimum number.

Black bear hunting in Montana would change too. One bill, HB 468, would allow the use of hounds to pursue black bears and create a spring chase season.

Grizzly bears, which remain protected as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, would have their management changed under two bills. One would bar Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks’ bear managers from relocating any bear found outside the federal recovery zones. Another bill would allow people to kill any bear perceived as threatening livestock, which runs counter to federal protections.

MWF as the leading wildlife conservation and sporting organization in Montana supports science-based management of wildlife, including fair chase hunting. But these bills ignore decades of state leadership in management that has resulted in reduced livestock depredations, fewer human conflicts with proper prevention efforts, and solid conservation outcomes. That has come as these species have been conserved in the state.

The bills that MWF requested vetoes on are HB 224, HB 225, HB 468, SB 267, SB 314, SB 98 and SB 337.

 

READ THE LETTER HERE: MWF veto request for anti-predator bills

Radio Ads to Lawmakers: Listen to Voters and Restore Conservation Funds

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Montana Wildlife Federation has launched a new radio ad campaign to push back on legislative attempts to divert revenue from the sale of recreational marijuana away from popular public access programs.

Two such bills are being heard in committee this week.  House Bill 670, sponsored by Rep. Skees, R-Kalispell, and House Bill 701, sponsored by Rep. Mike Hopkins, R-Missoula, would each make significant changes to the successful ballot initiative law that legalized recreational marijuana last November.

And both contain fatal errors according to Frank Szollosi, Executive Director of Montana Wildlife Federation.

“HB 670 and 701 are dead on arrival because they leave out critical funds that voters intended to go toward public access, working farms and ranches, and our state parks and trails,” said Szollosi.  “It’s really very simple.  If lawmakers want to successfully rewrite the ballot initiative this session they need to take more direction from voters on where those revenues go.”

To make their point, Montana Wildlife Federation will air a new radio ad starting tomorrow on stations in Great Falls, Billings, Helena and the Flathead.

The radio ad features 5th generation rancher John Rumney, owner of Rumney Cattle Company, who used the Habitat Montana program in 2018 to place a conservation easement on nearly 4,000 acres of family ranchland.

In the ad, Rumney says boosting the Habitat Montana account as voters intended will benefit more ranchers and hunters and result in more public access.

“It’s time to listen to voters,” says Rumney. “Lawmakers in Helena should restore funds intended to help landowners and hunters find more common ground.”

The radio ads compliment a series of billboards that have been running throughout Helena since early March (photo attached).  

Those billboards direct lawmakers to the online campaign called SaveMyGreatOudoors where hundreds of images and personal testimonials discuss the growing need for more dedicated funding for conservation programs and public lands.  

Contact: Frank Szollosi, 406.417.9909

 

Photo by Kyle Mlynar.

HB 505 and improving elk management to address populations over objective

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Dear Chair Fitzgerald and members of the House FWP committee,

Our organizations represent thousands of Montana hunters. We include statewide organizations and local sporting clubs who all care deeply about our public wildlife, our sporting traditions and our friends and neighbors in the landowner and agricultural community. We’re Montanans who have worked together for decades to solve the difficult issues surrounding public wildlife, access and game damage on the working farms and ranches that are a cornerstone of our state’s economy and lifestyle. 

We extend this letter of commitment to work with you and the Department of Fish, Wildlife and  Parks to find workable solutions to Montana’s over-objective elk populations. While we have serious concerns with the proposals in House Bill 505 – and we ask that this committee take no further action on the bill – we’re confident we can find common ground for ways to address the needs of landowners while ensuring elk are managed as a public resource according to the public trust doctrine. 

We look forward to the Elk Management Plan Initial Guidance Citizens Group report, which is due soon. This process – approved and funded by the Legislature – can provide direction for the solutions and strategies we can deploy during the interim. Building off of that group’s work, we would be open to an interim study to utilize the committee process to identify necessary policy solutions that can enjoy broad support. 

Additionally, there are ongoing discussions aimed at improving the host of programs currently available that incentivize public access, help landowners address problems and ultimately get more elk harvest where needed. Examples include increasing the cap on payments to landowners under the popular Block Management program (especially those in units above elk objectives),  more funding for Habitat Montana to support targeted easements and purchases, and getting more local working groups focusing on elk management in their respective areas. We have also said that the game damage hunt roster could use improvements to be timelier and more effective. 

We need to give those processes and programs a chance to work as they have in many areas of the state.  

While the legislative process can be adversarial in nature, when legislation stalls, it can also serve to highlight the need for collaboration and cooperation to solve problems. We are committed to a public process bringing stakeholders together including hunters, outfitters,  private landowners and the Department to find solutions to our over objective elk populations. 

Please keep HB 505 tabled and let us work with landowners to find common ground to improve elk management in Montana.  

Thank you for your service to the people of Montana.  

Sincerely,  

Montana Wildlife Federation, Tom Puchlerz, President 

Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers John Sullivan, President

Traditional Bowhunters of Montana, Tim Roberts President 

Bearpaw Bowmen, Nick Siebrasse, Conservation Liaison 

Flathead Wildlife Inc, Jim Vashro, President 

Montana Sportsmen’s Alliance, Jeff Herbert, Conservation Liaison 

Hellgate Hunters and Anglers, Walker Conyngham, President 

Great Falls Archery Club, Jeremy Garness, President 

Helena Hunters and Anglers, Steve Platt, President 

Laurel Rod and Gun Club, JW Westman, Conservation Liaison 

Friends of the Missouri Breaks Monument, Mikayla Moss, Executive Director

Bridger Bowmen, Bill Siebrasse, President 

Montana Artemis Alliance, Rachel Buswell, Co-chair 

Anaconda Sportsmen’s Club, Garrett Ouldhouse, President 

Russell Country Sportsmen Association, Randall Knowles, Conservation Liaison

Shell game with voter-approved conservation dollars

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March 17, 2021 – Montana Wildlife Federation issued the following statement in response to Representative Hopkins’ (Missoula) legislation to siphon away investment in Montana’s $7 billion recreation economy and undercut ranching families.

“Now comes the shell game with voter-approved conservation dollars,” said Frank Szollosi, MWF executive director. “State politicians just extended the 67th Legislature to divvy up a huge windfall from the federal government, there’s just no sound fiscal rationale to contradict the will of Montana voters. It’s outrageous, actually. These accounts help keep families on their ranches into the future, increase hunter-angler access, and improve our overtaxed state parks.”

“Conservation dollars are economic development, because public lands, waters, wildlife and access are the cornerstone of our multi-billion dollar outdoor recreation economy and the 71,000-plus jobs it supports. Our Great Outdoors are critical to our competitive advantage in attracting businesses and jobs.”

MWF will be joining hunters, anglers, businessowners and landowners for a media event on the north steps of the Capitol at noon Thursday, March 18, to defend the will of Montana’s electorate and deliver a message for our public servants: do not pass.

 

Contact: Frank Szollosi 406-417-9909

Jeff Lukas – MWF Elk Campaign Manager

Jeff Lukas

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.