Wildlife

Wildlife conservation in Montana has a great record of success.  When we provide wildlife managers with adequate resources and the authority to manage wildlife according to the best science and protect habitat, fish and wildlife populations bounce back. That’s how we brought big game like elk, mule deer, and pronghorn back from the brink of extinction to support Montana’s world-class hunting opportunities. It’s why Montana has blue ribbon fishing for abundant wild trout.

We know the same approach works with species that we don’t hunt or fish.  From salamanders to prairie dogs to songbirds, the principles are the same: protecting habitat and managing threats according to the best science keeps wildlife abundant. Preventing at-risk species from declining to the brink of extinction has another benefit: it can avoid the need to put species on the federal Endangered Species list, and all the regulatory headaches that come with that law.

For the last 20 years, the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) has implemented a best-in-the-nation program to conserve nongame species that has done exactly that. And, in fact, these efforts have helped keep species abundant and prevent endangered species listings for animals like the Arctic grayling, black-tailed prairie dog, and northern leopard frog.

Unfortunately, current funding to prevent wildlife from becoming endangered is just a drop in the bucket and varies from year to year depending on the whims of Congress. For every success, there are dozens of more species waiting in the wings.

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would fix this situation and permanently increase funding to prevent wildlife from becoming endangered to the tune of $1.4 billion/year.

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act is modeled after the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act and Dingell-Johnson Sportfish Restoration Act.  These programs dedicate revenue from excise taxes on firearms, ammunition, archery equipment and fishing tackle to state fish and wildlife agencies. Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson have been wildly successful over the last 80 years, reinvesting the taxes paid by hunters and anglers into managing game and fish species, sustaining our hunting and fishing heritage in Montana and nationwide. The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would extend this model to the hundreds of species that aren’t hunted or fished.

When passed, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act will mean about $30 million in new funding every year for FWP. This funding would mean FWP could do more to protect habitat, collect scientific data, and conserve species on public and private lands. By conserving wildlife before they become imperiled, this new funding would save taxpayers funds and hopefully reduce conflicts over the federal Endangered Species Act.

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act currently has more than 100 cosponsors from both parties. But Congressman Greg Gianforte has not yet agreed to cosponsor the bill. Send a message to him today asking him to cosponsor the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act to prevent wildlife from becoming endangered. It’s good for wildlife and people.

Leading up to the historic announcement in 2015, a diverse group of stakeholders including conservationists, ranchers, outdoor recreation leaders, and members of the oil and gas industry sat down at the table and made tough compromises in one of the largest landscape-level conservation efforts ever. These efforts culminated in the sage-grouse conservation plans that led the Fish and Wildlife Service to decide that a listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was not warranted. Over the past year, Interior Secretary Zinke has pushed for radical changes to those plans, which opens up the threat of an ESA listing. Montana stakeholders have made it clear that changing the plans are unnecessary, and would devastate the sage-grouse and the 350 other species that rely on the sagebrush steppe habitat.

With the Interior Department actively rolling back the plans, Governor Bullock and the state of Montana have stepped up to implement the conservation strategy to preclude the need for federal Endangered Species Act protections. By taking an “all hands” approach, Montana has enlisted industry, private landowners, federal land management agencies, land trust organizations, hunters, and conservationists to work collaboratively to balance development with conservation through the mitigation hierarchy, creating incentives for private land stewardship. This ensures the best outcomes for all Montanans.

Governor Bullock has been a champion for protecting the plans because they play a critical role in protecting Montanan’s way of life and help support landscapes that generate more than $1 billion in economic output annually. Bullock’s leadership has been incredibly important against Zinke’s attacks on the plans.

The strategy used to conserve the greater sage grouse is one of the largest and latest in a long line of ESA success stories. But Secretary Zinke continues to actively attack these plans. Later this fall, a final Environmental Impact Study will be published on Zinke’s proposal to dismantle the sage grouse plans. If Sec. Zinke follows through on his dangerous proposal, he will be blatantly ignoring the years of work and the input of hundreds of thousands of stakeholders who have made it clear throughout several public comment periods that they want the plans to stay in place so they can continue working. Now is the time for Governor Bullock, Western leaders, and sportsmen to redouble their calls to keep the 2015 plans. We need our leaders to stand against the actions that weaken the plans that play a critical role in keeping the sage grouse off the Endangered Species List.

Some in Congress are once again playing political games with the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual bill that lays out the nation’s defense spending priorities.

They are trying to include a “rider” in the bill that would block the Interior Department from making an Endangered Species Act determination on the greater sage-grouse for ten years. This would undermine cooperative federal and state agreements and tie the hands of people working on the ground to protect sage-grouse habitat. It would threaten implementation of sage-grouse conservation plans developed by states and the federal government in 2015 after years of extensive local collaboration with conservationists, ranchers, the energy industry, and other stakeholders.

In response to this effort to hijack the national defense bill, the Montana Wildlife Federation joined our colleagues from eight other Western states in a letter to Congress to remove this rider, noting that the Defense Department has clearly stated that the 2015 sage-grouse conservation plans would not impact military training, operations, or readiness and the provision is not needed.

The anti-sage-grouse rider is unrelated to military readiness and unnecessarily complicates both sage-grouse conservation and our national defense.  Congress should move the national defense bill forward without the sage-grouse rider.  This will ensure our national defense while allowing conservation to move forward. Guaranteeing functional sage-grouse habitat across the West, a strong outdoor economy, and provide stability to industry and local ranching communities.

A brown trout caught by an angler on the Kootenai River in February is the likely result of an illegal fish introduction, according to FWP officials. During the Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting on April 19th, the Commission moved to approve a proposal that would require anglers to immediately kill and report any brown trout landed in the section from Kootenai Falls to Libby Dam.

If a brown trout population was able to become established in the section, there would likely be negative impacts to the Kootenai’s world-class rainbow trout fishery and to threatened bull trout populations. In many cases, non-native species are known to out-compete native species for space and resources.

MWF Conservation Director Nick Gevock testified at the Commission meeting in favor of the proposed regulation change.

“We are doing this because this is the right thing to do” Gevock Said. “We don’t want to establish an incentive for people to do unauthorized introductions.”

FWP will now look to determine where the brown trout may have come from and whether a population is currently being established.