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Wildlife

Wildlife Federation Urges Secretary Zinke to Release Wildlife Funds

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The Montana Wildlife Federation, along with wildlife federations from 34 other states and the National Wildlife Federation, have called on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to ensure that the department’s recently-announced review of grants doesn’t impair state wildlife management and hunting access programs.

Last month, Secretary Zinke announced a freeze on all Interior Department grants over $100,000 while the agency reviews its budget.  Unfortunately, this freeze has caught up the Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson Wildlife And Sport Fish Restoration Program.  These funds are crucial to  management of fish and wildlife, and providing hunting and fishing opportunities. In Montana, the delay in funding has already caused the cancellation of a statewide Hunter Education conference and instructor training. A prolonged delay could result in the missed opportunity of the Grant Marsh WMA in eastern Montana, as well as other long-term conservation projects.

Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson are not “grants” in the traditional sense, because they are directly funded from excise taxes that are paid by all of us hunters, anglers, recreational shooters, and boaters and put into a special Trust Fund to enable our state fish and wildlife agencies to carry out their conservation and management missions. Senator Jon Tester has also asked the Interior Secretary to release wildlife management funds.

We hope that Secretary Zinke will honor our request and allow these crucial funds to move forward without delay.

Read the Wildlife Federations Letter to Zinke.

Habitat Montana Restored, and You’re to Thank

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Ninepipes WMA credit Steve Woodruff
Ninepipes WMA credit Steve Woodruff

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.

Hunting Public Lands: The Missouri Breaks

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Bowhunting by Marcus Strange
Bowhunting by Marcus Strange

“I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the area where we were hunting. We were in what people who hunt refer to as “big country.” I was blown away by the grandeur of the towering buttes, the serenity of the golden plains, the mystery of the dark coulees, and the overall enormity of the public land we were privileged to hunt.”

While hunters of Montana eagerly await their draw results, here’s the story of MWF board member Marcus Strange on a successful Missouri Breaks archery hunt. This area is under a new BLM planning process, visit montanawildlife.org/lewistownrmp to learn more and get involved.

To read the full story visit http://urbantocountry.com/chasing-memories/

Congress votes to lock in 1980s public land management – and lock out public land users

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Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to overturn the Bureau of Land Management’s new “Planning 2.0” rule and set public land management back 30 years — to a time when the public was kept in the dark about land management decisions. The Senate will be casting their own vote on the rules in the next few days.

Planning 2.0 was developed over years by the BLM after listening to concerns from a variety of stakeholders. The new rule makes the planning process more collaborative and transparent by strengthening opportunities for other federal agencies, state and local governments, Indian tribes, and the public to be involved in the development of resource management plans earlier and more frequently.

The new planning rule gives the BLM flexibility to plan at a larger scale that makes sense and allows consideration of the full context of resource values and the best available science. The rule also includes steps to ensure that important fish and wildlife habitats, such as migration corridors and intact habitats, are identified early in the planning process so these important areas can be managed and conserved as the agency makes decisions about development, recreation and other public land uses.

In throwing out Planning 2.0, Congress is using a law called the Congressional Review Act (CRA). Under the CRA, once a regulation is disapproved by Congress, the agency cannot write a new rule that is “substantially the same.” As a result, the BLM would be forced to go back to using outdated guidelines from 1983 – guidelines that every stakeholder had issues with – and would be unable to make any attempt to revise them again, without a specific act of Congress.

Americans are blessed to own millions of acres of incredible public lands across our nation. We all should have a say in how these lands are managed. Planning 2.0 provides all land users with more occasions to make their voices heard: hunters and anglers, ranchers, skiers and snowmobilers, scientists, local governments, and energy and mining companies.

Congress should leave the Planning 2.0 in place. If there are areas that need improvement, let the new Interior Secretary decide how to move forward. The Bureau of Land Management’s new standard of listening to the concerns and ideas of a diverse group of stakeholders and local communities early in the process should not be sent into the dark ages.

Please take two minutes to ask Senator Steve Daines to drop his support for using the Congressional Review Act to throw out the new BLM planning rules!

HB 96: Ranching For Wildlife Comes to Montana

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Please contact your legislator 444-4800 and ask them to vote NO on House Bill 96. 

Hammered out  by the Private Land/Public Wildlife Council (PLPW), HB 96 sought to increase public hunting access on private ranches by modestly extending a little-used program. Known as the “454” program, it rewarded landowners with permits that had to be used on the landowner’s land.

HB 96 was supposed to be a consensus bill that would increase the incentive to allow landowner access while rewarding the landowner with a licenses and permits, as well as securing a better deal for hunters in terms of access.

That deal has been broken, and now our wildlife is for sale.

HB 96 was amended last week into a  “Ranching for Wildlife” program that seeks to privatize wildlife.  The bill would:

  1. Allow the landowner to give the limited entry permit or license to anyone, rather than just the landowner, immediate family member or employee
  2. Omit landowners who are enrolled in block management, while still allowing landowners who have leased to outfitters to participate in the program.
  3. Create a new license or permit for outfitted clients rather than increase opportunity for everyone.
  4. Do nothing to prevent outfitters and landowners from setting up under-the-table deals to sell licenses.
  5. Break the faith of the PLPW and all of the organizations who supported the bill as written, and have asked that no amendments be offered.

MWF supported the bill, even though we had reservations, as a show of support for consensus efforts of PLPW.  This amendment gives us no choice but to strongly oppose the bill.

Please contact your legislator 444-4800 and ask them to vote NO on House Bill 96.

Not sure who represents you? We can help

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.