Independently reported news stories of Montana's people, land, water and wildlife.
After the Legislature rejected two of the governor’s four candidates for the Fish & Wildlife commission, two FWP veterans will fill the roles for at least the next two years.
On Friday, Gov. Steve Bullock appointed Tim Aldrich of Missoula and Shane Colton of Billings to replace Gary Wolf and Matthew Tourtlotte on the FW commission.
Read MoreHunting guides and outfitters will have to continue recording details of clients' hunts after the defeat of a bill backed by Montana Outfitters and Guides.
On Monday, the last day before the bill would have become law without his signature, Gov. Steve Bullock vetoed Senate Bill 264. SB 264 would have reduced the information collected by the Montana Board of Outfitters to only that required to justify outfitter licensing. In other words, details regarding clients’ names, trip dates, and animal species, sex and location would be eliminated.
Read MoreMonday was a tough day for state Sen. Mike Phillips, D-Bozeman, as he watched Republicans defeat all six of his amendments increasing natural resource funding.
As the state Legislature works toward passing a state budget for the next two years – known as House Bill 2 - Monday was the day for the full Senate to hear all final amendments. Phillips sponsored six of the dozen amendments proposed for Section C of the budget, which funds departments overseeing aspects of natural resources.
Read More9 p.m. UPDATE: HB 651 failed the second reading on the House floor by a vote of 47-53, so the bill is probably dead.
In spite of overwhelming opposition, Republicans have resurrected a bill to create a second public-land access specialist and spend sportsmen’s dollars buying land for access that might be poor habitat.
In a specially scheduled meeting Wednesday, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Kerry White, R-Bozeman, brought House Bill 651 up for an unprecedented third round of executive action. Montana already has a public-land access specialist working in the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to improve public access to all public lands, but HB 651 would create another position under the state land board to increase access to state lands using Habitat Montana funds.
Read MoreAn effort to shunt wildlife habitat funds toward a redundant state-land position died Monday, leaving sportsmen relieved but still a bit frustrated.
In an 8-7 vote, the House Natural Resources Committee failed to pass House Bill 651 and then unanimously tabled it. HB 651 would have created a public-land-access advocate who would report to the state Land Board and who was allotted $100,000 a year out of the Habitat Montana program. The Habitat Montana account was created in 1987 to purchase conservation easements and fee title land that provided good wildlife habitat and thus hunting opportunity.
Read MoreA group of outfitters is trying to wrest a few more game permits from the hands of Montana hunters.
On Tuesday, the Montana Outfitters and Guides Association defended its bill, House Bill 568, to ensure that nonresident hunters always get 10 percent of the permits to hunt deer, elk, antelope, mountain lions and eventually black bears. Rep. Kerry White, R-Bozeman, carried HB568, saying it would bring in additional money for Fish, Wildlife & Parks, because nonresident licenses cost more than those of residents. But White’s justification belies the fact that it takes permits away from residents.
Read MoreState Republicans are trying once again to send a message to Washington, D.C., to encourage the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. But opponents are ever more concerned about resulting contributions to climate change and environmental degradation.
On Monday, the House Energy, Technology and Federal Relations Committee heard yet another round of testimony on Senate Joint Resolution 10 sponsored by Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta. Many of the same proponents and opponents already testified for the Senate committee before the bill passed on a party-line 8-5 vote and passed the Senate 39-11.
Read MoreTrouble is brewing in the outfitter world as the Montana Board of Outfitters awaits a replacement for long-time board member Robin Cunningham.
When it met Thursday, the seven-member Board of Outfitters was down to six after the Montana Senate refused on Feb. 24 to confirm Cunningham on a 32-18 party line vote. Cunningham was a year into his final three-year term as the fishing outfitters' lone representative. But he’d sat on the board since 2012 and served an earlier stint from 1994 to 2000.
Read MoreOn Tuesday, the Montana House of Representatives gave initial approval to a bill that would ask Congress to dissolve seven wilderness study areas and open the lands to multiple uses, including logging, mining and a wide range of recreation.
Rep. Kerry White, R-Bozeman, told the House that House Joint Resolution 9 is just asking Congress to do its job and decide the fate of seven wilderness study areas designated in the Montana Wilderness Study Act of 1977. The act directed the federal government to study the areas and then decide within five years whether to create wilderness or not. Until the decision was made, the areas were to be maintained in a wild condition, which has prompted wilderness opponents to call the areas “de-facto wilderness.”
Read MoreA bill that would require the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions produced in Montana may not get a fair hearing due to a capitol room swap.
On Wednesday, Sen. Mike Phillips, D- Bozeman, was to present Senate Bill 190 to the Senate Natural Resources committee. Recognizing that climate change is worsening and will cause hardship for many Montanans from farmers to fishing guides, the bill would direct the Board of Environmental Review to develop rules for reducing and capping greenhouse gas emissions in the state.
Read MoreSportsmen’s groups came out in force Thursday to testify on a bill that would add more harvest-heritage language to the Montana Constitution, but they weren’t all on the same side.
Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, presented Senate Bill 236 as a means to thwart the national “anti-hunting lobby” by creating a constitutional amendment that would further strengthen sections dealing with fish and wildlife harvest. Although some speakers were concerned about the future of hunting, the majority of the discussion showed the bill was the result of recent challenges to trapping.
Read MoreWhile some Republicans continue to push for the transfer of public lands, one Montana bill is quietly making its way through the Legislature that could show how much local economies might suffer if public lands are lost.
House Joint Resolution 7, sponsored by Rep. Ellie Hill Smith, D-Missoula, asks that the Legislature conduct a study of the economic impacts of outdoor recreation in Montana. The study would take place during the legislative off-year.
Read MoreIf anyone doubts whether Montanans treasure public lands, they should have stood in the Capitol rotunda on Monday as more than 1,000 chanted the modern Montana mantra: "Keep public lands in public hands."
For the second Legislature in a row, conservation groups organized a public-lands rally to rattle the halls of the Legislature with the full-throat roar of those opposed to any bills furthering public-land transfer. And for the second Legislature in a row, Gov. Steve Bullock whipped the crowd into a fervor, shouting his tumbling words so those standing in the vaulted arches two floors above could hear. He once again vowed to veto any land transfer bills.
Read MoreAs January draws to a close, it won’t be long until male sage grouse once again strut across their historic breeding grounds in hopes of attracting a mate. A Montana legislator wants biologists to count all those birds, because the species faces an uncertain future as state and federal lawmakers fight the rules created to encourage the bird’s survival.
More than a year ago, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided the sage grouse did not need Endangered Species Act protection, but the ruling was based on all the management plans created by state and federal agencies to conserve the species. More than half the remaining sage grouse live on national forest and BLM public lands, so federal sage grouse plans are key to the survival of the species.
Read MoreLegislators learned Monday that a new aquatic invasive species program would cost at least $10.5 million every two years for the foreseeable future.
Members of Montana’s Mussel Response Team told the Joint Long Range Planning and Natural Resources and Transportation Committee that four parts of the aquatic invasive species program would have to be amped up to limit invasive mussels to the four sites where they’ve been found.
Read MoreEven the best government programs can’t get far if they don’t have their own funding.
That’s the hurdle Rep. Kelly Flynn, R-Townsend, has run into almost every session when he’s tried to get more money for the landowners who participate in Montana’s block management program.
Read MoreA bill proposed by the Private Land Public Wildlife council would up the incentive for landowners to allow members of the public to hunt on their land.
With landowners pressuring Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks to control elk populations that are over FWP objectives, the agency needs to find ways to open up more access to private land that is normally closed to public hunting. So House Bill 96 would increase the proportion of elk tags available for willing landowners from 20 percent to 25 percent.
Read MoreThe Legislature should allow government entities to produce five times more solar energy for credit, according to one Republican’s bill.
Rep. Daniel Zolnikov, R-Billings, got a little excited as he tried to overcome NorthWestern Energy arguments against House Bill 34, which would increase the net-metering cap to 250 kilowatts from 50 kW for solar projects by government entities such as schools or prisons.
Read MoreMontana's tribes may regain their licenses to hunt bison but Montana's hunters may have to solve privacy problems before gaining the right to have digital hunting tags.
In the Senate Fish and Wildlife Committee, Sen. Jennifer Pomnichowski, D-Bozeman, learned her bill promoting digital game tags already faced an amendment because of privacy concerns.
Read MoreAs the 65th Montana Legislature convenes on Monday, legislators have already proposed least two bills that would affect Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ shoestring budget.
After hours of hearings and counter proposals in 2015, the Legislature approved most of FWP’s proposed budget that had been developed by a working group of hunters, fishermen and outfitters. One of the major changes was having the budget cover four years, unlike previous versions that were mapped out over 10 years.
Read More