Montana hunters and anglers: Spend conservation dollars for all Montanans

Montana’s benchmark wildlife conservation program, Habitat Montana, is back in the news again after voters and the Legislature made historic investments in conservation spending in 2020 and 2021. That program, available to landowners since 1987, has conserved some of Montana’s finest wildlife habitat along the Rocky Mountain Front, The Madison Valley, on the Hi-Line and down in the Big Hole. The program helps family farmers and ranchers protect their home places, while still ensuring that the next generation has the chance to grow grass, cows and crops while also rewarding their stewardship of some of the best wildlife habitat in the world. Fish, Wildlife and Park’s 2021 Legislative report cites those 562,515 acres of private land has been conserved under conservation easements, while 387,836 acres have been put into the public realm forever through acquisition. Meanwhile, over 64,000 acres are open through leases and rights of way provided by funding from Montana’s best, last conservation tool.  

Unfortunately, recent moves announced last week in a story about a long-time employee assuming some new duties could potentially weaken the landmark Habitat Montana program. For 30 years, Habitat Montana has funded long-term investments in conservation and access by way of permanent conservation easements and land purchases. Now, some politicians want to pay landowners for short-term leases instead.

  This is a potential problem for Montana’s agricultural and outdoor families. For one, the access and conservation benefits would be short term, perhaps only a decade. But the larger losers are future generations of Montanans who benefit so much from conservation measures taken today as do our elk, deer, bears, pronghorn and our open space.

The timing to reduce Habitat Montana could not be worse, as Montana faces an influx of newcomers and skyrocketing real estate values.

The consequences of a weaker Habitat Montana are clear: Montana’s wide-open spaces could more and more become playgrounds for the wealthy. The rest of us will find more locked gates and no-trespassing signs.

Since 1987, Habitat Montana has worked wonders for the people of Montana. It is a special fund — overwhelmingly supported by Montana voters — dedicated to protecting our outdoor heritage. It requires zero general fund dollars. Instead, it uses hunting license dollars. Those dollars are often leveraged, that is, matched with federal conservation funding or dollars from other sources.

Whether you float an innertube, ski boat, or drift boat, Habitat Montana has also been used to fund fishing access sites on lakes and rivers statewide.

It’s important to note that all of these deals are done in the open and between willing buyers and willing sellers. Benefits flow both ways. Conservation easements, for example, are an important tool for families and companies scrambling to maintain their working lands legacy and FWP pays the property taxes on those lands they own, ensuring counties have the revenue they need for schools and law enforcement as well as to plow the roads and fight fires. 

Habitat Montana is a fiscally sound, conservative approach to habitat conservation. We need to keep it that way, and not short-change our state’s future. Short term leases may have their place in some instances, but if FWP’s goal is to abandon all acquisition of new wildlife management areas and conservation easements on private lands, then the agency should rethink their approach. Montana’s world class outdoor way of life would be a shadow of itself without Habitat Montana. It isn’t broke and it doesn’t need fixing.

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Chris Servheen is the current president of the Montana Wildlife Federation.