Issues

Access: The Heart of Montana's Wildlife Management Success

By Chris Marchion
Craig Sharpe

Conservation minded wildlife enthusiasts, hunters, anglers, ranchers and farmers of the past century responded to the crisis in wildlife populations by developing a set of principles which became known as the North American Model of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. The success of this model is well documented and virtually all of the wildlife and fisheries enjoyed in the US today are the direct result of its tenets. Wildlife management activities developed as elements of the model continue to follow this successful template today. It is one of the World’s greatest successes.

The model's basic tenets are the prohibition of commercialization of wildlife, fish and wildlife are reserved and managed instead for the non-commercial benefits of the public and are equitably allocate to the public, and the protection of critical habitat that sustains optimal populations -- forever. Of the lower 48 states, Montana is clearly the greatest success for the model. Today these resources provide tremendous opportunities for diverse wildlife based recreation and are a driving force for the state’s economy – but they are more than that.

Montana's success is a credit to the conservation ethic of those hunters, anglers, landowners, and professional mangers who took on the responsibilities of restoring a landscape decimated by over harvest and habitat abuse. These individuals combined vision, leadership and hard work to restore and sustain resources for the benefit of all citizens. They also recognized a key to the success of the model – public access - a key that is lacking in other commodity driven models.

Commercial, and market based alternative models, on the other hand, exist in the world where the public is excluded, where landownership and class determine who has the right to hunt, fish and access wildlife. In Montana, similar attempted measures have resulted in significant battles over the public’s right to access streams and rivers, access to state school trust, access to federal public lands, and today - the use of public road rights-of-way at bridges.

Access can be a complicated multi-faceted issue but Montana has always been in the lead to insure that the public’s access rights are defended, access to and on public lands is developed, and the opportunities for access on private lands are encouraged. Construction of roads to and on US Forest Service lands and the development of travel management plans that balance the needs for access with impacts on habitat and wildlife populations are examples of public land access. The Habitat Montana Program, Block Management Program, conservation easements, critical habitat acquisition, fishing access sites, and other Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks landowner incentive programs, created by public participation, are examples of collaborative efforts to provide public access to wildlife on private lands. All of these programs, laws, and partnership charters are tools used for resolving access issues and no other state has the number of tools in their access toolbox, as does Montana.

Why is this work so valuable to Montana's success with the model? Access is essential to the public’s connection to their wildlife; it creates a sense of ownership in these resources. Connectivity and ownership stimulates broad-scale public participation in the management of the resources and has become a necessary ingredient to the success of the model. Democratic access to enjoy and harvest fish and wildlife is the great engine that drives the model for sound public stewardship. Public participation, access and the model are closely tied significant factors to the quality of life that exists in Montana.

There are many successful examples of how well this has worked for Montana. Around 1905, as one example, a small group of professional game managers and local hunters transported elk from Yellowstone National Park to Fleecer Mountain where few if any elk survived commercial hunting that sustained miners. The transplanted elk prospered and soon a productive, viable herd became established; a conservation ethic also took hold. Each year in the last fifty years this elk herd has provided tens of thousands of hunter days for thousands of hunters. The population restoration and successful, collaborative management of this herd has been the product of the public demanding professional – science based management, coordinating landowner cooperation, public access and hunter participation.

This engagement by the public did not exist prior to efforts of wildlife restoration imbedded in the North American Model. It would not have been achievable had the herd been unavailable because a landowner successfully harbored the herd on private land for commercial purposes or if the public did not step forward and take ownership of the circumstance. The keys to this success were public participation, ownership and managed access to wildlife and public lands.

The nature of access issues continues to evolve with Montana’s changing demographics. Habitat issues continue to evolve with the introduction of noxious weeds, new wildlife diseases, new land ownership patterns and energy issues. Other states have been less successful in upholding the wildlife conservation model than Montana. We have attracted significant attention to our wildlife recreation opportunities which has in-turn increased the pressure for commodity driven, commercialization and privatization ventures. The challenge for Montana is to ensure that we continue to prioritize public access to the public’s wildlife as the solution to these evolving issues. By upholding the values of public access we will continue to succeed in engaging the public, connecting the public with wildlife, management and nature.

Chris Marchion is the volunteer, elected president of Montana Wildlife Federation and lives in Anaconda, MT.

Craig Sharpe, is the Executive Director of Montana Wildlife Federation and lives in Helena, MT.