Montana upland chicken brains discover fodder in FWP draft plan

For instance, do you know there are extra ring-necked pheasant shot in northeastern Montana than anyplace else within the state, in keeping with harvest statistics.

Yet statewide, resident pheasant hunter numbers have decreased since peaking in 2006. Nonresident pheasant hunters topped out in 2008. Even with the decline, it’s estimated pheasant hunters add about $19.7 million to the state’s financial system.

Looking past pheasant hunters to different upland chicken chasers, since 2012 about one-third of the 350,000 upland chicken hunters that take to the fields, prairies and mountains are nonresidents. This determine excludes wild turkey hunters. In their case, since 2017 a complete of about 290,000 turkey hunters, 8% of that are nonresidents, pursued the massive birds within the fall and spring.

The upland recreation chicken plan containing these information, and much more, was first written in 2011 and is now proposed for an update.

“A decade later, the program is in a new era, one shaped by increased opportunities to collaborate with the agricultural community; redefined, and larger regional focus areas; elimination of the statute requiring UGBEP-funded pen-raised pheasant releases; and functionally operating within a balanced budget,” FWP famous within the plan’s introduction.

By logging on to fwp.mt.gov/aboutfwp/public-comment-opportunities/ugbep-strategic-plan, chicken hunters and conservation advocates can study extra about FWP’s plans throughout the state and supply suggestions. The deadline to comment on the up to date doc is Nov. 30.

“It’s dense material but it’s meant to be a guide for program delivery,” mentioned Debbie Hohler, mission chief.

Some of the plan’s objectives for enhancing chicken habitat embody aspen regeneration for forest grouse, institution of numerous meals plots to supply sustenance and canopy and the set up of grazing programs so lands are rested to supply hiding cowl and shelter for birds.

“We look for ways to be a good fit,” Hohler mentioned. “And still provide a means for a rancher or farmer to make a living.”

For sage grouse, this system has recognized about 30 landowners who’re paid a rental payment to protect sagebrush habitat. Landowners are additionally paid to boost or launch pheasants on their property, however participation has dropped to on common about two purposes a yr. One rule for reimbursement is that the pheasant will not be launched for “put and take” looking.

Projects can not exceed $100,000 in funding with out Fish and Wildlife Commission approval. The annual price range for this system is about $750,000, however a just lately awarded federal grant added $1.8 million over three years.

“I will put in a plug for our habitat specialists,” Hohler mentioned. “They are the ones … with a great sense of what needs to be done, and they came up with what we call the wildlife-friendly practices with cover crops and rotational grazing.”

Each yr, this system publishes a guide to all the properties concerned in habitat enchancment tasks the place hunters are allowed access. Landowner permission is required on some properties, others are open with out notification. The information could be discovered on-line on the UGBEP web site.

“We want the landowner comfortable and we offer different ways that hunters can contact the landowner,” Hohler mentioned.

Since 2011, when the primary 15-year strategic plan was drafted, Montana has modified in a single profound means. The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), which paid landowners to put aside acreage for wildlife habitat, has dwindled.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, at CRP’s peak in 2007 Montana had the second highest enrollment within the nation at greater than 3.48 million acres. By 2015, greater than 1.98 million acres had been taken out of this system. In northeastern Montana’s Region 7 alone, greater than 1.1 million acres of CRP was misplaced between 2008 and 2021.

“The advent of CRP in the 1980s enhanced pheasant populations but the loss of CRP over time has resulted in a like-wise but opposite decline,” FWP wrote in its up to date draft plan.

With the lack of these lands, Hohler mentioned her program has pivoted to vary with the instances.

Montana has modified in one other means as nicely, the plan famous: “more and more private land is becoming unavailable for free public hunting opportunities due to increasing amounts of hunting lease agreements.”

“The combination of these factors may have long-term negative consequences for upland bird populations and public hunting access,” FWP famous.

As a end result, the company mentioned it’s necessary to “protect and enhance large blocks of publicly owned land.” These tasks ought to embody native foothill grasslands, FWP mentioned, which offer necessary habitat for sharp-tailed grouse, grey partridge and ruffed grouse.

It’s attention-grabbing to see how Montana’s upland recreation chicken program has modified and developed over time.

Funding dates again to 1987 when the Legislature put aside money from every chicken looking license to help pheasant enhancement.

“The program was intended to pay for the cost of stocking pheasants and releasing them into suitable habitat,” Chuck Johnson reported for the Lee State Bureau.

By 1989 the regulation was amended to permit unspent money to go towards growth, enhancement and conservation of upland recreation chicken habitat.

That didn’t sit nicely with some people in Sheridan and Daniels counties who had been being paid to boost pheasants for launch. They complained FWP wasn’t being cautious with its habitat investments and demanded a legislative audit.

A 2000 audit discovered “inadequate fiscal and management controls, lack of goals and objectives and no standard operating procedures,” Johnson reported.

After the criticism, and doubtless following the lack of FWP personnel in northeastern Montana, the habitat enhancement portion of this system dwindled. Landowners might have been reluctant to participate due to the requirement that lands enrolled in this system need to be accessible to public looking.

By 2009, FWP was criticized for not spending the money it had collected from hunters, with $3.2 million in funding sitting within the financial institution. Another audit was demanded.

“During the audit, FWP officials told investigators that a legally mandated spending cap (of $100,000 per project) prevented them from directing more staffing to the program,” Tom Lutey reported for the Billings Gazette.

As a end result, the Legislature lifted the spending cap and created the primary upland recreation chicken citizen’s advisory council.

Despite some ups and downs, FWP calculated that 460 habitat tasks are lively in Montana, conserving and enhancing almost 350,000 acres of upland recreation chicken habitat whereas offering almost 800,000 acres for public chicken looking. Most of the tasks had been undertaken on non-public land.