In an email exchange, of which I have been made privy to, it shows that even among the ranks of those with a common interest, opinions vary and disagreements persist.

A concerned Montana citizen, Tom Madden, sends an email to Gary Marbut, President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA). Madden takes Marbut to task in what he sees as the position of the MSSA to “gut” the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP).

The thought of a group like yours wanting to gut the FWP is very unsettling to many of us and we see it as yet another attempt or reason to institute Ranching for wildlife which would kill the sport of fair chase hunting and the reason most Montanan’s live here and work for shit wages.

From this email, it appears that Mr. Madden believes what problems exist in wildlife management in Montana can be rectified through government legislation. Ironic as it appears, Madden blames the problems of wildlife management on the Legislature and suggests using the Legislature to correct those problems. His solution is a bill that “increases the elk objectives” so there are enough elk to feed both hunters and large predators; a task easy to express and difficult to accomplish.

Increasing the the elk objectives across the board by 35% would do wonders to bring the elk heards[sic] back. also[sic] create and pass a bill that has a wolf objective number that would only allow X number of breeding wolves thus reducing the unregulated wolf population.

Madden further goes on to reveal that his perceptions are that “sportsmen” must all comprise a population of wealthy people of whom the majority spend $50 – $100 a day at the shooting range, are members of country clubs and can drop $50 – $100 anytime they have a mind for a tank of gas, and as such should be able to pay whatever the price is that MFWP asks for a license fee.

Madden promises Marbut that his group of “sportsmen” are going to bring “MANY bills” to the Montana Congress, that will be “PRO sportsman”, full of “common sence”[sic], and “good bills, well thought out that include resident sportsmen.” Madden suggests MSSA “take a proactive approach to fixing the problems created by the Legislature”.

Gary Marbut responded directly to Mr. Madden by first explaining who specifically MSSA advocates for.

MSSA does not advocate for “sportsmen.” MSSA advocates for hunters, primarily the typical Montana hunter who needs to fill his freezer to feed his family for the following year. Frankly, we don’t care much about cockfighting, fox hunting with hounds and horses, collecting trophy mounts, or many of the other things covered by the term “sportsman.” MSSA does not advocate for landowners or ranchers. They have their own lobby. Ditto outfitters.

Marbut explains that those MSSA advocates for “certainly not any more wealthy, on average, than the average Montana citizen”, and shares the reason these Montana citizens aren’t buying is because, “there is nothing left to hunt, because FWP has gone so readily along with the plan to feed Montana’s game herds to large predators (especially wolves, but including bears and lions) rather than Montana families.”.

After an explanation of the positions of MSSA, Mr. Marbut then takes the MFWP to task for their failures citing:

1. “FWP has clearly failed in its duty under law to properly manage and protect Montana’s herds of huntable game – to preserve those herds for those who have always paid the bills, hunters. The agency has long maintained a culture of arrogance and disdain for what anyone but the FWP elite wish to do or accomplish with Montana’s hunting heritage.”

2. “FWP even vigorously opposed MSSA’s decade-long but ultimately successful effort to put the Right to Hunt into the Montana Constitution.”

3. “FWP has been begged, asked, persuaded and even commanded by the Legislature to change its ways and listen to common sense. The agency has made endless excuses why it does something different than is requested, or even mandated by the Legislature. The agency will NOT listen.”

From this point, Marbut explains why his position is to “gut” MFWP.

FWP has demonstrated for far too long that it simply doesn’t care what anyone but the agency thinks or wants and will use any disingenuous tactic to defend its turf. The only recourse it has left Montana is to jerk the rug out from under it. I wish things had not come to this impasse, but it is only FWP that is responsible. At this point, no amount of promises to “do better” will satisfy the thousands of Montanans who have watched in frustration as FWP sold out our heritage.

Robert Fanning, Jr. is a candidate for the office of governor in the state of Montana. He is also founder of Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd. As a recipient of the above referenced email, Fanning took the opportunity to show his position on wildlife management in his home state. In August of 2011, the early stages of Fanning’s campaign, he shared with supporters his proposals for MFWP if he were governor. In the email he urges us to read what he wrote last August and to reference a bill, HB343, proposed in 2007 that was to seek the removal of gray wolves in Montana from the Endangered Species List and just as importantly seek damages caused by the reintroduction of wolves and the poor management since reintroduction.

While I have provided above a link to Fanning’s August proposals, I have decided it would be appropriate to republish his piece here.

Robert Fanning, Candidate Mt. Governor Reveals His Proposals for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department

In a recent email sent out to subscribers, Robert T. Fanning, founder of Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd, outdoorsman, economist, political activist and now candidate for Montana governor, offered some of his notions of what a revamped Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department would look like under his watch.

1) Mt. FW&P primary mission will be about access to wild game meat for Montanans’ poor, voiceless and common man (especially-particularly veterans) rather than feeding federal wolves valuable protein which is the property of our citizens. See 2005 HJR 29 which I helped author below, these are the values of a super majority of our citizens.

2) Non game species will be defunded except for the location, collaring and control of wolves in strict adherence with Montana law.

3) Montana FW&P will get a regular, true and accurate peer reviewed census of the location and number of every ungulate within her 147,042 sq mi borders. The F&G commission will see to it that Montanans are given access to huntable game populations all over the state. Conservation easements, etc. don’t transfer title of Montana’s game herds to private land owners.

4) All wolf packs will be located and collared in strict adherence with Montana law. The federal “Wolf Implimentation Rules of Nov. 18 1994″ will be overriding policy for all problem wolves.

5) Once Mt FW&P has been completely restructured and streamlined; administration, oversight, all funding and policy direction, will be completely turned over to the legislature. The Executive branch will never again be able to use our wildlife policy to raise money for an Executive branch political campaign war chest.

6) Mt FW&P will not be allowed to lobby the legislature. They will answer the Legislatures’ direct questions as informational witnesses, then leave the Capitol building.

7) SENATE BILL NO. 163….2001 Montana Legislature will be reversed IF the federal government does not pay for their unfunded “experimental non-essential” wolf mandate and install a federal 5th amendment restitution mechanism for those “harmed” in the past and all those forced to pay “the wolf tax” in the future. Natural rights, civil rights and Constitutional rights will trump the ESA in Montana, so help me God.

Echinococcus granulosus hydatid disease, neospora caninum and 28 other wolf born diseases & parasites will be objectively studied with highly competent peer reviewed science and quantified as public health threats, threats to our ungulates and their capacity to reproduce/recruit and Montanans’ livestock industry.

by

Gary Marbut, president
Montana Shooting Sports Association

Reader Comment (655 words)

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks is reported to be running out of money because of decreased hunting license purchases, and is considering asking the Legislature for license fee increases. This is the first obvious symptom of something known as agency “death spiral” for FWP.

Over the past two decades, FWP has come to focus on wildlife and biology, when it should have been focused on fish and game. This includes FWP’s shocking tolerance and support for large predators. FWP’s total, willing, even eager cooperation with fostering excessive populations of large predator has long been predicted to end in a financial crash for the agency, as word unavoidably spreads that there is no game left to hunt so there is no reason to buy a license.

For too long, FWP leaders have leaned on the scales of public policy by making excuses for the devastation wrought upon game herds by large predators, by fudging game counts and census numbers, and by blaming any game population declines that could not be covered up on climate change, sunspots, lazy hunters, or aliens – anything but the truth. This coverup culture has been fostered by senior staff, always near retirement, who knew they’d be long gone from the hot seat when the FWP financial bus blundered off a cliff.

If the overall FWP attitude had not been so Hell-bent on “ecosystem management,” “biological diversity,” “natural balance” and other similar catchy but terminal “green” ideas destined to end hunting, FWP managers would have predicted the current agency financial crisis years ago. Nobody at FWP noticed or cared several years ago when the editor of the NRA’s nationwide American Hunter magazine published a feature article about his fruitless elk hunting trip to southwest Montana, a trip where the only tracks he saw were wolf tracks. Nobody at FWP noticed or cared about the other hundreds of warnings from Montana citizens. Worse, those warnings were even ridiculed by FWP in mad pursuit of its own elite agenda.

The stock mantra from FWP managers has been: We’re the professionals. We know best. The outcome that concerned citizens predict will never come to pass. The “evidence” of crashing game herds citizens offer is just “campfire stories” and is without merit because it doesn’t come from paid FWP “professionals.”

Yet when retired FWP employees, freed from the institutional FWP muzzle, tell that FWP-tolerated wolves are turning the Montana landscape into a “biological desert,” FWP dismisses such comments summarily.

For the last two decades, FWP has been busy digging a hole for itself. As it sees daylight disappearing around the edges of the hole, it still won’t quit digging.

Of course, the obvious solution for the bureaucratic-bound and reality-disconnected FWP will be to announce, “We’ve been managing wildlife for the general public (including the non-Montana public) for years. Now we need the general public to pay the bills.” FWP has so fouled its nest by wasting the Montana hunting resource on predators and inadvisably removing hunters from the economic equation that it will now go to the Legislature asking for relief, including increased fees that hunters simply won’t pay to access a vanishing resource, and, ultimately, asking for tax increases on the general taxpayer seeking a bailout from the results of its bad decisions.

You can bet that when FWP approaches the Legislature demanding an allowance increase as a reward for having flunked Econ 101, MSSA and thousands of Montana hunters will be there to say “Absolutely no way.” FWP has not only ignored the many warnings from Montana hunters, it has mocked and disrespected them. Also ignoring a state law requiring it to control large predators to protect game herds, FWP has bulled its way down a path surrounded with warning signs.

What FWP needs is not more or alternate sources of money, but a total change in attitude and culture. Until that happens, let FWP starve! It is not serving Montana.

MISSOULA, Mont.–Longtime volunteers of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Keith and Linda Ward of Huson, Mont., have finalized a deal to permanently protect 1,050 acres of area ranchland that serve as important habitat for elk and other wildlife.

On Dec. 16, the Wards placed their Checkpoint Ranch, some 20 miles west of Missoula, Mont., between Ninemile and Sixmile creeks, under conservation easement with RMEF.

The legal agreement restricts development in perpetuity even if land ownership changes.
Affected acres will always be, “much as they are today–farmland, ranchland and native wetlands, meadows and forests,” said Mike Mueller, lands program manager for RMEF.

RMEF brokered the deal, assisted with the legal processes and will monitor easement provisions annually.

“Checkpoint Ranch is one of the largest remaining private parcels in the area, and since it’s connected to adjoining federal and state lands, the conservation impacts of this easement are truly on a landscape scale,” said Mueller. “Habitat fragmentation is a real concern with the increasing subdivision in the Ninemile area. By protecting this ranch, we’ve helped secure the viability of habitat across a much larger area.”

Habitat on the ranch supports an area elk herd of 150-200 animals. Elk are most abundant on the ranch during fall rut, winter and calving season–in fact, biologists say the ranch is one of the preferred calving areas in the surrounding region.

Many other game and nongame species also are commonly observed.

The easement does not provide public access. However, in partnership with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Dept. (FWP) and RMEF, the Wards have developed an elk management plan and enrolled part of their property in a special FWP program that provides the public with limited, high-quality, herd-management hunting opportunities.

The 1,050-acre tract, part of the historic Scheffer Ranch now owned for 20 years by the Ward family, is actually protected via two different easements. One 890-acre easement was partially donated by the Wards and partially funded by the Missoula County Open Space Bond Program. An adjoining 160-acre easement, which covers the original Scheffer Ranch homestead, was fully donated by the Wards.

Combined, the value of the Wards’ donations is approximately $2.7 million.

David Allen, RMEF president and CEO, thanked the Wards for their generosity and credited three RMEF partners–Missoula County Commission, Missoula County Rural Initiatives and Missoula County Open Lands Citizen Advisory Committee–for “using open space bond funds to save an incredible piece of wild country in the kind of place that’s prone to future development.”

Supporters of the project included Lolo National Forest, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Montana Department of Transportation, Ninemile Wildlife Movement Area Working Group and Salish and Kootenai Tribes.

Keith Ward, president of Bob Ward and Sons Sporting Goods, has served multiple volunteer terms on the RMEF board of directors. He is a past chairman of the board and has served a variety of leadership roles on committees. The Wards also are active in many other conservation and sporting organizations.

Since the start of the wolf hunting seasons in Idaho and Montana, as one might expect, I have received several photos of killed wolves. I seldom post the photos because I have no way to easily verify the authenticity of the information that accompanies the photo, so I just leave it alone.

Even dating back to the first wolf hunts in Idaho and Montana (2009), it seemed the most popular pose for photo taking of one’s trophy wolf, was very similar to that of the photo I’ve provided below.

This is a bit troublesome for the hunters and trappers, I was disappointed to think that I and others haven’t done a good enough job educating the sportsmen on a good and proper way of handling these critters.

Several years ago now, it was discovered through testing, that about 2/3rds of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies were carrying echinococcus granulosus (E.G.) eggs. These eggs get deposited all over the landscape through the feces droppings of infected wolves. The eggs remain viable for long periods of time under some very harsh conditions and can be deadly to humans if ingested.

In addition to finding E.G. eggs in wolf and coyote scat, these eggs can readily be found clinging to the fur of wolves, especially near the anal area of the animal. Or, as all of us are aware, canines do a lot of licking in places most humans wouldn’t care to lick, and as such these eggs could be found around the mouth and head area of the wolves.

When hunters and trappers choose to hold and pose with a dead wolf in the fashion depicted below, they run the risk of coming in contact with these viable eggs.

I sent a copy of the email I received that had the below photograph in it to a few scientists and authorities on wolves and canine diseases. Will Graves, author of “Wolves in Russia: Anxiety Through the Ages“, responded with: “At a minimum, hunters should handle bagged wolves carefully to reduce risk of picking up E.G.”

Also this morning, Dr. Valerius Geist, professor emeritus of the University of Calgary and well-known authority on animal behavior and has also studied about canine diseases, wrote: “over 50 years ago i was instructed as a budding wildlife biologist at the University of British Columbia to be careful bout wolves, as there was a possibility of contracting hydatid disease from Echinococcus granulosus eggs in the fur of the wolves. It’s the same warning issued officially to trappers in British Columbia. At the very least, wash hands as quickly as possible after handling a wolf and never eat without washing hands first.”

If hunters and trappers find it absolutely necessary to take up this kind of pose, my advice is to then use every precaution to reduce the risk of picking up any eggs on their own clothing and/skin. It poses considerable risk if those eggs are carried on the hunter or trapper back home with them running the possibility that a family member or pet could pick them up.

Please use extreme caution when handling these animals.

MISSOULA, Mont.–The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation is on record supporting a proposal to extend wolf-hunting seasons in Montana through the end of 2011, and beyond if necessary, until the harvest quota is met.

In a Nov. 28, 2011, letter to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department, RMEF President and CEO David Allen wrote, “RMEF believes that it is very important that hunters be allowed as much time as possible during these winter months to harvest the statewide quota of 220 wolves.”

Allen reminded the agency that elk and other big game herds in certain areas are being significantly impacted by burgeoning wolf populations, along with black bears, grizzlies and mountain lions. RMEF encouraged state officials to actively manage and control predators in these areas.

RMEF also suggested reviewing “means of take” regulations to maximize opportunities for hunters to meet harvest quotas.

“It is very unlikely that sport hunting will provide adequate control of wolf populations going forward. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the public should prepare for more aggressive wolf control methods, perhaps as early as summer 2012,” added Allen.

This showed up in my email box this morning. Says it was taken near Idaho and Montana border but I have no way of knowing that. Whether it was or it wasn’t, that’s a BIG wolf, or so it appears to be in this photo.

Disguised as environmentalism, that mostly fabricated “science” we are told will save the planet, the effort to steal private lands is alive and well in the United States. The Endangered Species Act is the most dangerous piece of legislation Americans own today, simply because it has become a horrific and deadly tool to take away our God-given rights and steal our property.

Yeah, yeah, yeah! I know. Too many indoctrinated and ignorant Americans will laugh and scoff at such statements because this would never happen in America…..right? And yet, the evidence stares them directly in the face. All one needs to do is open his or her eyes to behold.

Recently at the University of Montana a group calling themselves scientists gathered to discuss many things, among them the need to take private lands for the good of wildlife because it just seems that to these people the public lands, which comprise nearly 60% of the total land base of Idaho, isn’t enough for the animals. The Federal Government owns and controls over 30% of our total land and this isn’t enough?

When you read the article you’ll see that the culprit who thinks your land is worth taking for wildlife, Michael Soulé, refers to the need to pillage land as “recruit(ing” private land owners. Don’t be fooled by the choice of words.

People like Soule want your land. They first came as the Federal Government to “set aside” lands for the good of the Motherland. That wasn’t enough. It was discovered that endangered species declaration could chew up another chunk of private lands as well as destruction of rights. Introducing wolves has been quite effective and now these groups and individuals have become so brazen in their actions they just simply state they want your land. Are you going to give it to them?

If you read the entire piece, you’ll discover also some discussion about how “computer modeling” will help “scientists” see what the future looks like when one inputs their ideological theories into this devised software. When you consider the amount of trouble the world has gotten itself into with the inaccuracies and political hostage taking of computer modeling, there is absolutely no reason to have any confidence that “new” computer modeling is any different. It is created for one purpose and one purpose only; to achieve desired results. We the American people have the choice of being brain dead followers and accepting it or doing something about it. I have a pretty good idea what the end result will be.

Tom Remington

MISSOULA, Mont.–An ongoing project to conserve habitat and secure public access for the future has reached 1,480 total acres along central Montana’s Tenderfoot Creek.

A coalition of partners including the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Bair Ranch Foundation, Tenderfoot Trust and U.S. Forest Service on Sept. 21 moved two tracts totaling 320 acres into public ownership as part of the Lewis and Clark National Forest.

The project’s first phase in 2010 conveyed 1,160 acres to the national forest.

All together, 8,200 acres are planned for the Tenderfoot project.

The project will help square up checkerboard ownership patterns between the area’s private and public landowners. Larger contiguous blocks of ownership help avert long-term habitat fragmentation. Better for fish and wildlife, better for resource managers, better for anglers and hunters.

RMEF President and CEO David Allen said, “The Tenderfoot area is an elk hunter’s dream–but it’s also a real estate developer’s dream. It’s a prime place to be subdivided for trophy home or cabin sites and we would rather that did not happen. If everyone can continue to work together to conserve this landscape and secure access for the future, it will be a wonderful gift for our grandkids.”

The project’s first phase in 2010 was helped by a $1.5 million appropriation through the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The fund uses no taxpayer dollars, but rather royalties from offshore energy development. This year, with Congressional stalemates and budgetary cutbacks, the Tenderfoot project was passed over for LWCF funding. However, other federal funds and grants, together with RMEF donors, members and volunteers, kept the project moving with a smaller-than-expected second phase.

An RMEF purchase option with the seller extends for two more years.

The seller, Bair Ranch Foundation, is a philanthropic trust of the original property owners who felt the unique landscape should be forever available for public use.

Additional funding has come from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust and Cinnabar Foundation.

Public support for the project is very high. Meagher County Commissioners, the White Sulphur Springs community, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Montana Dept. of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and various nonprofit organizations have applauded the effort. The entire Montana congressional delegation–Sen. Jon Tester in particular–have supported
the project.

Tenderfoot Creek is a tributary of the scenic Smith River, a famous blue-ribbon trout fishery nestled between towering limestone canyon walls. The creek cascades down 3,200 feet of elevation through classic elk country of the Little Belt Mountains. Conifer forests, massive aspen stands, grass meadows and high alpine basins also are home to mule deer, moose, black bear, many species of birds and a host of other wildlife.