The land we manage for you

Montana has much to offer. We have abundant wildlife, clean water with lots of fish, and a slower pace of life that has disappeared elsewhere.

Yes, Montana has much to offer — and plenty of people who want to take us up on that offer. That’s why Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks works hard at maintaining the Montana lifestyle. FWP, through its land management practices, attempts to preserve natural areas, working landscapes and abundant opportunity for those who enjoy the outdoors.

To ensure we are performing our mission, Gov. Steve Bullock asked FWP to assess its land holdings and evaluate the operation and maintenance of its properties, management priorities and good neighbor policies. Basically, Gov. Bullock has asked FWP to better explain what we are doing and why with the land we manage.

Montana is big state, of which FWP oversees a tiny fraction — 448,000 acres in conservation easements; 18,178 in fishing access sites; 365,271 in wildlife management areas; and 38,901 set aside in state parks.

Under state law, FWP pays taxes on these lands equal to the amount that a private landowner would pay. In 2012, FWP paid more than $767,000 in property taxes to Montana counties.

That total of 879,350 acres managed by FWP sounds like a lot, but it represents less than one percent of Montana’s total 94.1 million acres.

The land FWP controls falls into two main categories — land owned (fee title) and conservation easements. In each case, agreements are struck only with willing sellers, and every property’s value is appraised by licensed land appraisers.

Fee title land comes in several forms, like fishing access sites and state parks. The majority, however, is wildlife management areas.

WMAs primarily serve as wintering areas for big game, lands on which mule deer and elk can survive the winter without human pressure. That helps not only wildlife but sometimes neighboring ranches, too, that don’t want their livestock competing with big game for forage.

Conservation easements are a totally different ball game. Although FWP’s land acquisition stretches back 70 years, changes to the state’s population and economics in the 1980s led the 1987 Legislature to pass House Bill 526, now called “Habitat Montana”. The legislation directed FWP to protect important habitat that is threatened, primarily by working with private landowners using conservation easements.

Just like fee title sales, conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements only made with willing sellers. In the case of conservation easements, however, FWP typically pays a landowner 40 to 45 percent of the value of the property. In return, the landowner agrees to keep the land in traditional agricultural use, employ agricultural practices that benefit wildlife, and forgo agreed-upon development opportunities. In addition, most easements provide public access for hunting.

Landowners still own the property, which typically continues to stay in agricultural production. Owners can sell or pass it on to heirs. But the title carries the agreed-upon terms of the easement, which are negotiated to remain with the land forever.

Money to fund Habitat Montana comes from hunting license fees — none comes from the state’s checkbook, commonly referred to as the general fund — and it amounts to about $4 million a year. Over the past 35 years, Habitat Montana has protected and enhanced several hundred thousand acres of wildlife habitat.

Conservation easements serve purposes as varied as keeping sage brush communities intact for sage grouse and connecting wildlife corridors for big game migration.

Whether through fee title ownership or conservation easements, land tied to FWP must be managed carefully, taking into account, wildlife stewardship, private land ownership and the public’s desire to hunt and fish. Include the foundation of being a good neighbor and FWP faces challenges — lots of them.

Whatever the obstacles, FWP’s bottom line here is conserving wildlife habitat and providing a place for people to hunt, fish and enjoy this state, far from the hectic bustle that has infected too much of America.

Jeff Hagener is the director of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.