Montana Contributions to the American System of Conservation Funding

2015 Certified Paid

License HoldersFishing: 399,282Hunting: 229,317

• 83 Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) in Montana, averaging 7,130 acres each, and offering access to sportsmen and women on nearly 600,000 acres of public land.

• The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) released for public comment an Environmental Impact Statement on Bison Conservation and Management, which will ultimately determine whether bison restoration is appropriate, and if so, what harvest opportunities are feasible and consistent with current rules and regulations. • To investigate pronghorn season migrations and understand factors that influence this migration across the Northern Sagebrush Steppe, researchers used ASCF funds to collar and begin tracking 185 female pronghorn.

• Dozens of maintenance projects, including South Sandstone ADA fishing access improvements, Travelers’ Rest State Park Parking Area enlargements and Fox Lake WMA dike repair.

• Montana’s Block Management System, managed by the FWP, facilitates agreements between private landowners and the FWP to allow free hunting access to private lands. As of 2016, roughly 7.3 million acres of land are enrolled in the Block Management Program.

Through the American System of Conservation Funding (comprised of revenue from sporting licenses and Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson/Wallop-Breaux funds), sportsmen and women contribute billions of dollars to conservation. The System is a “user-pays, public-benefits” model, wherein sportsmen and women provide the vast majority of the funding for state fish and wildlife agencies – the primary stewards of our nation’s fish and wildlife resources. The revenue generated through this System helps to conserve fish and wildlife, provide clean water and healthy landscapes, and maintain access to these resources for the public at large, not just hunters and anglers.

2015 Total Licenses/

Permits/TagsFishing: 778,635Hunting: 965,823

Montana sportsmen and women’s contributions to the American System of Conservation Funding:

Pittman-Robertson

Fishing Licenses

Dingell-Johnson/ Wallop-Breaux Total

2015 Funding

2015 National Rankings

Historical Funding Total

Historical Funding US Rank

$30.41 M

6

$693.83 M

9

$11.84 M

$323.19 M

18

18 9

$250.12 M

10

$21.55 M

12

12

$72.04 M

12

$195.06 M

9

$8.23 M

Hunting Licenses

$ 1.46 B

This report is made possible thanks to:

sportsmenslink.org/policies/state/ascf