Montanans: Support Hunting and Fishing on Our Public Lands

July 2, 2019

This is YOUR chance to play a role in how our public lands are managed and ensure that sportsmen and women have a say about the places where we love to hunt and fish

The Bureau of Land Management is revising its plans that will determine the future management of more than 906,000 acres of public land in western and central Montana, including the Missouri River Breaks as well as the Garnet and John Long Ranges near Missoula. Sportsmen and women must get involved to ensure that the best habitats are conserved and public access for hunting and fishing is maintained.

Please attend a local public meeting in the next few weeks (see schedule below) and share your perspective as a public land user.

These events will offer updates on the planning process, allow the public to share their ideas and opinions on the draft plan, and explain ways for interested citizens to stay involved.

The best way to see that our priorities are included in the plan is to have a presence and provide input at these meetings. Meeting dates, locations, and times, as well as suggested talking points are listed below.

Thank you for taking the time to support our public lands.

Lewistown Field Office RMP

Meeting Location	Date	Time	Address
Winnett	July 8, 2019	5pm – 7pm	Petroleum County Courthouse, 302 E. Main Street
Lewistown	July 9, 2019	5pm – 7pm	Yogo Inn, 211 E. Main Street
Great Falls	July 10, 2019	5pm – 7pm	Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, 4201 Giant Springs Road

Missoula Field Office RMP

Meeting Location	Date	Time	Address
Missoula	July 11, 2019	4pm – 6pm	U of M, Todd Building (Continuing Ed building connected to the University Center), Rooms 203 and 204

Suggested Talking Points:

Conservation of unfragmented, functional habitats: I ask that the BLM safeguard our best hunting and fishing areas by adopting the Backcountry Conservation Area management tool that would conserve important big game habitat, prioritize active habitat restoration and enhancement, and support important public access for hunting and other forms of recreation.
Conservation of Big Game Migration Corridors and Seasonal Habitat: I request that the BLM take steps to ensure the conservation of identified big game migration corridors and winter range. This should include not only conserving corridors that have already been mapped and analyzed by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, but also in ensuring that the RMP is able to conserve migration corridors that will be mapped in the future.
Public access: Public access is necessary for outdoor recreation. I encourage the BLM to identify opportunities to increase access to public lands that are landlocked or difficult to access because there are few or no access points across private land that enable the public to reach BLM lands.

Read the Missoula Field Office RMP

Read the Lewistown Field Office RMP

Photo: Charlie Bulla

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by: Chris Macaluso

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

June 26, 2019

When the Mississippi Hits its High Water Mark, Anglers Shouldn’t Give Up

Annual flooding on the Mississippi River is part of life in South Louisiana

Each year, the Mississippi swells with late winter and spring rain and snowmelt, carrying sediments from the Midwest and the Great Plains down to the Gulf of Mexico. Before levees the length of the river were built to tame floods and help navigation, the swollen river would spill over into the swamps and marshes of Louisiana’s coast, building an intricate web of coastal rivers, bayous, ponds, lakes, bays, and thick, lush marshes.

The land underneath my house in Baton Rouge was built in the last 15,000 years by that annual flooding. The towns of Dulac, Dularge and Grand Isle, where I will launch from to fish in the coming days and weeks are built on land created by the great river in the last 5,000 years.

If the average annual flood is a garden hose, the floods of 2018 and 2019 are a fire hydrant that nobody can figure out how to turn off.

The Mississippi has been above the highwater mark (8 feet on the New Orleans gauge) for going on 230 days and there is no sign it will go below that mark in the coming month. While high water makes shipping more treacherous and dirties adjacent bays, the Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t act to protect New Orleans from flooding until the river gets to between 16 and 17 feet, prompting the opening of the Bonnet Carre’ Spillway, a floodgate located about 25 miles upstream that can direct about a quarter of the river’s flow into Lake Pontchartrain and take pressure off levees that protect the city.

This year, Bonnet Carre’ has been open for a record number of days–86 and counting. And it appears that number will grow to at least 95 days before its gates are shut for good. The old-timers talk about 1973 being the year the Mighty Mississippi almost broke free of its shackles. And the real old timers talk about 1927 when the river experienced unprecedented flooding. Now we have 2019 to add to the annals.

Generally, June is when the river begins to drop below flood stage and settle into its summer and fall channel, and when conditions downriver begin to change as the Gulf of Mexico’s green, saltier waters take over coastal bays southeast of New Orleans.

But this year the flood keeps pushing past and as a result silt-heavy freshwater from the Mississippi, Pearl, Atchafalaya, and Sabine Rivers has inundated coastal lakes and bays across Louisiana’s coast well into the summer. Sure, we understand summer doesn’t start until June 21 on the calendar, but once the thermometer touches 90, it’s summer. And that happened about a month and a half ago.

The muddy waters have some Louisiana anglers discouraged, assuming it’s just not worth the effort to put the boat in the water. But many have persevered, adapting to the freshwater influxes and finding speckled trout and redfish concentrated in areas adjacent to the freshwater, where there is enough salinity for them to feed on the shrimp, mullet,menhaden, and even freshwater shad, bluegill and crawfish that come with the floods. It’s far from an ideal summertime situation, but in some cases the fishing has been outstanding even in areas inundated by river water.

Often, Louisiana anglers lose sight of how adaptive the fish and animals can be. Speckled trout and redfish didn’t show up in Louisiana after levees were built along the Mississippi River. They were here long before that and live here because of the habitat, nutrients and food supplied by the river, not in spite of it. The speckled trout that have left coastal marshes and lakes close to the river to find saltier water this spring and summer will return this fall when the Gulf pushes back against the river,and the Gulf will most certainly push back. Then those fish will find areas full of vegetation, food, and new habitat.

Hopefully this year’s flood will be the catalyst for a serious examination of the way the Mississippi River is managed top-to-bottom. The strategy of narrowing the river, forcing it higher and higher through levees seems to be a failing approach in many parts of the country. Sediment is building up in areas throughout the basin, leading to reduced storage capacity during floods while areas downriver need more sediment to keep up with subsidence.

Those who make policy and folks who live and fish along the great river will have to adapt to what the present and future will bring, just like the fish residing in our favorite coastal lakes and bays have had to change over time.

by: Carl Erquiaga

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

June 25, 2019

Fall Opportunities for Hunters Show What’s at Risk in the Rubies

Nearly 3,000 hunters will take to the field in the Ruby Mountains this fall, but first we must defend this habitat

Results for the Nevada Department of Wildlife big game tag drawings came out late last month, and tags are currently making their way to the mailboxes of successful applicants.

More than 2,700 tags were issued to hunters who will be able to pursue deer in area 10, which includes the backbone of Nevada’s largest mule deer herd—the unparalleled Ruby Mountains. Additionally, 150 elk tags were given out for a depredation hunt in the Rubies under the statewide elk management plan. Finally, eight very lucky hunters have drawn what could be called the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hunt mountain goats in three units within the Ruby and East Humboldt ranges.

In the coming months, these tagholders and their families and friends will be making scouting trips, most likely to be combined with fishing, camping, and hiking in Rubies, as well as the Ruby Lakes Wildlife Refuge, an area known to Nevadans as the Ruby Marshes. Approximately 10 percent of these sportsmen and women will be from out of state, and their spending will bring substantial income to rural Nevada businesses.

Many of these recreationists will be enjoying the area for the first time, while others will be returning to traditional hunting grounds, where they have a long history. All will be building lifelong memories of a special place. I know what that is like.

I tagged my first mule deer buck in the Ruby Mountains more years ago than I care to admit. At just 13 years old, it was where I learned some of the most formative lessons about woodsmanship and the outdoors from close friends and relatives. That November hunt was an adventure I’ll never forget and is still one of my favorite stories to tell.

The Rubies are indeed a special place. But this habitat could be changed forever if we don’t speak out for fish, wildlife, and our outdoor recreation opportunities.

A Landscape Under Threat

Sportsmen and women need to be aware of an ongoing threat to the Ruby Mountains and how they can help. Nearly two years ago, 54,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service land in the Rubies were nominated for oil and gas leasing. After months of careful consideration, the forest supervisor officially decided not to allow leasing of those parcels.

In late January 2019, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto went even further and introduced the Ruby Mountain Protection Act (S. 258) to withdraw 450,000 acres of Forest Service land on the Rubies and East Humboldt Range from oil and gas leasing. The bill had a hearing in May and now awaits further action.

At approximately the same time, additional “expressions of interest”—the mechanism by which parcels are nominated for leasing—were filed for some of the same areas as the original request, as well as other parcels in the southern Rubies. Mule deer migration corridors flank both sides of the mountains, where Nevada’s largest deer herd moves from the high-elevation summer and fall range to its southern winter range.

Oil and gas exploration could negatively impact those corridors. But Cortez Masto’s bill would be a major step forward in protecting and conserving these critical habitats.

Time to Act

S. 258 would be a huge win for anyone who care about this special place, and sportsmen and women need to speak up in support of this legislation.

Still, we can do even more to protect the outdoor opportunities in this area. The Ruby Marshes, nestled against the southeastern corner of the Ruby Mountains, are managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and now is our opportunity to see that they are protected as part of the larger bill. Please ask lawmakers to add the Ruby Lakes National Wildlife Refuge to the lands included in Cortez Masto’s bill to ensure that the hunting and fishing traditions in this area remain intact for future generations.

Learn more and take action at SportsmenfortheRubies.com.

Photo: Tom Hilton via Flickr

by: Randall Williams

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

June 21, 2019

Sportsmen Ask BLM to Support Outdoor Priorities in Eastern Colorado

Draft public lands management plan shows some promising provisions in the preferred alternative, some areas in need of improvement

Canon City, Colo. – On Monday the Bureau of Land Management made public its Royal Gorge Field Office (RGFO) draft Resource Management Plan, which when finalized will guide management decisions over the next few decades on 600,000 surface and 6.8 million subsurface acres of public lands.

A coalition of ten hunting- and fishing-related groups and 23 local businesses have been working alongside a wide range of stakeholders over the past several years to ensure that high-value backcountry hunting and fishing areas are accessible and big game populations conserved in the Royal Gorge Field Office. While sportsmen would like to see some changes to the final plan, the response to the draft plan was generally positive.

“South Park-area BLM public lands offer some truly amazing and wide-ranging opportunities for sportsmen and women,” said Nick Payne, Colorado field representative with the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “This is particularly true in the Upper Arkansas River area, which supports a great deal of recreation. By making a few adjustments to secure sportsmen’s priorities in the final plan – especially for key backcountry hunting areas – the BLM could make this land use plan a success.”

Safeguards for key hunting and fishing lands have been one focus of a years-long community-driven planning process for the South Park area. While some changes have been made to management provisions in the South Park Area, hunting and fishing groups believe this part of the plan remains largely true to the desired outcomes expressed by the community and various stakeholders.

“Although there have been some changes in presentation of the South Park management in the draft RMP, we feel good about where this planning process is headed and believe the community’s priorities can be represented in the final plan,” said Suzanne O’Neill, executive director of the Colorado Wildlife Federation, who has been on the forefront of these efforts since the first discussions in 2011. “Sportsmen, women, and wildlife enthusiasts will remain involved in this process as constructive partners to ensure that the final plan benefits the iconic South Park landscape and community.”

Terry Meyers, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society, pointed out the importance of this plan to Colorado’s bighorn sheep hunters, “Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep hunting units in the RGFO offer hunters the chance to pursue this iconic Western species in Colorado every year. We encourage the BLM to conserve valuable intact habitat and hunting areas in the final plan”

“This process isn’t over yet and there are some things we’d like to see improved,” continued Payne. “But we also appreciate the work put into this plan by the BLM and we will remain at the table to see this process through to completion. We believe it can be a success.”

Photo: Scrubhiker (USCdyer) via Flickr

by: Michael O'Casey

posted in: Habitat and Clean Water

June 20, 2019

Oregonians: Stand Up for Public Lands!

This is YOUR chance to play a role in how our public lands are managed and ensure that sportsmen and women have a say about the places where we love to hunt and fish

The Bureau of Land Management’s Vale District Office manages more than 4.6 million acres of public lands across eastern Oregon including the Trout Creek Mountains and the Owyhee Reservoir. These landscapes provide some of the finest hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation opportunities in the state, as well as important habitat for big game, upland birds, and lahontan cutthroat trout

Currently, the BLM is revising its plan that will determine the future management of these lands for the next 20+ years, and public meetings are scheduled that offer an opportunity for the public to share their ideas directly to the BLM. This process is a key opportunity to help protect habitat of the imperiled sage grouse, determine where Off-Road Vehicles can and cannot travel, and protect wild desert places to camp, hunt and fish. Three main issues will be addressed in this planning process: Lands with Wilderness Characteristics, Off-Road Vehicle and Travel Management and Livestock Grazing. Each meeting will include a brief overview of the alternatives being considered at 6 p.m. Maps, handouts and BLM staff to answer questions will be available for the duration of each meeting. Sportsmen and women must get involved to ensure that the best habitats are conserved and public access for hunting and fishing is maintained.

Please attend one of three local public meetings and make your voice heard – meeting dates, locations, and times, as well as suggested talking points are listed below.

Where and when

Public meetings (All meetings run from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.)

Monday, June 24, at the Four Rivers Cultural Center in Ontario, Ore
Tuesday, June 25, at the McDermitt Community Center in McDermitt, Nev.
Wednesday, June 26, at the Jordan Valley Lions Hall, Jordan Valley, Ore

Suggested talking points

Stakeholder Support: The BLM’s preferred alternative to revert to the management plan from 2002 does not reflect recommendations made after countless years of efforts by diverse stakeholders on the local Resource Advisory Council to improve the management of public lands for recreation and wildlife. Urge the BLM to select an alternative that will protect this landscape’s wild places by limiting OHV travel to existing routes and maximizes opportunities for common-sense conservation that improves the health and habitat of this vast landscape.

Conservation of unfragmented, functional habitats: These high-quality habitats benefit countless species including sage grouse, mule deer, and desert bighorn sheep. Over 2 million acres within the planning area have been identified as mule deer winter range and deserve common sense protections. Backcountry public lands also enable hunters to get away from the crowds and enjoy a quality hunting experience.

Wildlife and fisheries restoration and enhancement: We encourage and support efforts to prioritize active habitat restoration and enhancement on the landscape to benefit big game and other wildlife species.