Public Water, Private Rights: All Are Not Equally Protected When The State Allows Some To Divert Small Quantities Of Ground Water Outside The Permitting System

Public Water, Private Rights: All Are Not Equally Protected When The State Allows Some To Divert Small Quantities Of Ground Water Outside The Permitting Syste

Citizens for Balanced Use v. Maurier

The Montana Supreme Court held that the district court erred as a matter of law and abused its discretion when it granted a preliminary injunction preventing Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (DFWP) from subsequently transferring some Yellowstone quarantined bison from Ft. Peck tribal lands to Ft. Belknap tribal lands. DFWP did not violate the DFWP-specific statute barring it from transferring bison to “public and private lands” without landowner consent, a management plan, and public hearings because tribal lands are neither public nor private lands. Tribal lands are in a special class, and the United States and Tribes retain jurisdiction. Furthermore, DFWP did not violate the law because the Legislature had expressly granted the state authority to transfer bison to Tribes elsewhere in the Montana Code. The Court reversed the district court and vacated the preliminary injunction

Montana’s Greater Sage Grouse Conservation Strategy: All Hands Across All Lands

The greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) was once a candidate for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act across its range.  Unprecedented efforts by states, federal agencies, private organizations, and private landowners led to adoption of conservation strategies to address threats caused by habitat fragmentation, development, and loss of sagebrush.  Montana’s Conservation Strategy is based on the collaborative work of a governor-appointed advisory council, the Montana Sage Grouse Stewardship Act passed during the 2015 Legislative Session, and Executive Orders 12-2015 and 21-2015.  Montana’s Strategy has three parts.  First, Executive Orders 12-2015 and 21-2015 establish regulatory mechanisms to guide development in designated habitats.  The Orders require consultation to assess potential impacts caused by activities requiring a state permit, involving state grant funds or technical assistance, or resulting from the state’s own work.  Federal agencies will align project review with the Orders.  Specific parameters and disturbance thresholds apply, particularly for human activities near leks.  Second, the Stewardship Grant Fund serves to maintain, enhance, restore, expand or benefit sage grouse.  The Fund facilitates free-market mechanisms for voluntary, conservation on private lands by funding projects that produce credits.  Credits can then be purchased by developers in a habitat exchange.  Third, the habitat exchange establishes a compensatory mitigation framework to address impacts which cannot avoided, minimized, or restored and replacement is required.  Montana’s goal is to maintain viable sage grouse populations and conserve habitat and maintain Montana’s flexibility to manage its own lands, wildlife, and economy.  Success requires collaboration across all landownerships to address all threats

Bostwick Properties Inc. v. Montana Department Natural Resources and Conservation

The Montana Supreme Court upheld the law requiring that applicants for new ground water permits in closed basins show no net surface depletion and that the new appropriation will not adversely affect senior water appropriators. Where the relationship between surface and ground water is uncertain or attenuated, applicants still bear the burden of proof, even if the proposed use constitutes only a de minimis quantity. Once again, the Court acknowledged the hydrologic connection between surface and ground water and the underlying legal framework which seeks to make water available for new appropriation and simultaneously protect the water rights of senior appropriators through the prior appropriation doctrine

Using Hunter Survey Data To Estimate Wolf Population Sizes In Montana, 2007-2009

Reliable knowledge of the status and trend of carnivore populations is critical to their conservation. In the Northern Rocky Mountains, wildlife managers need a time- and costefficient method for monitoring the large, growing population of gray wolves (Canis lupus) at a state-wide scale. We explored how hunter survey data could be incorporated into a multiyear patch occupancy model framework to estimate the abundance and distribution of wolf packs, wolves, and breeding pairs in Montana for 2007- 2009. We used hunter observations of wolves to estimate the probability that a given landscape patch was occupied by a wolf pack, and used additional data/models in combination with occupancy model output to provide estimates of total number of wolves and number of breeding pairs. Our modeling framework also allowed us to examine how geographic and ecological factors influenced occupancy and detection of wolf packs. Our models provided estimates of number of packs, number of wolves, and number of breeding pairs that were within 20 percent of Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks minimum counts for 2007-2009. We found occupancy was positively related to forest cover, rural roads, and elevation and detection probability was positively related to hunter effort and forest cover. We believe that patch occupancy models based on hunter surveys offer promise as a method for accurately monitoring elusive carnivores at state-wide scales in a time- and cost-efficient manner

Measures of Success: A Snapshot of the Montana Wolf Program in 2009

Montana’s gray wolf (Canis lupus) population continues to be secure, while the political and legal environments remain dynamic. Wolf delisting is a two-step process. Biological recovery criteria must be met and clearly demonstrated, along with an adequate regulatory framework. Secondly, the delisting decision must be upheld during inevitable legal challenges. The northern Rockies wolf population has met or exceeded numeric and connectivity requirements for many years. The northern Rockies gray wolf population was initially delisted in 2008, but a legal challenge reinstated federal legal protections under the Endangered Species Act mid-summer. By the end of 2008, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks estimated a minimum of 497 wolves in 84 verified packs, 34 of which met the definition of breeding pair. Federal delisting efforts resumed early in 2009 and took effect throughout Montana on 4 May. The second delisting decision was challenged again in Federal Court, although a preliminary injunction request to reinstate federal protections was denied in September. With delisting in Montana, the wolf was automatically reclassified as a species in need of management. Montana’s laws, administrative rules, and management plan also took effect. Montana Tribes lead wolf management activities on their respective reservations. The first fair chase wolf hunting season in Montana occurred in 2009. Seventy-two wolves were harvested through a quota-based framework. Wolves and their management continue to be controversial to a diversity of publics for a wide variety of reasons. Nonetheless, Montana’s wolf program has a solid regulatory foundation and the population is biologically sound. This presentation will provide an update on a variety of topics

Combining Hunter Surveys and Territorial Dynamics to Monitor Wolf Pack Abundance and Distribution in Montana

Carnivores are difficult to monitor on large spatial scales. We developed a patch occupancy model (POM) using hunter surveys to monitor gray wolves (Canis lupus) in Montana, and evaluated the ability of these models to provide wildlife managers with a time-and cost-efficient monitoring technique. We used hunter’s sightings of wolves as our index of occupancy and explored how classifying a patch as occupied based on different minimum number of wolves sighted (1,2,3,4, or 5) or different minimum number of hunters sighting wolves (1,2,3,4,or 5) affected results. We also evaluated how our definition of a “patch” influenced the occupancy estimates by creating POMs with 3 different patch sizes that corresponded to the variation in wolf territory sizes in Montana. We ran multiple models with different patch sizes predicting occupancy classified according to different levels of minimum wolf sightings and minimum hunters seeing wolves. We assessed model accuracy by comparing POM estimates to the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks (FWP) minimum wolf pack count. Our preliminary results showed that patch size did not strongly influence occupancy estimates and that a patch should only be identified as occupied if ? 2 to ? 4 hunters each observed ? 2 to ? 4 wolves in that patch. Within this range, FWP’s minimum wolf pack count fell within the 95-percent confidence interval of POM estimates for 33 percent of the models

Wolf Management In The Northwestern United States

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) were deliberately eliminated from the northern Rocky Mountains (NRM) by 1930. Restoration began in 1986. There are currently nearly 120 breeding pair and 1800 wolves. Wolf restoration initially proceeded with more benefits and fewer problems than predicted. However, conflicts have steadily increased since 2002 when the population first met its minimum recovery goal. About 40 million has been spent since 1974 and the management program currently costs >4 million/yr. Wolves were delisted in 2008 and 2009 but relisted by federal court order in 2009 and 2010. While the NRM wolf population is biologically recovered, public opinion remains divisive and the legal, political, and policy decisions will continue to be litigated by a diversity of interests. Science is a poor tool to resolve the differing human values that continue to be debated with great passion through wolf symbolism

Importance Of Recruitment To Accurately Predict The Impacts Of Human-Caused Mortality On Wolf Populations

Reliable analyses can help wildlife managers make good decisions, which are particularly critical for controversial decisions such as wolf (Canis lupus) harvest. Creel and Rotella (2010) recently predicted substantial population declines in Montana wolf populations due to harvest, in contrast to predictions made by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP). Here we replicate their analyses considering only those years in which field monitoring was consistent, and we consider the effect of annual variation in recruitment on wolf population growth. We also use model selection to evaluate models of recruitment and human-caused mortality rates in wolf populations in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Using data from 27 area-years of intensive wolf monitoring, we show that variation in both recruitment and human-caused mortality affect annual wolf population growth rates and that human-caused mortality rates have increased with the sizes of wolf populations. We also show that either recruitment rates have decreased with population sizes or that the ability of current field resources to document recruitment rates has recently become less successful as the number of wolves in the region has increased. Predictions of wolf population growth in Montana from our top models are consistent with field observations and estimates previously made by MFWP. Familiarity with limitations of raw data helps generate more reliable inferences and conclusions in analyses of publicly-available datasets. Additionally, development of efficient monitoring methods for wolves is a pressing need, so that analyses such as ours will be possible in future years when fewer resources will be available for monitoring