The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) is in the process of implementing a voluntary, incentive-based conservation lease program for private landowners to protect high-priority habitats.
“This will be a very effective conservation tool in our toolbox for protecting critical habitat in crucial sagebrush and prairie grassland areas of Montana,” said FWP Director Hank Worsech. “It will be yet another way FWP can work with the landowner to protect habitat.”
The program would support working lands, public hunting and recreation opportunities on up to 500,000 acres in the next five years for a 30-year or 40-year period.
Under the lease agreements, landowners can determine what portion of their property they want to enroll in a conservation lease, and they would be paid a fixed rate per acre depending on the habitat type.
FWP has prioritized five crucial habitats for maintaining wildlife, including game species and Montana’s “Species of Concern.” The habitats include sagebrush grasslands, mixed grass (lowland) prairies, wetland grasslands, intermountain shrubs and grasslands, and riparian flood plain habitats.
Landowners can continue their agricultural and land management activities, including grazing, so long as they do not change the land use with tillage, herbicide treatments on native vegetation, wetland draining, building or energy development.
Ken McDonald, administrator for the Wildlife Division of FWP, said during an informational meeting in June that FWP is working on the rates and payments. According to the environmental assessment report, FWP would pay landowners a fixed rate per acre, ranging from 5-10 percent of the fee simple value.
The lease would be recorded with the county and would transfer with the land if ownership changes. Lease agreements can be canceled before the term end, but the landowner would be subject to paying FWP a prorated value of the original lease payment and an additional cost for liquidated damages equal to 25 percent of the initial payment.
Landowners must allow public access to hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing for a minimum number of days based on enrollment size. For enrollments up to 3,000 acres, a minimum of one recreation day/month for every 300 acres would be required. For enrollments 3,001 acres and over, a minimum of one recreation day/month would be set for every 1,500 acres. Public recreation access would include hunting during the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s approved seasons, between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31.
McDonald said acreage could be enrolled in the conservation lease program and also in the Block Management program. The Block Management program helps landowners manage hunting activities. According to FWP, approximately 1,200 landowners enrolled for the 2020 hunting season, totaling 7.1 million acres.
McDonald, speaking before the Environmental Quality Council—which oversees FWP—said one of the concerns and comments regarding the program is whether it will replace or take away from Habitat Montana, a program for conserving threatened habitats.
“We want to make it real clear that that isn’t the case,” McDonald said. “It’s an addition to, not in replacement of, acquisitions and easements.”
Sen. Pat Flowers (D-Belgrade) questioned how the program would be funded. Under the program, 25 percent of the funds would come from the state, and the remaining 75 percent would stem from federal Pittman-Robertson dollars—an excise tax on firearms and ammunition that funds conservation and restoration projects.
Flowers also questioned why the conservation program is in the best interest of sportsmen and sportswomen in terms of a lease versus an easement and said using funding from Habitat Montana for a lease would take away from easement dollars.
“Our thinking is there’s a lot of landowners interested in conservation, interested in maintaining working lands, but not interested in a perpetual easement,” McDonald said. “It’s viewed as an additional tool to incentivize conservation.”
McDonald continued the lease program will be strictly funded with Pittman-Robertson and Habitat Montana funds, and it won’t be a question of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” when supporting both programs.
The council also raised questions about exercising mineral rights. McDonald noted that if the owner of the mineral rights and surface rights were the same person, they could not exercise their mineral rights. However, if the parcel was a split estate of two separate people, the owner of the mineral rights could exercise their claim.
Sen. Mike Lang (R-Malta) commended the program as an alternative to the easements because many landowners do not want their land held in perpetuity, especially in eastern Montana. Lang said the lease program would benefit the sage grouse credit program and protect the sagebrush habitat.
Marcus Strange, director of state policy and government relations at Montana Wildlife Federation, told the council the organization has concerns regarding the program. Specifically, Strange said there are concerns with the amount of expenditures, as the environmental assessment report does not provide an evaluation of the ecosystems listed. Strange said the program needs more oversight and public input.
McDonald said the department anticipates it will cost $35 million over five years if the agency enrolls 500,000 acres.
Raylee Honeycutt, Montana Stockgrowers Association (MSGA) interim executive vice president, told WLJ the program provides another tool in the toolbox that producers can consider when making management decisions.
Honeycutt said the more tools the producer has that fit their operation, the better. The lease program allows landowners the opportunity to provide habitat for wildlife throughout the state, as conserving habitat is a priority for producers.
“What is nice about this option is that it does provide landowners who choose to engage in it some flexibility, whether it’s in terms of years or requirements, and one of the bigger concerns for our constituents is that they don’t typically like to get locked into perpetual leases,” Honeycutt said. “But really, big picture wise, it has to be right for ranch operations.”
Honeycutt said MSGA raised an issue with allowing public access, which would be a limiting factor for some producers.
The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission will consider the program at its Aug. 25 meeting in Helena. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
