NRA applauds efforts made by states to create greater public access to prime hunting land. And a new state habitat enhancement program in Montana is opening more land for bird hunters and providing landowners incentives to extend their participation in the Conservation Reserve Program.
Through the Upland Game Bird Habitat Enhancement Program, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks recently funded five new projects located in Carbon, Garfield, Hill, and McCone counties. The new habitat program provided additional incentives to landowners to extend their CRP agreements, enhance enrolled acres in a manner more productive to pheasants and other game birds, and to open those lands to upland game bird hunting.
Nearly 2,000 CRP acres have been enrolled in 3- or 5-year contracts under the Upland Game Bird Habitat Enhancement Program. Two of the five projects are located on 2009 Block Management Areas, which offer public hunting access to private lands. (For information about these Block Management area use rules, refer to the Region 1-5 Hunting Access Guide, available from any FWP regional or Helena headquarters office or upon request at the FWP Web site The remaining three projects offer an additional 1,000 acres of walk-in upland game bird hunting. Each project area is marked with special signs.
Landowners can apply to enroll in the Upland Game Bird Habitat Enhancement Program if they improve the upland bird habitat on their property and keep it open to reasonable public hunting. In general, the project should comprise at least 100 contiguous acres. Up to 75 percent of the costs can be reimbursed, and state wildlife biologists will assess possible improvements and help prepare a management plan. More conditions may apply. For details visit FWP's Web site at www.fwp.mt.gov and click "New Opportunities for Upland Game Bird Hunters.”
