State Wildlife Priorities

Montana's wildlife priorities include the maintenance, restoration, and enhancement of native riparian/instream/woody draw habitats, native prairie and wetlands. The WHIP effort will focus on grazing management as a tool for habitat restoration and enhancement. Grazing management is a common thread affecting each of these habitats statewide.

Restoration and enhancement practices such as stream channel restoration, bank stabilization, wetland restoration and enhancement, and range seedings will be used to restore fish and wildlife habitat. NRCS will also provide expertise in upland and wetland management planning and contracting to the WHIP effort. In addition to NRCS, our partner agencies and organizations will contribute expertise in stream and wetland restoration and upland seedings for wildlife. .

Photo on left: Degraded stream channels provide poor trout habitat. Photo on right: Restored stream channels and healthy riparian vegetation provide diverse fish habitat. Photos courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

These wildlife priorities will be focused somewhat differently in three geographic areas of Montana (see Montana WHIP Focus Area Map). The WHIP ranking criteria reflects these differing priorities by geographic area as follows:

Intermountain WHIP Focus Area

• First priority: riparian and instream fish habitat
• Second priority: wetlands
• Third priority: native prairie habitat

Here, westslope cutthroat trout and fluvial arctic grayling are state species of special concern, and the bull trout has been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Seventy-five percent of remaining westslope cutthroat trout populations occur on only 5 percent of their historic range, primarily on federal land. Private land habitat improvements are necessary to expand this range and connect isolated genetic stocks.

Bull trout are secure in only 2 percent of the stream segments for which adequate population data exist. Fluvial arctic grayling were once native to the entire Missouri River drainage above the Great Falls in Montana. Grayling now occupy only the Big Hole River drainage, a fraction of their native range. Plans are in place to reintroduce grayling to former stream habitats throughout their original range.

Montana arctic grayling (left) and westslope cutthroat trout (right, photo courtesy USDA Forest Service); species of special concern.

The WHIP effort will combine with existing programs to help prevent the listing of these native trout species. A host of other species, including declining neotropical migrant birds, will benefit from riparian/instream restoration and enhancement. The focus on native bull trout, grayling and westslope cutthroat trout supplements the Future Fisheries Program (Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks), which funds projects that protect or enhance wild and native fisheries habitat in the Intermountain WHIP Focus Area. NRCS expertise in grazing management will fill a need not met by this program or others and will further supplement this effort in which riparian health is so critical. The Deerlodge-Beaverhead National Forest has developed a westslope cutthroat trout strategy and indicated an interest in WHIP as an additional source of assistance for native fisheries habitat improvement on private land. The WHIP habitat priorities in this Intermountain area will complement activities of the Governor's Bull Trout Restoration Team, the Governor's Westslope Cutthroat Steering Committee, the Intermountain West Joint Venture and Prairie Pothole Joint Venture, and the State Elk Management Plan.

The second priority habitat in the Intermountain area, wetlands; will complement existing Prairie Pothole Joint Venture and Intermountain Joint Venture activities under the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP), Trout Unlimited Steering Committee, the Intermountain Joint Venture and Prairie Pothole Joint Venture, and the State Elk Management Plan. And the third habitat type, native prairie restoration, will benefit Columbian sharp-tailed grouse and sage grouse, both state species of special concern, and ground nesting neotropical migrant birds such as Le Conte’s sparrow.

Prairie Pothole WHIP Focus Area

• First priority: wetlands
• Second priority: native prairie habitat
• Third priority: riparian/instream/woody draws

efforts emphasizing wetland restoration and development of upland nesting cover. Through the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), grants totaling $15,433,082 have been made available for private lands wildlife habitat projects throughout the Prairie Potholes Joint Venture. WHIP funds will be an integral part of this focused effort. Restoration of native prairie will be an important component of this habitat improvement project that will benefit a wide variety of ground-nesting neotropical migrants.

The emphasis on wetlands in the Prairie Pothole WHIP Focus Area provides grazing management expertise and supplemental funding in concert with ongoing efforts under the NAWMP. Three Prairie Pothole Joint Venture project areas, Northeast Montana, Beaver Creek and Lonesome Lake, are within this focus area. The recent NAWCA grant provided funding and technical assistance for private lands wildlife habitat improvement projects. WHIP priorities will compliment this program and expand technical assistance, particularly in the area of grazing management. Program priorities also complement the goals of the Montana Wetland Conservation Strategy, the National No Net Loss policy for wetlands and the Bureau of Land Management Wetland Strategy.

Restoration of wetland complexes; a Montana WHIP goal.
Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Jim Stutzman).

Northern Great Plains WHIP Focus Area

• First priority: native prairie habitat
• Second priority: riparian/instream/woody draws
• Third priority: wetlands

Conversion of native prairie habitats to cropland and hay land has destroyed and fragmented more habitat than any other practice. Poor grazing management has also contributed significantly to the decline of many sagebrush/grassland obligate species. These species depend on long term viability with diversity of plants over a wide landscape. Restoration and management of these native prairie habitats will hopefully reverse the decline of many of these species such as sage grouse, swift fox, and piping plover.

Photo on left: Proper grazing management: the key to healthy native prairie. photo on right: Wildlife (greater sage grouse) and livestock are compatible with grazing management planning. Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Gary Kramer).

Riparian areas which include woody draws because of their similarity in functions and values are very important in the Northern Plains Focus Area of eastern Montana. They comprise less than 9 percent of the land base but are some of the most productive and important ecosystems. They provide more vegetative structure and plant community diversity than the surrounding ecosystems. Wildlife use is disproportionately higher in these areas than any other type of habitat in eastern Montana.

The wetlands predominately found in the Northern Great Plains Focus Area are associated with riverine systems. Surface water is present for extended periods, especially early in the growing season, or may persist throughout the growing season. In some cases, water is absent at the end of the growing season or surface water does not flow continuously, as when loss from evaporation or seepage exceeds the available stream flow. The subsurface water is important to improve ponding characteristics of wetland complexes vital in providing quality habitat for waterfowl, shorebirds, wading birds, and neo-tropical birds, while also supporting an increase in plant community diversity. Nearly 60 percent of Montana’s threatened and endangered species rely on wetlands for all or part of their seasonal needs.

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