Sorted by date Results 151 - 175 of 239
Courtesy MT FWP With the help of an area ranching family, three grizzly bears were rescued and taken to the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks wildlife rehabilitation facility at Montana WILD earlier this month. The cubs were from a sow that was involved in a surprise encounter with a hiker near Dupuyer on Wednesday evening. The sow, which was shot and injured by a hiker, was euthanized by FWP on April 9. At the time, it wasn't clear how many cubs she had, though it was thought she had at least o...
Courtesy PR Extension Office With a shot of moisture and warmer temperatures, people in our community are looking forward to being outside where it is much easier to maintain social distancing practices, get fresh air and some wonderful exercise, noted Powder River Extension Agent Mary Rumph. Mike Schuldt, an Extension agent in Custer County, shared the following article regarding lawn care. “Spring time is our opportunity to make plans to maintain our lawn though the summer months. There are some basic practices to consider implementing to c...
Courtesy MT FWP Following the extension of Montana Gov. Steve Bullock’s directive that out of state travelers must quarantine for 14 days, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks director Martha Williams has suspended nonresident hunting seasons for spring turkey and black bear until at least April 24. Last week, Gov. Bullock extended the mandatory quarantine directive related to COVID-19 through April 24 for travelers arriving in Montana from another state or country. The quarantine directive for out-of-state travelers applies to public outdoor rec...
Courtesy MT FWP The 2020 paddlefish seasons on the Yellowstone and Lower Missouri rivers (yellow tag) are canceled in response to Gov. Steve Bullock’s extension of the directives for social distancing and non-resident quarantine to help stop the spread of COVID-19. As of now, paddlefish season on the Upper Missouri River from Fort Benton downstream to Fort Peck Dam (white tag) will remain in place and the drawing for these limited tags occurred April 6. The fishery opens May 1 and is conducted in a more dispersed manner. There are also no pro...
By Mary Rumph, Powder River Extension Agent As I am encouraging people in our community to go outside to breathe fresh air and enjoy the many benefits of exercise, I was quickly reminded that ticks are out and about, as I carefully brushed them off my pant legs. Ick! I do not like ticks! The most common tick we have here in Montana is the Rocky Mountain wood tick, Dermacentor andersoni. This is common throughout most Montana counties. We also have the American dog tick, Dermacentor variablis, which can be found mostly in the eastern counties...
Courtesy MT FWP The 2020 Deer, Elk, Antelope, Black Bear, and Moose, Sheep, and Goat hunting regulations are available online. The regulations were finalized by the Fish & Wildlife Commission on Feb. 13. Printed copies will be available at all license providers and FWP offices in a couple of weeks. A few things to look for in this year’s regulations: • Elk shoulder seasons have changed, depending on the hunting district. While they’re still in place in many hunting districts around the state, the Commission looked to apply them more specifi...
Courtesy MT FWP As the current license year is winding down, hunters and anglers can look for a few immediate changes for the coming year. The new license year starts on March 1, which means that is the day you can buy your 2020 hunting and fishing licenses and begin applying for permits and special licenses. The deadline to apply for deer and elk permits is April 1. Hunters should keep a couple of things in mind as they look to the application process for this year. First, this will be the first year that hunters will be able to apply for all...
Not harmful to pets, but can affect poultry, game birds Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has had reports from citizens about an unusual number of dead Eurasian collared doves in yards and around neighborhoods this winter. FWP Region 7 submitted some of the dead birds for testing, and results have come back positive for Pigeon Paramyxovirus PPMV-1. Paramyxovirus outbreaks most commonly involve Eurasian collared doves and rock doves and can cause significant mortality. With the increasing...
Courtesy MT FWP Landowners have until March 16 to submit applications to Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks for enrollment in the Unlocking Public Lands Program to be eligible for up to $3,000 in tax credits. The Unlocking Public Lands program is designed to provide recreational public access to state (Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation) or federal (Bureau of Land Management or United States Forest Service) land where no legal public access currently exists. In exchange for access across the private lands, landowners will r...
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Region 7 staff met with its Citizens Advisory Council on Jan. 15, updating members on agency activities and gathering their input on various topics. Seven of the 10 volunteer members attended the annual winter gathering at the FWP regional headquarters in Miles City. Chronic Wasting Disease Chronic Wasting Disease was one of the main topics, since the first cases were detected in Southeastern Montana in 2019. During the general hunting season, portions of FWP Region 7 were high-priority surveillance areas for...
Courtesy MT FWP Hunters and anglers can expect a few changes this year when they buy their 2020 licenses starting March 1. The most visible change Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks customers will see is a change to license paper. Starting this year, both licenses and carcass tags will be printed on normal-sized paper, and license buyers will be able to print them at home. For years, FWP licenses and tags have been produced on weather-resistant paper. However, this paper is not only expensive, but requires printing technology so outdated that i...
Courtesy MT FWP Do you know the difference between a coyote, a red fox and a swift fox? If you are hunting predators in Southeastern Montana, you need to know, because the swift fox is a species of concern and cannot be shot or trapped in this region. Swift foxes are much smaller than coyotes or red foxes and much less common, but there are some similarities that can be misleading if people don't know what to look for. Swift foxes are about the size of a house cat, smaller than red foxes and o...
Courtesy MT FWP The last big batch of test results from animals harvested during the general season and sampled for chronic wasting disease has turned up 16 new positives mostly in areas where the disease is already known to exist. For the first time, a deer tested positive from hunting district 705 in southeast Montana. (Ed: FWP indicates it was a whitetail buck shot along Powder River, south of Broadus.) A second white-tailed buck tested positive in HD 322 in the Ruby Valley near the town of Sheridan in southwest Montana. This batch of test r...
Courtesy MT FWP It's that time of year when ice anglers will be heading out to Montana's waters for the ice fishing season. Ice fishing is a great winter activity that the entire family can enjoy. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks reminds anglers that safety should be the number one concern during a day out on the ice. While the first ice of the year often offers some of the best fishing, it also can be quite variable from location to location and from day to day. Anglers should be familiar with...
Courtesy MT FWP Groups or individuals interested in constructing or improving a community fishing pond have until Feb. 1 to apply for a Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ Community Pond Program grant. The objective of the Community Pond Program is to enhance public fishing opportunities in or near Montana communities by providing funding that may be used to construct or improve a public fishing pond. Applicants must provide at least 30 percent of the total project cost, which can include contributions such as heavy equipment time, con...
Courtesy MT FWP The weekend after Thanksgiving brought more wintry weather for big game season-closing check stations on Sunday, Dec. 1. Hunter numbers were down from last year at two of three stations in Fish, Wildlife & Parks Region 7, along with success rates. “Hunters seemed generally satisfied with their seasons,” said Region 7 Wildlife Biologist Melissa Foster, “but many acknowledged that the weather limited their time in the field this season.” Spring aerial surveys showed that both mule deer and white-tailed deer populations in Region...
Courtesy MT FWP Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is requesting public review and comment on proposed hunting regulations for 2020-21. In FWP Region 7, public meetings are scheduled in January in Miles City and Glendive to outline both statewide and regional proposals for people who are interested in attending. Those meetings will be held on: -Wednesday, Jan. 8 in Glendive at Dawson Community College, Ulman Center Room 102, 7-9 p.m. -Thursday, Jan. 9 in Miles City at Miles Community College, Room 316, 7-9 p.m. FWP will accept public comment on t...
By Bruce Auchly FWP Region 4 Information Officer Can we all agree that winter is here? We probably could have reached that consensus of opinion after the snowstorms of late September and early October, but at times since the weather has seesawed like polling data before an election. Now, however, as Christmas closes in, we realize winter is here. The calendar tells us so, as does the dwindling amount of daylight. So do relatives that keep telling me how nice the weather is now in Arizona. I don’t hear so much from them in the summer. Animals of...
Courtesy MT FWP Samples from three deer harvested in southeast Montana have tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease. These are the first positive results in the southeastern corner of the state. A second test will be conducted to confirm the initial positive results. The positive animals include a mule deer buck shot 60 miles north of Miles City in Hunting District 701 in Prairie County, a white-tailed buck harvested two miles north of Hysham in HD 701, and a white-tailed doe taken near D...
Courtesy MT FWP BILLINGS – Montana recorded its first suspected case of chronic wasting disease in wild elk Monday. The cow elk was harvested by a landowner on private land northeast of Red Lodge earlier this month and samples were extracted from the carcass in Billings Nov. 6. Tests results confirming the suspected presence of the disease were returned to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the hunter on Monday. CWD was found in a herd of captive game-farm elk near Philipsburg in 1999 and the herd was depopulated. Until this week, how...
Courtesy MT FWP It was a very chilly and snowy weekend Nov. 9 and 10, but many hunters still ventured out in southeastern Montana on the closing weekend for antelope season and the third week for deer and elk rifle season. The two biological check stations operating Nov. 10 in Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Region 7 saw about the same number of hunters, with 148 in Ashland and 137 in Hysham. Hysham saw a little better success rate, with nearly 60 percent of hunters harvesting something, c...
Courtesy MT FWP Montana’s watercraft inspection stations set another record for boats inspected in 2019. More than 112,00 watercraft have been inspected so far this year, surpassing last year’s number by 3,000 inspections. Inspectors have intercepted 16 boats with invasive mussels coming into the state. AIS monitoring crews have surveyed 300 unique waterbodies for aquatic invasive plants and animals. No mussel veligers or adult mussels were detected in the waters of Montana this year. That news has prompted FWP to initiate the process to lift...
Courtesy MT FWP With the big game season opener on October 26, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks would like to stress the importance of being safe this year. Last hunting season, Montana experienced more hunting-related injuries and deaths than the past several combined. One of the deaths even resulted in the hunting partner being charged with negligent homicide. All of these tragedies had the same factors in common: loaded firearms. The incidents involved loaded firearms that were being transported in trucks, ATVs, or snowmobiles or by people w...
Courtesy Marla Prell, FWP Region 7 Information Officer Nearly 400 hunters came through three check stations set up around FWP Region 7 on Sunday during the opening weekend of big game season. Overall, traffic and harvest numbers were down from 2018, but many still managed to harvest something on a very cold, blustery day punctuated by snow. The weather was a stark contrast to last year's mild opener, and to short-sleeve temps just a few days ago. "Most of the deer hunters admitted to not v...
Last Tuesday, a group of local residents met with Montana FWP Broadus Area Wildlife Biologist Ryan DeVore to discuss a planned study to look at pronghorn antelope in Southeastern Montana. The local portion of the study will take place in Carter County and eastern Powder River County. The western border of the study area will be from the Wyoming border up Highway 59 to the Big Powder Bridge, then following the river downstream to the Powderville area. The northern boundary of the study area then...
