Your year 2000 Montana State Parks Passport sports a new look. In place of numbers and letters, you will find the Bitterroot (the state flower). In future years, you will see more colorful Montana symbols on our passports. The passport is valid for one license year (March 1st to the last day of February), but "Early Bird" Passports purchased between December 1st - February 15th are valid immediately upon purchase, if permanently affixed to the interior windshield on the lower left side.
(Parks - November 01, 1999)

Every two years, the Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission reviews the fees charged at Montana State Parks. The Commission is considering several changes for 2000-01. The most notable include: Adopting a "low income passport" that enables people who meet existing Medicaid and Food Stamp eligibility to purchase State Parks Passport at the discounted rate of $16. Dropping the vehicle entrance fee at Ulm Pishkun and charging $2 per person.
(Parks - November 01, 1999)

We suspect that our park field staff cringe each spring when Helena staffers call and offer their services. It is a tradition, however, for central office park employees to complete at least three days of "field work" to stay in touch with our park resources and our visitors. We work under the direction of our rangers, caretakers and frontline employees. We trade our familiar tools for hammers, post-hole diggers, and, yes, even toilet brushes.
(Parks - November 01, 1999)

FWP now joins other land-management agencies in planning how to prepare for and host visitors during the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, 2003-2006. FWP administers several parks important primarily for their ties to the Corps of Discovery: Giant Springs, Headwaters of the Missouri, Clark's Lookout, Beaverhead Rock, and Pirogue Island. FWP manages other lands along the expedition's route including a series of fishing access sites in the Blackfoot River corridor.
(Parks - November 01, 1999)

Have you ever considered being a campground host, visitor-center attendant, or special-project volunteer? Now is your chance to get involved in this exciting and rewarding program. Campground hosts are needed at State Parks and Fishing Access Sites located around the state. Volunteers help us staff our visitor centers, provide evening/weekend programs, and help with special one-time-only projects. CONTACT HELENA.
(Parks - November 01, 1999)

In memory of his father, who was a fly fishing guide on the Madison River, Mike Herrick of Bozeman has established the Vaughn Herrick Memorial Raffle. Mike is donating the proceeds to FWP specifically for improvements at his father's favorite FAS. Mike worked through the Region 3 Office to sort out details of possible projects. This year's donation was used for badly needed road improvements. Future donations will be used for weed abatement, fire rings and picnic tables. CONTACT Bozeman.
(Parks - November 01, 1999)

We are glad to have survived summer. But we would never make it without our seasonal employees. Montana State Parks administers 41 parks and 315 fishing access sites, and other affiliated lands, statewide. With fewer than 50 permanent employees, seasonal employees play an invaluable role in visitor contacts, site maintenance, and resource management. In fact, seasonal employees in Montana State Parks often take on duties that are eligible only to permanent employees in other states.
(Parks - November 01, 1999)

By this time of year, many, though not all, of our State Parks have settled into winter "hibernation." Water lines have been drained, tipis put away, entrance stations closed, and signs mothballed. Montana's winter weather dictates some of this park rest. State Park staffing requires it as well.
(Parks - November 01, 1999)

State Park employees are a frugal bunch. Consider, for example, Don Morris and Ray Swartz, parks maintenance staff in Region 4, out of Great Falls. When they observed that the single bid received for parking lot improvement at the regional headquarters was high, they took it upon themselves to do the job. They saved Montanans $13,800 and got the job done in a single day. The FWP Commission formally recognized Ray and Don for a job well done. CONTACT GREAT FALLS.
(Parks - November 01, 1999)

From August through September, Bannack State Park held public meetings and solicited concerns and preferences to be considered in Bannack State Park's first comprehensive management plan. A group of interested citizens and FWP staff are now gathering data and researching options to shape the plan's recommendations. Bannack's 30,000 annual visitors love its solitude, freedom from commercialization, and ghost-town character.
(Parks - November 01, 1999)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that a petition seeking the listing of the Columbian sharp-tailed grouse as threatened under the Endangered Species Act contains enough information to warrant a full assessment of the species' status. There is only one known Columbian sharp-tailed grouse population in Montana. That population contains fewer than 10 birds and is located near Libby in northwestern Montana.
(Headlines - October 29, 1999)

The Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission will meet Friday, Nov. 12, at FWP headquarters in Helena. At the meeting, which is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m.
(Headlines - October 29, 1999)

The Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission is seeking comment on a tentatively adopted proposal to streamline camping fees at Montana State Parks and introduce a new Parks Passport for low-income residents and families. "We're looking at new ways to make our State Parks more accessible for all Montanans and the commission agrees that our efforts to simplify the fees for parks users is a step in the right direction," said FWP Parks Administrator Doug Monger.
(Headlines - October 29, 1999)

FWP game wardens are reminding hunters that it is illegal to use an aircraft to locate big game animals and then hunt those animals within the same "hunting day." The regulation also prohibits a person in an aircraft from providing information to another for the purpose of hunting those animals within the same hunting day. The FWP Commission defines a hunting day as being between the earliest and latest legal shooting hours.
(Headlines - October 29, 1999)

The Millennium Snowmobile Safety Education Instructor's School will be held on Dec. 4th and 5th, 1999, at Georgetown Lake Lodge. The Lodge is located 20 miles west of Anaconda on the south shore of Georgetown Lake. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is offering training to individuals who wish to serve as snowmobile safety education instructors. The workshop will train volunteers to teach snowmobile safety and ethics in their own communities.
(Headlines - October 29, 1999)

Results from tests of 403 wild elk and deer taken by Montana hunters and wildlife biologists last fall show none of the animals were exposed to Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), an illness that causes weight loss and other symptoms which result in death in elk and deer.
(Headlines - October 15, 1999)

In February, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service sanctioned a special spring conservation order as part of an effort to save fragile arctic habitats from damage caused by exploding white goose populations. The first of its kind spring hunt was designed to use waterfowl hunters to help reduce the population of mid-continent white geese--snow and Ross' geese--in the Mississippi and Central Flyways.
(Headlines - October 15, 1999)

Big game hunters headed afield for the opener on Sunday, Oct. 24 are reminded that they need to purchase a State Lands Recreational Use License if they plan to hunt on accessible State School Trust Lands this fall. The rules that opened Montana's State School Trust Lands contain provisions that may, in some instances, prohibit or restrict some activities. Camping, for example, is permitted only within 200 feet of a normal access point or access route on the property.
(Headlines - October 15, 1999)

FWP's 1999 Block Management Program has enrolled about 930 landowners and nearly 7.3 million acres for public hunting access to private lands and isolated public lands. The big game general hunting season opens on Sunday, Oct. 24. To reduce hunting pressure on some Block Management Areas (BMAs), some landowners have instituted rest days, hunter limits, and alternating days of big game and bird hunting.
(Headlines - October 15, 1999)

Montana hunters have the opportunity to take part in some of the finest hunting found anywhere. But each autumn some individuals unwittingly or knowingly violate our game laws, drawing the ire of those who may witness the acts and causing concern among all who take pride in the state's wonderful hunting heritage. Big game hunters planning to head afield for the opener on Sunday, Oct.
(Headlines - October 15, 1999)

Hunters heading out for Montana's upcoming big game season opener on Sunday, Oct. 24 should be aware that they are required by law to leave proof of the species and sex of all big game animals they harvest attached to the carcass. According to Beate Galda, Administrator of the Enforcement Division for Fish, Wildlife & Parks, evidence of an animal's species and sex must remain attached to the carcass until it is processed (cut up).
(Headlines - October 15, 1999)

The 1,000 volunteers who teach Hunter Education would like to remind all hunters of the three basic rules of gun safety: 1) Always point any shooting device in a safe direction; 2) Be sure of your target and what is beyond and 3) Treat every gun as if it were loaded. Hunting is a very safe activity. It is up to each hunter to make responsible decisions.
(Headlines - October 15, 1999)

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks and the Montana Department of Agriculture are working together to expedite development of a prairie dog conservation plan that should make it unnecessary to list prairie dogs as a threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act, according to FWP Director Patrick Graham. Last October, the National Wildlife Federation petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the black-tailed prairie dog under the federal Endangered Species Act.
(Headlines - October 06, 1999)

The Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission will meet in Miles City on Friday, Oct. 8. On the agenda is a discussion of the tentative Parks fee rule for next season and an update on oil and gas leasing on Makoshika State Park. The Commission will also be asked to take final action on an amendment to the Hirsch conservation easement on the Tongue River. The proposal includes adding approximately three sections to the Hirsch easement. Preceding the meeting on Thursday evening, Oct.
(Headlines - October 01, 1999)

This year's promising ring-necked pheasant season will open Saturday, Oct. 9, at one-half hour before sunrise. According to John McCarthy, FWPs special projects coordinator for wildlife in Helena, the outlook for pheasant hunting is generally better this year than last, especially in central and eastern Montana. The daily limit is three cock (male) pheasants; the possession limit is nine. Hunters must keep one leg and foot attached to each harvested bird.
(Headlines - October 01, 1999)

In setting deer seasons and regulations for 1999, the Fish, Wildlife & Parks Commission continued the validation requirement for hunting mule deer bucks in Montana. Once again this year: * All hunters who purchase a Deer A license must have it validated for any one of eight individual Hunting Areas in southwestern Montana, collectively referred to as the Southwestern 8, OR for the remainder of the state.
(Headlines - October 01, 1999)