Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks turned 100 years old this year. The story of Montana’s century of conservation, however, is not about a government agency. It’s a story about people from all walks of life who made difficult choices and personal sacrifices to conserve so much of what so many believe is best about Montana. It’s really a comeback story. Maybe one of the best comebacks of all time. In 1888, Benjamin F. Potts, the governor of Montana Territory, looked across the prairie and lamented that, "In many parts of the territory, deer, antelope and elk are openly killed for the hides only and no part of the carcass used for food. If this wholesale slaughter is to continue, the game of the territory will soon be exhausted." It took almost 13 years, but in the late winter of 1901, Montana’s citizen legislature passed an important law. By April, W. F. Scott became Montana’s first State Game Warden and Montana’s "Fish and Game" was born. Montana’s first hunting and fishing licenses were sold to nonresidents the same year. They paid $25 to hunt big game and $15 for game birds. By 1905, Montanans, too, would pay $1 per family for the privilege to hunt and fish. With that modest fee, Montanans gained a voice as wildlife conservation advocates that continues to be heard today. In those early days, work began in earnest to restore what a few careless decades had nearly ruined. Wildlife recovery faced enormous challenges but Montanans weathered the storms to achieve a level of conservation worthy of celebrating. Today Montana has:
- more blue ribbon trout streams than any other state
- more deer than people
- forty-two state parks
- more than 500,000 acres of critical land set aside by the people of Montana for its value as wildlife habitat.
Montana’s investment in conservation has attracted legions that have in turn helped to champion the state’s conservation goals and bolster local economies. Today Montana is a state:
- with about 10 times as many annual visitors as residents
- where one-fourth of all angling is done by nonresidents
- where hunters and anglers spend nearly one-half billion dollars annually creating 12,000 jobs and $170 million in salaries and wages.
With the highest resident per capita hunting and angling participation of any in our nation, hunting--and an abiding love of the outdoors--remains our legacy as Montanans. One hundred years later, perhaps today’s greatest challenge lies in balancing the world-wide appeal of Montana’s natural resources with the growing pressure to use and enjoy them. In this new century, the FWP Commission is already stepping up to this new challenge. In addition, the recently formed Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Foundation set its sights on extending Montana’s conservation efforts in new ways, to include new constituencies to protect threatened species, enhance and expand habitat and preserve historic remnants of the old West in our State Parks. With some luck and extraordinary dedication, the people of Montana have helped to hold to what few other places can claim: a passion to stay on the conservation path Montanans set us on 100 years ago and plentiful choices about the future of the state’s fish, wildlife, cultural, historic and park treasures.
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