The Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Foundation has raised $600,000 in the past two years.
"Our mission to preserve the magic of Montana continues to draw the interest and
commitment of individuals and foundations," said Spence Hegstad, the Foundation’s FWP liaison. The MFWP Foundation seeks to support important work benefiting Montana’s fish, wildlife, parks and natural habitats not funded in traditional ways such as by sportsmen and women’s license fees.
Major donors to the MFWP Foundation to date are: the Wendy P. McCaw Foundation, William H. Donner Foundation, Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Committee, the United States Forest Service, and the Prentice Foundation.
"Major grants that we’ve pursued have been the most effective way to raise larger sums of money," Hegstad said. Over two thirds of the money raised, $444,860, has gone to support the Partners In Life Program and it’s grizzly bear work in Montana, and more than $75,000 has gone to support the development of the Montana Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center at Spring Meadow Lake State Park. The remainder is earmarked for various endowment funds, smaller projects or to support the Foundation.
The MFWP Foundation’s flagship project, the Partners In Life program, is an innovative bear management program that teaches humans and bears how to coexist successfully. In its fourth year of operation in Montana, it is the only program of its kind in the world.
Carrie Hunt, bear biologist and founder of the Wind River Bear Institute, developed the Partners In Life program based on her career-long research with grizzly and black bears. Hunt has teamed with FWP bear biologist Tim Manley to successfully carry out hundreds of hours of one-on-one sessions with grizzly and black bears, teaching the bears to avoid humans and areas humans use.
Another high-profile project is the Montana Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center in Helena. Ground was broken for the new facility the fall of 2001 and it is scheduled to open the summer of 2002. The new center’s state-of-the-art design will give orphaned and injured animals humane care and rehabilitation, while helping them remain as unattached to humans as possible—the key to a successful release back into the wild.
A director for the center will be hired this spring to oversee the animal rehabilitation work, as well as to manage general operations, future development, and public outreach and education programs for the center.
"We are very pleased with the progress of our projects in the past two years and the impact we’re making," Hegstad said. "The hard part is being aware of the critical work out there that desperately needs to be tackled. In the case of the grizzly bear, what we do today may mean we will still have these creatures with us in 100 years. In the case of habitat conservation, many projects need attention now before they are completely beyond our financial reach in this state."
With increased competition for fewer available grant dollars the MFWP Foundation Board will continue to seek creative ways to tell of Montana’s unique conservation opportunities and to explain the Foundation’s mission. Board chairman Earl Sherron of Missoula serves with board members Margaret Moddison of Great Falls; Gary Carlson of Helena; Lee Poole of Ennis; Keith Ward of Huson; Patrick Toalson of Birmingham, Alabama; and John Brown of Peterborough, N.H..
For more information on the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks Foundation, visit the MFWP Foundation web site by going to fwp.state.mt.us and clicking on the bear paw or call Spence Hegstad at 406-444-6759.
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