Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana
Sorted by date Results 128 - 152 of 1479
An online education course is now available for people looking to get into trapping. The mandatory course is free and can be accessed on Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks website. The education program will include online course work and a mandatory field day where new trappers can learn from experienced trappers about trapping ethics, humane techniques, avoidance of non-target species, fur management, and safety. This course also includes the mandatory wolf trapper certification for anyone looking to also trap wolves. Two field days are already...
Two people received relatively minor injuries Wednesday in a surprise close encounter with a moose in Big Sky. A group of seven people were walking between Turkey Leg and Sitting Bull roads at Big Sky Resort about 10 a.m. when they were charged by a cow moose. Two people in the group, a woman and a man, received relatively minor injuries. A game warden with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks responded and interviewed several people who had previously seen a cow moose and a calf in the area recently. It’s likely the moose was acting in defense of t...
Cave geology, skulls, and birds are the focus of Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park’s speaker series events happening on June 10, 11, and 13. The park will welcome Stuart Parker on Friday, June 10 at 8 PM at the campground amphitheater. Stuart will discuss the mountain building that occurred in this area and how it influenced the formation of the cave. Join park ranger Ramona Radonich on Saturday, June 11, at 8 PM. at the campground amphitheater for a closer look at the skulls of several animals that live in the park. It has been said that f...
Bats, snakes and flowers are the themes of talks that will be featured at Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park in early June. The Caverns will welcome guest speaker Dan Bachen on Friday, June 3, at 8 p.m. at the Campground Amphitheater. The park is home to 12 species of bats. Bachen will present a natural history of bats in the state and the current state of research and knowledge surrounding them. Caverns park ranger Ramona Radonich will present “Goodness Snakes Alive!” on Saturday, June 4, at 8 p.m. at the Campground Amphitheater. In this pro...
Staff at Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park are pleased to announce cave tour tickets can now be reserved in advance for the 2022 season. Starting June 1, visitors can reserve tickets for June 4 through Sept. 30 by visiting fwp.mt.gov/stateparks or by calling 1-855-922-6768. Visitors are encouraged to visit fwp.mt.gov/stateparks frequently as tour options, times and availability may change throughout the season. Beginning May 28, the upper visitor area will be open, and cave tours will be offered six days per week, Wednesday through Monday. Days...
Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park is kicking off its interpretive program season over Memorial Day weekend. The birds and the bees have returned to the park, and AmeriCorps member Taryn Eveland will present a program titled “The Birds & The Bees” on Friday, May 27, at 8 p.m. at the campground amphitheater. In this talk you will discover how these animals face and overcome the challenges of building a home in the wildly diverse landscapes of the park. On Saturday, May 28, at 8 p.m. at the campground amphitheater, park ranger Ramona Radonich wil...
Every Friday, Saturday, and Monday in June, Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park will offer interpretive programs that cover the amazing plants, animals, and geology outside of the cave. The park’s Friday Night Speaker Series takes place at the Campground Amphitheater and begins at 8 p.m. Most programs last about an hour. Speakers and dates are as follows: June 3: Dan Bachen: Wildlife Monitoring June 10: Stuart Parker: Geology of Caves June 17: Bill & Marti Cook: Bears June 24: Dianna Kellie: History of the Area The park’s Saturday evening pro...
Staff at Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park are pleased to reopen the cave for the 2022 season. Tours will be offered until September 30. Visitors are encouraged to visit the state parks website frequently as tour options, times and availability may change throughout the season. Tour reservations will be taken this summer starting Memorial Day weekend by calling 1-855-922-6768 or by visiting fwp.mt.gov/stateparks. During the month of May, the upper visitor area will be open and cave tours will be...
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is seeking public comment on proposals for mountain lion quotas and special limited licenses, trumpeter swan reintroductions, new Rainbow Lake fishing regulations, and pheasant releases. The Fish and Wildlife Commission will make a final decision on these proposals at its June 23 meeting. Under the new commission process, FWP is taking public comment on these proposals now and will present the collected comments and proposals to the commission for review. Commissioners can offer amendments to the proposals as...
After deer and elk permits were drawn Thursday, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks uncovered an error in the drawing process affecting less than three percent of applications across the state in 10 hunting districts. This year the Fish and Wildlife Commission changed several elk hunting districts to “first and only choice” for applications, meaning if hunters want to hunt any of these districts, they forfeit the option to list a second or third choice on their application. Due to an error in the current licensing system regarding “first and only...
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks staff are seeking public comments on a proposed fee-title acquisition of about 3.5 acres of private land west of Dillon to become a new fishing access site along the Beaverhead River. FWP is undertaking the process of acquiring the parcel as a donation from the Beaverhead Trails Coalition, a nonprofit in Dillon. A neighboring landowner donated the property to the coalition in 2021. The site would be known as Cornell Park Fishing Access Site. Following the acquisition, FWP staff would restore 325 feet of...
Volunteer instructors will host a Bowhunter Education course at the Montana WILD Education Center in Helena this month. The class is scheduled over three days: • April 29, 6 to 9 p.m. • April 30, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. • May 1, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Students will need to pick up a course manual from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks headquarters, 1420 E. Sixth Ave., or Montana WILD, 2668 Broadwater Ave, and complete it prior to the first day of class. Students can sign up for Hunter and Bowhunter Education courses by visiting fwp.mt.gov/h...
Montana’s unemployment rate hit another record low in February, dropping to 2.6% for the month, down from January’s rate of 2.7%. Montana’s total employment and labor force continued to show strong growth in February, both setting new all-time highs. “Hardworking Montanans and Montana businesses are fueling our historic economic recovery, with record-low unemployment in Montana and more Montanans working than ever before,” Governor Greg Gianforte said. “And while Montanans are making gains, skyrocketing inflation is making it harder to f...
Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park will host its largest volunteer event of the year on Saturday, April 9, as part of an early celebration of Earth Day later in the month. The event includes repairing the park’s damaged and winter-worn trails, as well as removing invasive weeds, to keep the park’s trail system healthy and easy to use. The project will begin at the group use pavilion on April 9 at 9 a.m. and is expected to last until 12:30 p.m. Volunteers are encouraged to bring work gloves, sturdy shoes, drinking water, and clothes for out...
The 2022 license year opens March 1, which means that is the day you can buy new hunting and fishing licenses and begin applying for permits and special licenses. The deadline to apply for deer and elk permits is April 1. Applications for most species – deer, elk, antelope, deer B, elk B, antelope B, moose, sheep, goat, bison, bear, turkey – can be made beginning March 1. This spring Fish, Wildlife & Parks will be launching the new MyFWP mobile app that will store and display licenses, permits, and digital carcass tags, known as E-Tags, which c...
Hunter and Bowhunter Education classes will be offered in several locations throughout southwest Montana this year. Many of these classes have been scheduled and will soon be open for registration. Hunter and Bowhunter Education classes are taught by skilled volunteer instructors and offer hands-on learning experiences, mentoring opportunities, and the ability for students to ask questions of experienced hunters. Students learn how to handle firearms and archery equipment safely, basic survival skills, hunting ethics, wildlife management, game...
A Helena man received a lifetime ban from hunting and trapping in Montana as part of his sentence for illegally killing a trophy moose east of Townsend in 2019. Shiloh Berry, 41, was sentenced Friday in Broadwater County District Court after pleading guilty last fall to unlawful possession of a game animal, hunting without a valid license and waste of a game animal. In addition to the lifetime ban from hunting and trapping, Berry's sentence includes a three-year suspension of fishing...
Game wardens with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks are seeking information on several waterfowl that were killed and abandoned near Butte. Responding to a tip on Thursday, wardens found five dead Canada geese and one dead mallard drake along Roosevelt Drive south of Butte. The birds had been discarded about 200 yards off the road, and all the meat had been wasted. Anyone with possible information about this case is encouraged to call the FWP violation reporting hotline at 1-800-TIP-MONT. Callers may be eligible for a cash reward of up to...
Fisheries staff at Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks are seeking comments on a proposal to construct a fish barrier on Reservoir Creek near Dillon. This project would help protect a genetically pure population of westslope cutthroat trout from non-native trout. Reservoir creek is one of eight streams within the Beaverhead watershed that still supports an unaltered westslope cutthroat trout population. However, the population is only seasonally protected from non-native trout downstream. This proposal includes constructing a wooden barrier that wou...
Twenty-four-year-old Zachary Eugene Norman has been charged with two counts of deliberate homicide resulting from a shooting incident early Saturday morning in Three Forks. The Gallatin County Sheriff's Office has released the victims' names as Brendan Estabrook of Three Forks and Chase Estabrook of Butte. Norman, of Three Forks, was set to appear Tuesday in Gallatin County Justice Court. According to court documents, the Gallatin County Dispatch received a report of two people suffering from...
As I write this, the quarters of a white-tailed buck deer I harvested over the Thanksgiving weekend hang in my garage. It’s not that I couldn’t find time in the last 10 days to get the cutting, grinding and packaging done. I won’t butcher it until I get back the testing results for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). CWD is an always-fatal neurological condition that’s spreading rapidly in our country’s deer herds. It also affects elk and moose. Much of its workings are still a mystery to researchers. CWD is not caused by bacteria or a virus. Ra...
A Deer Lodge man pleaded guilty this month to several charges after illegally killing a bighorn sheep in the Highland Mountains. Harold Horine, 45, shot a bighorn sheep ram on Nov. 22 without a license. He did not report the kill to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, and he left the meat to waste. A witness who observed the violation contacted FWP after finding the dead sheep abandoned. Game wardens interviewed Horne, who said he mistook the sheep for an elk. Horine pleaded guilty in Madison County Justice Court on Dec. 7 to hunting without a...
Wolf trapping is now open in all Montana Wolf Management Units. After monitoring grizzly bear activity across much of the state, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks biologists have determined the potential risk for trapping conflicts in grizzly bear areas is low. FWP biologists have been monitoring grizzly bear activity with a variety of methods since early November. This includes monitoring collared grizzly bears, sightings of bears in the field, weather assessments and reports from the public. The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted...
The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission approved two rule changes on Monday concerning recreational and commercial use on the Madison River. In addition, commissioners approved an adjustment to brown trout regulations on a section the Big Hole River. In a relatively short meeting, the commission dealt with two recommendations from the current Madison River Work Group, which has met several times during the past six months. The work group recommended administrative rule changes that would keep the walk/wade sections in place, as they have been...
Every year, a new generation of trappers takes to the mountains and plains of Montana. Those new trappers need training and instruction, not only for safety and ethics, but also on how to truly enjoy the outdoor experience. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks needs volunteer instructors for the new Trapper Education Program across the state. Beginning in the 2022 trapping season, Montana will require aspiring trappers to complete a mandatory trapper education program. “We are excited to offer this brand-new education program,” said Wayde Coo...
