Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
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Working with the 68th Legislature, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC) simplified licensing requirements on state lands as part of Governor Gianforte’s Red Tape Relief Task Force. The two agencies consolidated the conservation license and state lands recreational use license into one annual conservation license, supporting the maintenance of places like fishing access sites (FAS), wildlife management areas (WMA). On Montana school trust lands, conservation license sales...
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is seeking public comment on proposed 2023 Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) grant proposals. Public comments will be accepted through Friday July 14, at 5 p.m. The OHV program received 12 grant requests and proposes to award $500,000. The program receives funding through OHV/motorbike registrations, gas tax and the Summer Motorized Trail Pass revenues. Montana’s Off-Highway Vehicle Program supports projects such as trail maintenance, signs, trail stewards, ethics education, noxious weed control, safety and mapping e...
Anglers on Fort Peck Reservoir this summer may be asked a few questions about their fishing experience when they come off the water. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is conducting an angling “creel” survey at one of the state’s largest and most popular warm water fisheries. The information collected help biologists understand angler catch rates of popular game fish and determine level of satisfaction with the fishery. The data-gathering surveys will be based at marinas and boat ramps around the reservoir. Creel clerks will ask several quest...
Debbie Henry, of Glasgow, was fishing from shore with her family at Nelson Reservoir over the Memorial Day weekend when she noticed one of the fishing rods begin to severely bend in its holder. After over 10 minutes of fighting the fish, with it nearly spooling her line and dealing with a broken net, she was able to land the new state record smallmouth buffalo! The behemoth tipped the scales at a whopping 40 pounds! Congratulations to Deb on catching a beautiful specimen of one of Montana's...
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ Region 6 Citizen Advisory Council (CAC) will meet from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Thursday, April 13, at the Cottonwood Inn Convention Center. The public is welcome to attend. FWP will give updates on current legislative bills, fisheries, wildlife season setting for 2024-25, and a presentation on shooting range development. Following a working lunch for CAC members and FWP staff, there will be a short tour of local shooting range facilities. Each of FWP’s seven administrative regions has a volunteer CAC to help gui...
The winter and spring of 2023 is proving to be tenacious, with roughly 30 inches of ice remaining in some areas on Fort Peck Reservoir and nighttime temps in the single digits well into early April. It begs the question: what’s happening with the walleye spawn operation on Fort Peck this year? In most years, FWP fisheries crews start setting trap nets in early April. Traps are set to collect walleye that are beginning the spawning process. While photoperiod (day length) plays a role in walleye spawning activity, water temperature is the most i...
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ Region 6 is hosting a hunter/bowhunter/trapper education instructor workshop from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 15, at the Cottonwood Inn Convention Center. All current instructors and any person interested in becoming an instructor is welcome to attend. The workshop is an annual event that invites all the volunteer instructors across the region for a day filled with visiting, updates to the program, demonstrations of new equipment and ideas, and awards for years of service. “These volunteers play a key...
GLASGOW –Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is holding a public listening session regarding mule deer management in Region 6 in northeast Montana. The listening session is from 6-8 p.m. at the Cottonwood Inn in Glasgow on Wednesday, March 15. Hunters, landowners, and wildlife enthusiasts are encouraged to attend. Region 6 wildlife staff will provide a background on mule deer management, the current status of mule deer populations in the region, trends in hunters and harvest, and an update on CWD. Following the presentation, the floor will be o...
If you plan to take down your Christmas decorations this weekend (or sometime in the next few weeks), remember to not throw your tree away. Instead, bring it to the Valley County Fairgrounds in Glasgow at the Boy Scout food booth near the grandstands. Lane Thompson, a member of Boy Scout Troop 861, and Fish, Wildlife & Parks fisheries staff are asking folks to return their trees with the intention to use these discarded trees as artificial fish habitat. Returned trees will be bundled and placed...
Federal wildlife officers and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' wardens are seeking any information regarding a white-tail buck that was shot, beheaded, and left to waste last month on U.S. Army Corp of Engineer (COE) property near Fort Peck. The buck was found within a COE publicly restricted area on Fort Peck Dam across the highway from the power houses. The head was removed, and the deer was left to waste. The incident was reported by a COE employee and occurred sometime between the afternoon...
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 6 game wardens are seeking any information regarding a mule deer buck that was shot and left to waste about 15 miles southwest of Opheim, on the junction of Kerr Road and Golden Valley Road in Valley County. On July 12, the Glasgow FWP office received a call concerning a dead deer observed near the road. After investigating the deer and the crime scene, Warden Sergeant Todd Tryan determined that the deer was shot with a small caliber firearm in the neck, likely over the weekend, and left to waste. Anyone...
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Hunter Education course dates have been set for Glasgow. An in-person classroom course runs March 21-24, and a field day on March 25. All hunter education classes are free of charge. In-person, instructor-led hunter education classroom courses are available to anyone age 10 and older and provides new hunters with a hands-on learning experience that can be particularly beneficial for people who have minimal experience in the field or handling firearms. In-person courses are led by volunteer instructors who are pa...
Glasgow-area Boy Scout Troop 861 and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks fisheries staff will be placing Christmas tree habitat structures at the Fort Peck Trout Pond in the coming weeks. Bundles of Christmas trees will be placed on the ice where they will remain until melting causes them to fall through and settle to the bottom. The goal of these tree bundles is to improve and increase habitat in the Trout Pond and ultimately improve the fishery. The use of Christmas tree bundles as artificial...
HELENA, Mont. – As part of his charge to improve customer service and modernize technology in state government, Governor Greg Gianforte today announced the launch of a new mobile app from the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP). FWP’s new app will allow Montanans to access their hunting and fishing licenses with their phone, reducing the need to secure and carry around paperwork while they fish and hunt. The new app, MyFWP, provides Montana sportsmen and women a simple, easy way to store and display licenses, permits, and digital carcass tag...
HELENA – Several watercraft inspection stations begin operation in early March to check snowbird boat traffic returning from mussel positive areas such as Lake Mead and Havasu. Boat owners coming to Montana must have their vessel inspected for aquatic invasive species at a Montana watercraft inspection station prior to launch. The stations that open in early March include those near Dillon, Anaconda and Ravalli. FWP works closely with partners for station operation and cotracts with the Beaverhead Conservation District for operation of the D...
Montana’s watercraft inspectors intercepted the 27th mussel-fouled vessel for the year. On Aug. 29, vacationers traveling from Michigan to Glacier National Park with a kayak strapped on their van stopped at the Nashua inspection station where inspectors found a zebra mussel attached to the kayak’s hull. The kayak had last been in Michigan’s Lake Cadillac, a known mussel-infested waterbody. Inspectors thoroughly decontaminated the kayak before sending the vacationers on their way. The Nashua watercraft inspection station is managed by the McCon...
Montana watercraft inspection stations have intercepted 13 boats carrying invasive mollusks into the state this year. As of May 30, inspectors have caught 12 boats with invasive zebra or quagga mussels and one boat with red rim melania snails attached to watercraft. The mussel-fouled boats typically come from mid-west states or Arizona after having spent several weeks or months in mussel-infested waters. All boat owners must have their watercraft inspected when entering Montana. Last week, a pontoon boat that was purchased in Minnesota came...
A Montana FWP Bowhunter Education course date has been set for the Glasgow area. There will be a regular youth classroom course starting on Wednesday, May 2, and an adult online “field day” course on Sunday, May 6. Archery hunters must have purchased a Montana bow and arrow license prior to hunting during the archery-only season. To purchase a bow and arrow license an individual must meet one of the following requirements: show completion of a bowhunter education course; show proof of purchase of a previous year’s bow and arrow license from... Full story
The cold, snowy, and lingering winter we’ve had across the state has many citizens concerned about game birds such as pheasants, grouse, and partridge. Although these species are well adapted to make it through even tough winters, there is something landowners can do to help birds next winter- plant a food plot. Montana FWP has two options to help landowners establish food plots for game birds: standing grain plots and new diverse seed mixes. Standing grain plots: For standing grain plots, FWP will pay landowners $150 per acre to help offset t... Full story
Montana FWP and participating land owners will open some Block Management Areas (BMAs) for spring turkey hunting along the Milk River and one area south of Zortman. Twelve areas will be open for the spring turkey season, beginning April 14, and running through May 20. Most of the properties are located along the Milk River between Hinsdale and Nashua. One additional property is located just south of Zortman in Goslin Flats, which is a portion of the Square Butte BMA. “The BMA spring turkey hunt worked well for both landowners and hunters the l... Full story
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Hunter Education course dates have been set for many areas across Region 6. All hunter education classes are free of charge. Many classes are being held prior to the March 15 application deadline for special permits for deer and elk. Future application deadlines include May 1 for moose, sheep and goat, and June 1 for deer B, elk B and antelope. In the next month, classroom courses (for youth) are being held in Hinsdale (March 5), Glasgow (March 8), Saco (March 12), and Scobey (March 12. All students must registe... Full story
Governor Steve Bullock issued an executive order declaring a statewide natural resource emergency for Montana bodies of water, due to the detection of the larvae of invasive aquatic mussels at Tiber Reservoir and suspected detections at Canyon Ferry Reservoir and the Milk and Missouri rivers. The signing of the Executive Order triggers the deployment of an interagency rapid response team to respond to the emerging situation. “Aquatic invasive species are a serious threat to Montana’s critical infrastructure and economy. The deployment of the... Full story
MT Fish, Wildlife and Parks is seeking public comment on proposed guidelines to establish elk hunting seasons before or after the existing archery and general rifle seasons. The additional seasons, called elk shoulder seasons, would be used where needed to reduce elk populations. “We’re looking at what tools we can implement to get elk numbers down in districts where we are over population objectives” said Ken McDonald FWP’s Wildlife Division administrator. A shoulder season could run from Aug. 15 to Feb. 15 outside the five-week general...
