Mato:
You are reading that right. It is a complete rip-off. The Fleecer WMA grazing lease price, which is FWP State land, is $7.92, but for just a fraction of the livestock use (about 1/6th). The majority of the lease on Fleecer WMA is for free. A great deal for the livestock permittee.
I have a copy of the now infamous Greenhorn MOU, if anyone wants a copy. Or if there is a way to post it here I would be happy to. I just don't know how to do that. The Greenhorn "agreement" has proven to be a complete failure. It was an attempt to please the local public land sheep growers...
Mato and Mark:
The USDA shows the private grazing fee in Montana at $23.60/cow-calf pair in 2012. (http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Montana/Publications/economic/prices/grazefee.htm)
Rob, thanks for posting this thread. I recently completed a detailed review and critic of the FWP proposal to continue livestock use on the Fleecer WMA, which is an important elk winter range southwest of Butte. I did this on behalf of the Gallatin Wildlife Association as their volunteer...
I suggest we stand unified in opposition to any bills that erode, rob or aim to destroy the Habitat Montana program. HB 404 and HB 440 are such bills, in my opinion.
There is no finer access program than the Habitat Montana program. Habitat Montana funding secures access through acquisition of important wildlife habitats (they become public lands managed as Wildlife Management Areas) or conservation easements on private lands important to wildlife, which...
Plucking the Golden Goose that is Habitat Montana to provide a few Golden Eggs in the Block Management program is no solution. If we want to see Block Management funded we need to establish a Block Management stamp.
By the way, in the pdf version of HB 312, on line 21 "prevalence reduction procedures for the wildlife species" equals capture, test, vaccinate and/or slaughter and you and I will be paying for it.
Brucellosis Elimination
It is good to see this being discussed on the Hunt Talk forum. In my opinion, the tentative brucellosis elimination proposal recently adopted by the FWP Commission is a very significant departure from how we currently manage elk in SW Montana. Here are some of the...