The Legislature has adjourned.
Overall, it was a good one for hunters, anglers and wildlife conservation. Many challenges remain ahead of us, especially with a new administration coming in. The reliable backstop of a Gubernatorial veto on many bad bills over the last 16 years has made folks complancent on doing good work during the interim, and hopefully that changes.
This session we were able to get the following:
$59 million in spending authority for FWP which includes a lot of new construction for FWP regional centers who need upgrades (Glasgow & Missoula in particular), better funding for wardens, increased Grizzly bear and wolf specialists, Upland Game Brid Habitat Improvement, Gov's tag habitat spending, Habitat MT, Future Fisheries, Fishing Access Sites and $10 million for a new ALS system that will replace the current crash-proned program that is 20 years old.
We secured a new access program (PAL Act) that will help increase access to landlocked public lands, passed bills to protect data on specific locations of wildlife to prevent the commercialization of game, renewed In-Stream Flows, increased funding for state parks, trails and fishing access and a whole bunch of things that I can't remember after a really tall glass of Eagle Rare.
We also defeated some truly bad bills, like one that would have eliminated FWP's need to consider public opinion on wildlife decisions, stopped the crossbow bill and kept many, many others from getting to the Governor's desk. We weren't able to stop the bad bison bills (which would have put Counties in charge of wildlife and made all bison considered domestic - even YNP bison). We also couldn't stop the legislature from messing with Habitat Montana in the form of HB 265, which re-inserts politics into the conservation easement program of HM or stop the war on elk sponsored by Rep. Wylie Galt in the form of HJ 18. Those are areas that MT hunters will need to step up their efforts in the interim.
All in all, it's a 6.5 out of 10 session and definitely one of the better one's we've had since 2009. Montana TU, MWF, Montana Bowhunters Association, MTBHA, RMEF, DU, MT Audubon and many other groups worked around the clock to lobby the legislature and that combined effort and coalition helped diffuse a lot of the anger towards sportsmen and women.
And now, I'm going to pour myself another triple, and fall asleep for a couple of days. Thanks to all of the Hunt Talk crowd who did much, much more than just show up for a rally. You guys continue to blow the legislature away with your informed, insightful advocacy and I hear about you battered bastards of public lands every day from legislators who are tired of the barrage of emails and phone calls from the folks on this board.
Onward to 2021, and what is looking like a much bigger challenge for all of us.
