HELENA – Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is seeking public comment on the following environmental assessments (EA) and proposals. For more information, including how to submit comments, click on the link provided or visit fwp.mt.gov/public-notices.
Draft management plans for Mount Silcox, Roundhorn, Full Curl and Bighorn Sheep Viewing Area WMAs
FWP is seeking comments on draft management plans for Mount Silcox, Roundhorn, Full Curl and Bighorn Sheep Viewing Area wildlife management areas. These draft management plans provide a description of the WMAs and lay out the goals and issues associated with how FWP manages them. The plans also provide information on potential future management actions that may occur on these WMAs, both for communication with interested publics and for guiding FWP staff. Some actions resulting from these new management plans may require additional analysis and public input, as required by the Montana Environmental Policy Act.
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Hound Creek restoration draft EA
Hound Creek is a key Smith River tributary northwest of Great Falls where vegetation clearing for hay fields, intensive livestock use, and historic beaver removal have produced an incised channel, a 6–8 foot vertical eroding bank that has migrated about 70 feet since 2005, loss of floodplain connectivity, and substantial fine sediment delivery to Hound Creek and the Smith River. The project will realign approximately 910 feet of channel away from the unstable bank, construct new pools and riffles with large wood and 5,000 willow cuttings, create about 2 acres of connected floodplain and side channel habitat, and exclude cattle from the riparian corridor with permanent wildlife friendly fencing while providing controlled water gaps. These actions are designed to reduce lateral erosion and sediment loading, restore woody riparian cover and floodplain function, and improve spawning and rearing habitat so Hound Creek can better support trout recruitment to the Smith and Missouri rivers.
FWP is proposing a forest thinning and tree planting project at Lone Pine State Park. The purpose of the project is to improve the overall forest health and timber stand diversity of the park. FWP is publishing this second supplemental draft EA to more clearly define forestry project units and related goals for each unit.
Comment deadline: Sept. 11
CCAA Stockwater Development draft checklist EA
The purpose of this project is to increase healthy riparian habitat and instream flows along the Big Hole River and its tributary Ruby Creek within the Arctic Grayling Big Hole Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (BH CCAA) program and to increase riparian habitat along Red Rock Creek within the Arctic Grayling Centennial Valley Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CV CCAA). In the proposed project, an upland pasture near Ruby Creek does not have reliable stockwater due to low water availability. Ditches provide stockwater or gates are left open in riparian pastures to provide water to upland pastures thus increasing water use off Ruby Creek and increasing pressure on the riparian area. In the Centennial Valley Red Rock Creek flows partially through a mostly upland pasture to provide drinking water. Due to avulsion events this section of the channel has become unreliable drinking water. Additionally, when cattle do water directly off the stream, it contributes to direct channel erosion and reduced riparian vegetation and shading.
Comment deadline: Sept. 11
Upper Jefferson River channel restoration draft checklist EA
On the Jefferson River about 5 miles north of Twin Bridges near the confluence with Hells Canyon Creek, a disconnected side channel, sediment accumulation at the tributary mouth, and repeated gravel excavation and temporary rock-barrier installation to maintain irrigation delivery have degraded habitat, increased sediment disturbance, and limited fish passage into a critical spawning tributary. The project will reconnect roughly 1,500 feet of side channel, regrade about 1,250 feet of conveyance channel, replace temporary diversion and failing headgate infrastructure with a permanent fish-friendly structure, construct a brush-matrix feature at the Hells Canyon Creek confluence to maintain depth and transport sediment, and stabilize eroding banks along approximately 7,700 feet of river corridor. These actions are designed to restore self-sustaining channel processes, improve connectivity between the Jefferson and Hells Canyon Creek, reduce chronic disturbance, and enhance spawning and rearing habitat and flow reliability for trout in this biologically important reach.
Comment deadline: Sept. 11
Red Rock Creek draft checklist EA
A wooden barrier will be installed at river mile 3.4 on Red Rock Creek to exclude non-native fish. Based on genetic results from passive integrated transponder (PIT) tagged individuals, approximately 200 remaining nonhybridized Westslope cutthroat trout (WCT) will be salvaged and transferred to Dutchman Creek. The stream above the barrier will be treated with rotenone for two years and confirmed to be fishless using environmental DNA (eDNA). Once confirmed, salvaged fish will be transported back to the drainage. Since 2010, Region 3 has installed 22 wooden barriers to protect WCT populations. Over that time, FWP has treated and protected WCT in approximately 400 miles of additional secure habitat.
Comment deadline: Sept. 11
Marsh Creek Restoration draft checklist EA
Marsh Creek, a tributary to upper Little Prickly Pear Creek about 6 miles west of Canyon Creek, has been straightened and channelized across agricultural land, with long-term cattle grazing reducing riparian vegetation, increasing erosion and channel incision and a poorly installed culvert creating head cuts and likely blocking spawning rainbow trout. The project will realign and restore about 1,350 feet of channel through a meadow reach, convert an incised G-type channel to a more stable B-type form, replace the perched culvert with a bridge and cattle crossing, and exclude livestock from most of the stream corridor except for a designated watering area. By reducing erosion, rebuilding riparian cover, and re-establishing fish passage and more natural hydraulics, the work is intended to improve spawning and rearing habitat, enhance connectivity with Little Prickly Pear Creek, and support a stronger wild rainbow trout fishery.
Comment deadline: Sept. 11
Lower Cottonwood Creek stream restoration draft checklist EA
Lower Cottonwood Creek, a Nevada Creek tributary in Powell County, has experienced historical channel straightening, floodplain disconnection, irrigation-related dewatering, and riparian conversion that increased bank erosion, warmed summer temperatures, and simplified habitat, contributing to listed impairments for sediment, temperature, and altered flow. Phase 1 of restoration will realign approximately 3,700 feet of channel into a more sinuous, historic valley position, install large wood structures, reconnect floodplain surfaces, implement dense willow and cottonwood plantings, and integrate a grazing plan coordinated with upgraded irrigation diversions and a prospective instream flow lease. These measures are intended to restore channel stability and floodplain function, improve riparian shading and habitat complexity, and expand suitable Westslope cutthroat trout habitat, ultimately increasing wild trout production to Nevada Creek and the Blackfoot River.
Parsons Slough irrigation change draft checklist EA
Parsons Slough is a spring-fed tributary to the Jefferson River near Waterloo Bridge northeast of Whitehall, where an irrigation ditch currently diverts 3–8 cfs of cool water, causing unstable water levels and periodic dewatering in a critical spawning and thermal-refuge channel and entraining juvenile trout into the ditch system. The project will move the remaining irrigation point of diversion from Parsons Slough to a new Jefferson River pump site, retire about 1.3 miles of open ditch, install a buried mainline and risers to supply the existing hand-line system, and formalize a water-management agreement between FWP and the landowner. Eliminating the diversion from Parsons Slough is intended to stabilize instream flows, preserve cold-water refuge, prevent fish loss to ditch entrainment, and improve trout recruitment to one of the most severely dewatered reaches of the Jefferson River near Waterloo.
2027–2030 Statewide Fisheries Management Plan
FWP is releasing the proposed 2027–2030 Statewide Fisheries Management Plan (SFMP) and associated EA for public review and comment. The plan identifies statewide fisheries-management goals, priorities and strategies intended to sustain and enhance Montana’s fisheries and angling opportunities. The EA evaluates potential environmental effects of implementing the plan and considers alternatives.
Upper Thompson Conservation Easement – Phase 2
FWP proposes to purchase a 13,297-acre conservation easement – the Upper Thompson Conservation Easement – Phase 2. This is the second and final phase of a two-phased project totaling 47,907 acres of important timberland and fish and wildlife habitat owned by Green Diamond Montana Timberlands LLC in northwest Montana.
Potential Spotted Dog WMA habitat project
FWP may be preparing an EA on a proposal to implement an aspen recruitment, prescribed fire and tree planting habitat improvement project on Spotted Dog Wildlife Management Area. This project is intended to be completed in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service Larabee Hat Vegetation Project on the Lewis and Clark National Forest.
