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Hunters share secrets to protect favorite hunting spots
By MICHAEL BABCOCK • Tribune Outdoor Editor • December 11, 2008
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Buzz up! When Bill Geer showed up at a Great Falls Archery Club meeting a year ago and asked the hardcore bowhunters there to mark on a map their favorite places to hunt, there were more than a few raised eyebrows.
Bowhunters seldom share their hunting spots with other bowhunters — friends or foe — let alone with somebody who planned to show all kinds of people the results.
But after a little grumbling and a little coaxing, one by one, the archers approached the maps spread on the tables and circled areas of Montana that they hold near and dear as hunting grounds. Geer promised it would help protect the areas they marked. A year later, Geer was back, showing the bowhunters a map shaded in purple — the darker the shade, the deeper the interest in protecting that area for hunting.
“I didn’t think it would go anywhere,” said Steve Garness, a board member of the GFAC. “But he put in 100 percent effort. I was impressed that he visited as many clubs and got as much input as he did. His presentation was well planned and well thought out. He knows what he is doing and he accomplished his mission as far as I am concerned.”
GFAC president Tanner Ozburn said, “I just thought he was like most of those people. They talk about it but don’t do anything. I didn’t think it would amount to anything. He stuck to it and got it done.”
Ozburn said he didn’t mind locating generally where he hunts on the map.
“Now that I see what he has done it was for a good cause and I think it will come in handy, especially in some of these areas where they have cut down on the number of elk permits. It is something to show to the fish and game.”
Geer is policy initiatives manager for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a national group founded in Montana seven years ago that aims to guarantee sportsmen a place to hunt and fish.
Geer, who lives in Lolo south of Missoula, has spoken with 40 organized sportsmen groups in 30 Montana communities. He asked the members of each group to do the same thing — mark their favorite hunting spots on a large map.
Then, he overlaid all of the maps, which created a single map identifying the most important areas for hunting as pointed out by organized sportsmen in Montana.
He can lay that map over a map of Montana that shows what hunting and fishing compete with in each area of the state: residential development in northwest Montana; deep gas exploration in southwest Montana; shallow gas in northcentral Montana; oil in central and eastern Montana; and coal bed methane in southeast Montana.
Geer says that the TRCP believes responsible development can occur when conservation, restoration and mitigation sciences and traditional social uses are fully integrated into development activities. He says his “sportsmen user value mapping” complements critical habitat maps with “bread and butter” hunting and fishing areas identified by Montana sportsmen, and they can show decision-makers the hunting and fishing access opportunities sportsmen value most and want retained in the face of development.
After Geer held his initial meetings with sportsmen’s groups — he began his project by meeting in June of 2007 with the Public Lands and Water Access Association Inc. in Billings — he returned about a year later to show the groups what he has done with their information.
“What we have been collecting is organized anecdotal information… entered directly on GIS maps by sportsmen…and stored in the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks GIS database…while building the network of hunters and anglers to advocate for and and wildlife and hunting and fishing,” he said.
Geer says the Sportsmen User Value Maps:
provide new baseline information to Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and the Montana Department of Natiral Resources and Conservation to guide oil and gas leasing in balance with wildlife and sportsmen needs;
Support the Montana Wildlife Action Plan and the Crucial Areas and Corridors Initiative of the Western Governors Association
Identify key high-use areas warranting special conservation strategies
Identify areas needing additional public access; and
offer greater persuasiveness for over-arching national resource development policies and laws.
Geer says now he is trying to build a network of all the clubs that participated in his mapping effort and present the information to all Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks regional offices, regional citizen advisory committees and all Bureau of Land Management Field Offices and their staffs.
He plans to try and get the clubs to support responsible development policies and legislation on public lands; and establish hunting and fishing conservation areas such as around the C.M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge and the Rocky Mountain Front.
Besides the Great Falls Archery Club, Geer visited the Great Falls Chapter of Safari Club International and the Russell Country Sportsmen.
Geer says he generally has been well received at most clubs except the Custer Rod and Gun Club in Miles City.
“They said ‘you must be kidding. Our club members have spent 40 years hunting out places and they are not going to tell you about it,’” Geer said. “Later when Geer made a presentation to Fish, Wildlife & Parks regional office, members of the Custer Rod and Gun Club approached him. “‘ Is that what you were talking about?’ they asked.
“They wanted me to bring my maps back so they could mark them up.” Geer said.
Geer said he is not out to expose anybody’s secret hunting place.
“When you look at a composite, the best areas are pretty well know. There are precise spots in some of those that I will not reveal. I promised I wouldn’t. But the maps are primarily for management by FWP and agencies such as the BLM.
Looking at Geer’s Sportsman User Value Map, the deepest purple, indicating the most frequently circled area by hunters, is the C.M. Russell Wildlife Refuge northeast of Lewistown.
“More clubs identified that than any other area. Even hunters in Libby said they go to the CMR. I found that repeatedly around the state. It was a big deal to them. And it has sage grouse, walleye, pronghorn, elk and deer,” Geer said.
When the BLM announced an oil and gas lease sale, some of which covered the CMR, Geer showed the agency his map. He said the BLM, which doesn’t always receive much public comment about oil and gas leases, agreed not to offer leases around the CMR.
“It is so important that residents from all over the state said the area has so many critical wildlife values — winter range for bighorn and pronghorn, other wildlife, the cultural value of Lewis and Clark and the one – and it is an area where energy companies could have leased and they chose not to.”
Geer said he has been contacted by the Miles City regional office of FWP and was asked to make a presentation before biologist there.
“That is encouraging,” he said.
The BLM has asked Geer to present his information during the resource management process and the agency has agreed to offer smaller areas for gas and oil leasing rather than the huge chunks of land previously offered. He said Fish, Wildlife & Parks values his information as a way to determine the best places to further public access.
Geer says that while the TRCP conceived of project, he works closely with the MontanaWildlife Federation, Trout Unlimited and the 40 sportsmens organizations he has visited.
“We work on this issue together. Everything I have done I have kept them abreast of it. I work with others all the time.
Geer, a former director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Recourses and a former chairman of the Utah Big Game Boad, said he has put about 18 months of work into the project and spent about $20,000 in travel and materials. He doesn’t know how many miles he has driven.
“About a bazillion,” he said. “It would be a really big number.
Reach Michael Babcock at 791-1487 or by email at [email protected].
Hunters share secrets to protect favorite hunting spots
By MICHAEL BABCOCK • Tribune Outdoor Editor • December 11, 2008
Post a CommentRecommendPrint this page E-mail this article Share Del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Buzz up! When Bill Geer showed up at a Great Falls Archery Club meeting a year ago and asked the hardcore bowhunters there to mark on a map their favorite places to hunt, there were more than a few raised eyebrows.
Bowhunters seldom share their hunting spots with other bowhunters — friends or foe — let alone with somebody who planned to show all kinds of people the results.
But after a little grumbling and a little coaxing, one by one, the archers approached the maps spread on the tables and circled areas of Montana that they hold near and dear as hunting grounds. Geer promised it would help protect the areas they marked. A year later, Geer was back, showing the bowhunters a map shaded in purple — the darker the shade, the deeper the interest in protecting that area for hunting.
“I didn’t think it would go anywhere,” said Steve Garness, a board member of the GFAC. “But he put in 100 percent effort. I was impressed that he visited as many clubs and got as much input as he did. His presentation was well planned and well thought out. He knows what he is doing and he accomplished his mission as far as I am concerned.”
GFAC president Tanner Ozburn said, “I just thought he was like most of those people. They talk about it but don’t do anything. I didn’t think it would amount to anything. He stuck to it and got it done.”
Ozburn said he didn’t mind locating generally where he hunts on the map.
“Now that I see what he has done it was for a good cause and I think it will come in handy, especially in some of these areas where they have cut down on the number of elk permits. It is something to show to the fish and game.”
Geer is policy initiatives manager for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, a national group founded in Montana seven years ago that aims to guarantee sportsmen a place to hunt and fish.
Geer, who lives in Lolo south of Missoula, has spoken with 40 organized sportsmen groups in 30 Montana communities. He asked the members of each group to do the same thing — mark their favorite hunting spots on a large map.
Then, he overlaid all of the maps, which created a single map identifying the most important areas for hunting as pointed out by organized sportsmen in Montana.
He can lay that map over a map of Montana that shows what hunting and fishing compete with in each area of the state: residential development in northwest Montana; deep gas exploration in southwest Montana; shallow gas in northcentral Montana; oil in central and eastern Montana; and coal bed methane in southeast Montana.
Geer says that the TRCP believes responsible development can occur when conservation, restoration and mitigation sciences and traditional social uses are fully integrated into development activities. He says his “sportsmen user value mapping” complements critical habitat maps with “bread and butter” hunting and fishing areas identified by Montana sportsmen, and they can show decision-makers the hunting and fishing access opportunities sportsmen value most and want retained in the face of development.
After Geer held his initial meetings with sportsmen’s groups — he began his project by meeting in June of 2007 with the Public Lands and Water Access Association Inc. in Billings — he returned about a year later to show the groups what he has done with their information.
“What we have been collecting is organized anecdotal information… entered directly on GIS maps by sportsmen…and stored in the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks GIS database…while building the network of hunters and anglers to advocate for and and wildlife and hunting and fishing,” he said.
Geer says the Sportsmen User Value Maps:
provide new baseline information to Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and the Montana Department of Natiral Resources and Conservation to guide oil and gas leasing in balance with wildlife and sportsmen needs;
Support the Montana Wildlife Action Plan and the Crucial Areas and Corridors Initiative of the Western Governors Association
Identify key high-use areas warranting special conservation strategies
Identify areas needing additional public access; and
offer greater persuasiveness for over-arching national resource development policies and laws.
Geer says now he is trying to build a network of all the clubs that participated in his mapping effort and present the information to all Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks regional offices, regional citizen advisory committees and all Bureau of Land Management Field Offices and their staffs.
He plans to try and get the clubs to support responsible development policies and legislation on public lands; and establish hunting and fishing conservation areas such as around the C.M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge and the Rocky Mountain Front.
Besides the Great Falls Archery Club, Geer visited the Great Falls Chapter of Safari Club International and the Russell Country Sportsmen.
Geer says he generally has been well received at most clubs except the Custer Rod and Gun Club in Miles City.
“They said ‘you must be kidding. Our club members have spent 40 years hunting out places and they are not going to tell you about it,’” Geer said. “Later when Geer made a presentation to Fish, Wildlife & Parks regional office, members of the Custer Rod and Gun Club approached him. “‘ Is that what you were talking about?’ they asked.
“They wanted me to bring my maps back so they could mark them up.” Geer said.
Geer said he is not out to expose anybody’s secret hunting place.
“When you look at a composite, the best areas are pretty well know. There are precise spots in some of those that I will not reveal. I promised I wouldn’t. But the maps are primarily for management by FWP and agencies such as the BLM.
Looking at Geer’s Sportsman User Value Map, the deepest purple, indicating the most frequently circled area by hunters, is the C.M. Russell Wildlife Refuge northeast of Lewistown.
“More clubs identified that than any other area. Even hunters in Libby said they go to the CMR. I found that repeatedly around the state. It was a big deal to them. And it has sage grouse, walleye, pronghorn, elk and deer,” Geer said.
When the BLM announced an oil and gas lease sale, some of which covered the CMR, Geer showed the agency his map. He said the BLM, which doesn’t always receive much public comment about oil and gas leases, agreed not to offer leases around the CMR.
“It is so important that residents from all over the state said the area has so many critical wildlife values — winter range for bighorn and pronghorn, other wildlife, the cultural value of Lewis and Clark and the one – and it is an area where energy companies could have leased and they chose not to.”
Geer said he has been contacted by the Miles City regional office of FWP and was asked to make a presentation before biologist there.
“That is encouraging,” he said.
The BLM has asked Geer to present his information during the resource management process and the agency has agreed to offer smaller areas for gas and oil leasing rather than the huge chunks of land previously offered. He said Fish, Wildlife & Parks values his information as a way to determine the best places to further public access.
Geer says that while the TRCP conceived of project, he works closely with the MontanaWildlife Federation, Trout Unlimited and the 40 sportsmens organizations he has visited.
“We work on this issue together. Everything I have done I have kept them abreast of it. I work with others all the time.
Geer, a former director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Recourses and a former chairman of the Utah Big Game Boad, said he has put about 18 months of work into the project and spent about $20,000 in travel and materials. He doesn’t know how many miles he has driven.
“About a bazillion,” he said. “It would be a really big number.
Reach Michael Babcock at 791-1487 or by email at [email protected].
