MATTHEW ROWLEY
FWP AT WORK
ACCESS ENABLER
KEN FARTHING
I’m FWP’s senior regional Block Management coordinator, having worked in this position for 17 years. Like the other five coordinators, I’m mainly responsible for maintaining relations with landowner cooperators. Here in Region 4 (north-central Montana), I have 218 contracts covering 1.3 million acres, averaging about 89,000 hunter days annually for the last four years. Our season starts in January, when we begin collecting hunting records from cooperators from the previous season. FWP makes “impact payments” based on hunter usage, so we go through all the coupons, permission slips, and cards to tabulate the number of hunter days for each cooperator. In spring we negotiate our contracts with the landowners, making sure each contract complies with various state laws, rules, and policies, all the while coordinating with other state and
federal agencies that may have an interest in the contracts. That’s also when we build new access maps and adjust existing ones if needed. In late July the access guides are compiled and printed. In midAugust we mail copies of the guides and maps to everyone who has requested them and make the information available on the FWP website. Once hunting season starts, I’m out with the hunting access technicians monitoring Block Management Areas, checking sign-in boxes and signs, and helping hunters. We are also constantly in contact with cooperators to address any problems they might have. Our surveys show that most of them are very pleased with the way the program manages hunting access on their land, which is their main concern. Overall satisfaction by both landowners and hunters is generally very high, so it appears we’re doing a good job out here. MONTANA OUTDOORS
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