environmental policy

from page 8 to delist grizzly bears are well on their way, having passed out of the Senate with comfortable margins.

— Sen. Mike Lang, R-Malta, introduced Senate Bill 85 at the request of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. It directs the state to “manage grizzly bear populations at levels to maintain their delisted status” by managing mortalities and relocations. Lawmakers amended the bill to specify that proactive grizzly management should include “nonlethal and preventative measures” in addition to trapping and lethal measures. It’s awaiting a hearing before the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee.

— Senate Bill 295 has a pile of sponsors eager for state management of grizzlies, but its lead sponsor is Rocky Mountain Front rancher Bruce Gillespie, R-Ethridge, who’s seeking to revise a bill he successfully introduced last session. Among other provisions, SB 295 directs ranchers concerned about a grizzly bear “threatening” livestock to contact FWP’s director, who will decide on an appropriate course of action. It passed out of the House with just one Democrat, Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade, in support.

Land Management

Proposals dealing with wildlife habitat and public land access have garnered considerable interest this session from a wide variety of stakeholders, ranging from sporting groups and agricultural groups to timber companies. Recent debates over permanent conservation easements and prescriptive — sometimes called historic — easements have illuminated an interesting divide in the Republican Party between those who, like Land Board member and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, are leery of the state adding any more land acquisitions to its portfolio, and those who have little appetite to tinker with landowners’ ability to put permanent development restrictions on their property or fuss with the state’s stream access law.

— Senate Bill 357, a measure sponsored by Sen.

Steve Hinebauch, R-Wibaux, seeking to restrict the state’s ability to secure permanent conservation easements was voted down by the Senate Fish and Game Committee Feb. 28. SB 357 was met by opposition from a diverse, powerful group of individuals and interest groups disinclined to restrict a tool frequently used by FWP to secure wildlife habitat and public access.

— Senate Bill 497, which sought to change state laws regarding prescriptive easements — unrecorded easements often used by recreationists to access waterways and parcels of public land bordered by private land — had a swift rise and an equally swift decline. The measure, sponsored by Sen. Steve Fitzpatrick, R-Great Falls, was heard and voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 28, and failed a second reading vote in the Senate 14-36 the following day.

— Senate Bill 58, which would increase the payment cap for landowners participating in block management to $50,000, passed out of the Senate 47-3. It’s an

FWP-proposed and Gianforte-backed bill that proponents describe as an important element of state land managers’ efforts to keep the state’s premier hunter access program competitive in the face of rival programs on the private market.

Three proposals seeking to reallocate some or all of the state’s recreational marijuana tax revenue from wildlife habitat and public land programs to other funding pots are still alive. Since they’re appropriations bills, they’re subject to a later legislative transmittal deadline of April 3. Opponents of the measures have argued that lawmakers shouldn’t tamper with the tax revenues, since a tax allocation framework was included in the 2020 ballot initiative legalizing recreational marijuana in Montana. Proponents counter that lawmakers are trying to funnel funding generated by lucrative marijuana sales toward the state’s most pressing needs.

— House Bill 669 would move marijuana tax revenues out of programs dedicated to wildlife habitat, state parks, trails and recreational facilities and put them into the state’s General Fund instead. It’s still awaiting an up or down vote in the House Appropriations Committee, as is House Bill 462, which would funnel much of the current habitat-and parks-dedicated funding into addiction recovery, corrections and law enforcement programs.

— Senate Bill 442 would allocate marijuana tax revenues toward county and city road construction and maintenance in a new funding bucket called the “county road habitat access account.” Sponsor Mike Lang, R-Malta, has said the fund could improve access to block management lands used by non-outfitted hunters pursuing game animals on private land. It passed out of the Senate Taxation Committee Feb. 28 and is awaiting a vote before the full Senate.

Energy

The big energy-related topics of the session thus far deal with incentives and disincentives tied to the development and delivery of fossil fuels and renewable energies. A proposal see page 12