Beaver Creek Project in south Phillips County and the Comentown Project in northeast 

 Sheridan County. The objective of both projects is to increase the waterfowl production 

 capabilities of existing wetlands and various management strategies will be employed 

 to meet that goal. A detailed prospectus is being developed on each project. 



A highway mitigation project is also being designed to evaluate and document 

 unavoidable impacts to wetland habitats as a result of highway reconstruction activities. 

 Mitigation strategies will include both on-site and off-site activities that replace wetiand 

 habitat. A method to identify wetland types and to provide an assessment of their 

 functional values is currentiy being developed by an interagency wetland committee. 

 The intent is to develop a consistent approach to deahng with impacts and provide 

 mitigation stiategies. lids information will be available for review when completed. 



In addition, guidelines are currently being developed for the Department's wildlife 

 habitat acquisition program with implementation targeted for March 1988. This will be 

 an acquisition-easement program with the objective being to protect wildlife habitat 

 including wetlands. Priorities will be established on a statewide basis. 



Public involvement was extensive in the development of the above strategies. Both were 

 established through the legislative process where numerous public hearings were held, 

 and both have been featured in the Department's Montana Outdoors magazine 

 (March/April 1986-1988; May/June 1987; July/August 1988). The waterfowl stamp 

 includes a publicly advertised annual contest to choose a painting for the stamp with 

 proceeds from the sale of art prints to be used for waterfowl habitat. 



The wildlife habitat acquisition program grew out of wildlife habitat concerns mentioned 

 by the public at both the 1986 Governor's Forum and the SCORP Issue Development 

 Workshop (Issue 10. Also, public review and hearings were held regarding proposed 

 policy and priorities for the habitat acquisition program in major communities 

 throughout the state during January and February, 1988. 



State Priorities 



Guidelines being developed for both of the above programs will be instrumental in the 

 prioritization of potential acquisition activities under the LWCF program. However, the 

 inventory of Montana wetiands is still underway and will not be completed for at least 

 another 2 to 3 years. The Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has not yet developed 

 a separate prioritized ranking of wetlands for acquisition. The efforts of the USFWS, 

 however, have laid out some guidelines for wetland protection within the state. 



Certain areas of the state obviously have much greater potential for wetiand protection, 

 development and enhancement based on habitat and breeding densities. Acquisition 

 priorities and targets are listed in King's Wetiand Delineation of Montana (Tables 2 and 

 5), and Wittmier's Land Acquisition and Development Plan (Table 1 and Appendix 1) 

 references which are reproduced in full in tine SCORP Appendix. However, artificial 



