managed grazing, and by management of the ponds established on the 

 area. The great need has been to create shallow ponds and to provide 

 for control over all water areas. This open water and marsh will total 

 appro.ximately 6,000 acres. 



In Freezeout's previously unmanaged condition, losses among ducks 

 occurred from botulism during certain years. Botulism is a water- 

 fowl disease which occurs under conditions that sometimes develop 

 on stagnant, alkaline waters. An effective way to combat this condition 

 is through water manipulation. This will be a part of the management 

 program. 



Freezeout is located on an important flight lane in the Central 

 Flyway. The project fills a long-standing gap in the original plan of 

 needed, key refuges, set up for the country in 1935. 



The decline of the waterfowl population in North .A^merica was 

 brought about because much of the original waterfowl habitat had 

 been destroyed — in addition to the adverse clima'ic conditions of the 

 1930's. The future of waterfowl on the continent depends much upon 

 the success of habitat restoration and new marsh development to 

 replace destroyed habitat. Freezeout Lake is important in this program 



As a wildlife management area, this project is very similar to a 

 Federal Waterfowl Refuge. The main difference is that more emphasis 

 w-11 be placed on public hunting and the administration of the project 

 is b}' the State. A portion of the project area will be closed to hunting 

 to provide necessary resting sanctuar}' for migrating waterfowl. 



This project will provide a permanent public hunting area for the 

 increasing population of hunters in Montana. Fortunately, the area 

 is very access. ble for public use. It is traversed by U. S. Highway ^9 

 and lies mid-way between Fairfield and ( hotcau. It is located within 

 a reasonable traveling distance of population centers — 40 miles west 

 of Great Falls, 90 miles north of Helena and 150 odd miles from 

 Butte, ^Missoula or Havre. 



In excess of 12,000 snow geese at a time rest on Freezeout in the 

 fall and several times this number stop here during the peak of spring 

 migration. This is little indication of the total number of snow geese 

 which use Freezeout during migration. The peak fall population of 

 mallards has been approximately 50.000. In the spring of 1956, a popu- 

 lation in excess of 6 000 Wh'stling Swan were observed on the lake 



— 2>7 — 



