and Shelly 1991a) . These habitats were then identified as well 

 as possible using information on soils, landforms, geology, 

 topography, and color aerial photographs of Helena National 

 Forest. Efforts were made to relocate historical collections to 

 determine not only their current status and extent, but to add 

 more information to the habitat profile. Fieldwork planning took 

 place concurrently with fieldwork due to delayed arrival of the 

 two new Montana Natural Heritage Program botanists. 



Draft ecological landscape units developed by the Helena National 

 Forest were examined for applicability. They were defined in 

 part on forest type and structure, while many of the target 

 species occupy non-forested habitat or narrow zones within a 

 general habitat (see discussion. Appendix 4). Soil and landform 

 subunits were tested more closely for applicability. Select 

 subunits potentially harboring sensitive species were printed out 

 at the same scale as USGS 7.5' topographic quads, the units 

 transcribed onto the quads, and all units were visited on select 

 quads. In general, the soil type and landform units either added 

 no additional information to the search profile supplied by 

 topographic maps and aerial photographs, or the species occupied 

 multiple sets of environmental conditions. Soil types were most 

 useful for finding areas of limestone, a broad indicator for rare 

 plants in general within the project area. 



The study area was divided and prioritized into three areas by 

 the Forest Service (Figure 2) (Olsen, pers. coramun. 1992). 

 Highest study priority was assigned to an area of the Big Belt 

 Mountains between Duck Creek Pass and Cayuse Mountain, and an 

 area in the Elkhorn Mountains from Crow Peak north to High Peak 

 and then southeast. The second priority level was the remainder 

 of the Elkhorn Mountains and the area of the Big Belt Mountains 

 to the south of the high priority area. The lowest priority area 

 was in the Big Belt Mountains to the north of Cayuse Mountain and 

 included the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness area and the Dry 

 Range. 



Effort was made to cover the most suitable habitats for known or 

 suspected rare species during peak flowering or fruiting when the 

 species was most conspicuous. Survey work in the early months of 

 the field season focused on target species of grasslands and 

 other low elevation forest settings, while later season work was 

 directed more to species of wetlands and high elevation habitats. 

 Surveys were conducted at the reconnaissance survey level outside 

 of rare plant population sites by walking and driving through as 

 much target habitat as possible. Effort was concentrated in the 

 high priority study areas, but not all potential sites were 

 surveyed. Appendix 1 lists place names of localities visited and 

 the township, range, and section covered. Figure 3 provides a 

 visual setting for these same sites. 



