Chapter I - Introduction 



Introduction 



An audit of the Wildlife Management Program at the Department of 

 Fish, Wildlife and Parks was approved by the Legislative Audit 

 Committee for the 1999 biennium. Concerns were raised by legislators, 

 sportsmen groups, and members of the pubhc about management 

 practices within the program, and about delays in issuing a 

 programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) report. The 

 programmatic EIS was designed to evaluate the environmental impacts 

 of the department's wildlife-related decisions and activities. The 

 Legislative Audit Division chose to perform a separate review of the 

 process used by the department to complete its EIS project. This report 

 presents the findings from our review. Separate performance audits of 

 the department's Wildlife Program and Block Management Program 

 will be completed in 1999. 



Audit Objectives 



Most of the concerns about the programmatic Wildlife EIS are related to 

 the extended time period needed to complete the project. The objectives 

 of our audit were to: 



1 . Collect background information on the Wildlife EIS project. 



2. Collect appropriation and expenditure information for the project. 



3. Examine and document the timeline for the project including major 

 steps followed and changes made in the approach. 



Because of the narrow scope of concerns with the EIS project (primarily 

 related to delays in completing the project), we decided to limit the 

 scope of our review to more effectively utilize audit resources. We did 

 not determine if it was necessary for the department to complete the 

 Wildlife programmatic EIS. We also did not determine if the Wildlife 

 EIS comphed with all provisions of the Montana Environmental PoUcy 

 Act (MEPA). 



Pagel 



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