Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
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Apr 27, 2026 2:48 PM
HELENA – FWP has several active public comment windows open right now — and a few of them are closing fast. If you care about trails, timber country access, or private pond permitting, here’s what’s on the table. Full details and comment submission instructions are at fwp.mt.gov/public-notices.
Recreational Trails Program conditional awards
FWP administers the federally funded Recreational Trails Program, and they’re seeking public comment on this year’s recommended grant awards. Forty-nine applications came in requesting over $3 million in funding. The conditional awards total $1,501,595.25 — so not everybody’s getting what they asked for, but there’s real money moving here. Eligible projects cover a wide range: urban and backcountry trail development, rehabilitation work, community trail construction, snowmobile and cross-country ski grooming operations, and trail safety education programs. If you’ve got a stake in how that money gets allocated, now’s the time to say so.
Comment deadline: April 28
This one’s a big deal. FWP, The Trust for Public Land, and Stimson Lumber Company are proposing to place 20,824 acres of productive timberland in Lincoln, Mineral, and Sanders counties under conservation easement. If you’ve spent any time in that corner of the state — the country between Libby and Thompson Falls, the drainages that feed the Clark Fork and the Kootenai — you already know what kind of country we’re talking about. It’s not scenery. It’s working habitat.
The easement, which FWP would hold, keeps the land open to sustainable timber harvest, permanently blocks residential and commercial development, and locks in free public hunting access — over 6,000 hunter-days per year, secured forever. Funding would come through the U.S. Forest Service Forest Legacy Program and grants raised by TPL. The project shares 115 miles of border with Forest Service and state lands, plus another 15 miles with privately conserved ground.
Habitat-wise, this corridor covers year-round range and movement for elk, mule deer, whitetails, and moose. It also protects critical habitat for bull trout, grizzly bear, and Canada lynx — all ESA-listed threatened species. Honestly, keeping residential development out of grizzly country alone makes a strong case for this. Human-wildlife conflict doesn’t just hurt the bears; it creates headaches for every hunter and outfitter working that landscape for generations to come.
Comment deadline: April 30
Dedeker Private Pond Permit application EA
An applicant is proposing to stock a newly constructed half-acre lined pond with lake trout, rainbow trout, brown trout, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and walleye. FWP’s private pond policy doesn’t allow lake trout, brown trout, smallmouth bass, or walleye, so those four species aren’t being considered in the EA. The pond is well-fed, filled by hose, and has no inlet or outlet. If it were to flood, water would flow overland — and FWP says a surface connection is unlikely and fish survival in that scenario isn’t expected.
Comment deadline: May 1
Wilson Armells Ranch Private Pond License review
A private landowner near Armells Creek is applying for a Private Fish Pond License and wants to stock rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, and westslope cutthroat trout. The pond sits on an earthen dam over an intermittent drainage, fed by surface runoff. When full, water exits through a 24-inch trickle tube — the landowner has agreed to screen it to keep fish from escaping. From there, water spreads across a meadow for about 0.7 miles without a defined channel before entering a smaller pond, and then flows roughly 0.1 miles to Armells Creek. Prior sampling in Armells Creek has turned up white sucker, mountain sucker, and longnose dace. FWP is reviewing the potential impacts of issuing the license, as required.