The Hub Conservation Area - Montanans 4 Safe Wildlife Passage

need to be purchased.• Information and Education. Manyinterviewees recommended the implementationof Living with Wildlife programs, education onbest management practices for vegetation, andeducation regarding smart growth practices.Outreach to new landowners moving in to theregion is seen as a priority, for their behaviorscan have implications on wildlife movement andmortality.• Forest Planning. Some of the NationalForests in the Hub conservation area are in theprocess of revising their forest plans. Biologistsidentified opportunities to have wildlife linkageareas identified and connectivity issues betteraddressed through the forest planning process.• Wildlife crossing structures on highwaysand railroads. Where increasing highway andrailroad traffic threatens wildlife movement,biologists identified opportunities for crossingstructures, signs, fencing, or other types oftransportation mitigation. In some cases,these opportunities were linked to existing orupcoming Montana Department of Transportationor Idaho Transportation Department projects.In other cases, experts identified opportunitiesto explore the possibilities for mitigation.Depending on the traffic volumes on highways,these opportunities may be short or longterm.Recommendations were generally madewithout specific knowledge about the costs ofcrossing structures or the engineering feasibilityof structures for particular landscapes.There are numerous tools that can be usedto facilitate wildlife passage over and underhighways and railroads. In linkage areas wherewildlife crossing structures were identified asopportunities, more work is needed to identifythe best tool.• Community groups. Interviewees allagreed that citizen-led grassroots efforts toconserve local linkages are something thatshould be pursued. To this end, existing groups,such as the Blackfoot Challenge, and theMacDonald Pass Working Group, along withseveral watershep groups, were identified. TheBlackfoot Challenge, a coalition of landowners,land trusts, federal and state agencies, andother conservation interests, have protected88,000 acres of private land so far. Much of thisland was acquired from Plum Creek. Workingwith county and city commissioners, developers,architects, and engineers to incorporate smartgrowthprinciples was also identified.Georgetown Lake, photo by Grace Hammond32