Initiatives

Background:  In 1999, the Montana Chapter of the Wildlife Society produced a 301-page report to provide resource users, managers, and decision-makers with access to the best available scientific information about the effects of recreation on wildlife and to foster good stewardship of Montana’s wildlife resources for current and future generations.  A companion website was developed to allow ready online access to the bibliographies of literature used to develop this document.  The website allows searches by year, word, phrase, or wildcard and can be filtered by species and recreation type.

Need:  The Effects of Recreation on Rocky Mountain Wildlife report is now 20 years out-of-date.  A great deal of research has been conducted since that time on the topical areas covered in report and new forms of outdoor recreation such as pack rafts and drones are new topical areas for which research summaries are needed by natural resource managers.

Progress To Date: Through collaboration with Natural Heritage Program we have been working to: 1) update the literature contained in the bibliography and companion website by having a data technician conduct literature searches and add articles to the bibliographic database. 2) In collaboration with FWP and the University of Montana we hired an intern in summer ’24 to conduct early scoping and gather insight in how we might approach an update to the document.

NOW WE ARE SEEKING YOUR INPUT!

We hope you will participate in this brief survey to help us update a report on the effects of recreation on wildlife. Your insights are invaluable, and we want to assure you that your responses will remain confidential. The information you provide in your answers will be used to refine our understanding and to develop better strategies when updating this report. 

Click here to participate in this survey!