Gallatin Valley Pheasants Forever - Habitat Page

Local Habitat Efforts

Gallatin Valley Pheasants Forever's members are truly passionate about creating, preserving and restoring habitat that benefits pheasants, quail and other upland wildlife. This unique model empowers local chapters with the responsibility to determine how 100 percent of their locally-raised conservation funds will be spent.

Whether it's through improving habitat, informing the public about land management or educating future generations of hunting enthusiasts, conservation is the underlying principle in all we do at the grassroots level.

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Teton River Property

The Teton River property is located west of I-15, 40 miles north of Great Falls, Montana along the Teton River watershed on the north side of the river, approximately 1.5 miles downstream of the confluence with Muddy Creek. About 279 acres of mixed riparian/wetland, grass prairie and dryland crops support a diversity of wildlife, including grasslands songbirds, upland game birds, migratory waterfowl, predatory raptors, deer and moose. The property was acquired in February of 2018 by a combination of local Montana chapters and partner funding. The property was previously private and is now open to the general public for recreational access, including hunting and fishing. We plan to continue to improve habitat and land management for the benefit of upland birds and other wildlife. Future acquisitions look to connect contagious piece of key habitat along the river corridor & increase the size of the complex.

Beaver Creek

The Gallatin Chapter co-purchased 935 acres on the Masters Tract of the Beaver Creek Waterfowl Production Area south of Malta with a $20,000 cash contribution. To date, $16,000 has been invested in shrubs and watering equipment and $30,000 invested in a Gator Pump for use in flooding wetland habitat for winter cover on the property and at the adjacent Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge.

The Copple Tract was a co-purchase of an adjacent 600 acres through a $30,000 cash contribution made possible by a Gibson Guitar donation from Ren Ferguson of the Gallatin Valley Pheasants Forever Chapter. This project is a part of a $250,000 upland and wetland habitat improvement project, including $52,000 from the Gallatin Valley Chapter.

Habitat improvement projects on public lands in southwestern Montana have included shelter belt and food plot development that enhance pheasant habitat available for public hunting opportunities. Most of these projects have involved Federal and State wildlife agencies and several habitat organizations as funding partners.

Beaver Creek Map

Coffee Creek

The Coffee Creek property is located six miles north of Denton, Montana and is enrolled in the Block Management Program, and like all PF properties is open to public hunting and recreation. Miles of shrub row, nesting, and brooding rearing plantings, and intensive habitat management provides excellent conditions for upland birds, deer, and non-game species of wildlife. This property has been featured in an October 2007 National Geographic Magazine article on the role that hunters play in creating and protecting wildlife habitat and restoring wildlife populations. Our Gallatin Valley Chapter contributed $60,000 cash towards the purchase of this 1,200 acre property that also consists of adjacent state lease land.

The Coffee Creek property was featured in a National Geographic article a few years back. You can read the entire article here.

Coffee Creek Map

Canyon Ferry

On Saturday, May 3rd, several GVPF members met up with the Headwaters (Helena) Chapter for a work day at the Canyon Ferry Wildlife Management Area (WMA) north of Townsend.  We met Adam Grove, the new WMA Wildlife Biologist and Fred Jakubowski, Fish and Wildlife Tech to weed shelterbelts planted a couple years ago. We worked on the Meyer Lease plantings where we heard roosters crowing and saw a number of pheasants as we removed weeds and grasses adjacent to the shrubs. Survival varied quite a bit between species and even within the rows, probably due to changes in the soil and available moisture. Damage from rodents and deer was minimal. All in all, these multiple row shrub plantings should begin to offer good winter cover (western juniper, lilac, and caragana) and food (silver buffaloberry,  wild rose, golden currant, cotoneaster, and chokecherry) in the next few years. Dense nesting cover planted nearby will also provide good brood rearing habitat (lots of bugs for chicks) as some areas consist of broad stands of kochia which serves both purposes well.

Fred also showed us habitat work planned for this area. FWP is near to having all the authorizations needed to allow contracting for the earthwork. Two fills will be constructed that will create shallow water wetlands in the historic (but dry) creek channel as well as several shallow, flat gradient ditches that will allow frequent diversion of water. The moist soil and lush veg helps to keep the production of soft body bugs high which gives hens a nearby productive brood rearing strip to graze their young. Insects comprise nearly 100% of the diet of chicks for the first 5 weeks of life so having insect rich strips near good nesting cover results in much higher nesting and chick rearing success. Ducks Unlimited provided the design and is funding the work in partnership with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (the WMAs landowner), FWP, and PF. We have committed $5 K to this project.

We hope to make this an annual event as there is always more work to be done than are hands available. It’s a great way to learn more about the WMA, meet like-minded folks and do good work. Please consider joining us next year.

Canyon Ferry Map

Gallatin Valley Chapter Projects & Accomplishments

Our chapter is once again trying to develop food plot projects on private lands adjacent to the Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge and Waterfowl Production Areas in Phillips County, MT. These projects consist of direct payments to the landowners to offset the cost of leaving standing food crops in their fields, adjacent to areas open to public hunting. We implemented one successful project last year adjacent to Bowdoin and are looking to implement a similar project this year. Our motivation is based on our belief that this effort results in more birds on the adjacent publically accessible lands.

Our chapter is continuing to work with MT Fish, Wildlife, and Parks at the Canyon Ferry Wildlife Management Area (WMA) near Townsend. We have retained our allocated funds to assist with development of new water and wetland habitat development on the Meyer Lease located in the southeast portion of the WMA. Development of these wet areas is expected to occur later this year.

We will continue to support the Central Montana Chapter (Lewistown) with habitat development, maintenance and property taxes on the Wolf Creek and Coffee Creek properties near Denton, Montana.

Our chapter will continue to support the DNRC’s Tongue River Ranch property south of Miles City with a multi-year commitment to restrict grazing in the riparian corridor and hay unit along the river.

The Chapter has been coordinating with several state land lessees and Montana DNRC in the Geraldine area to improve Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) enrolled lands and adjacent cover to benefit sharptail and pheasant populations in the area. These lands are accessible to the public and offer a means to improve habitat and expand quality hunting areas open to the public. The Chapter is working to develop the management plans and contribute funds to assist with the habitat improvements.

For more information regarding our habitat projects, please contact our Chapter President Jim Hoschouer.

 Our fundraising efforts have gone towards the purchase and habitat enhancements of lands open to public hunting that include:

1. 20,284 acre Tongue River Ranch, located 30 miles southwest of Miles City
2. 1,200 acres on Coffee Creek near Denton
3. 1,535 acre Beaver Creek WPA complex near Malta
4. Canyon Ferry WMA shelterbelts
5. Goose Bay at Canyon Ferry shelterbelts
6. Moylan/Wolf Creek property consisting of 1,000 acres of deeded land and 640 acres of State lease located at Denton MT. Property is located adjacent to 11,600 of additional public access lands

In addition to the projects listed above, we have allocated funds towards several emergency feeding programs in various areas of the state over the past few winters.