What is the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks relationship with the Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust?
In 2002 Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton appointed the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Foundation to be the Trust Manager of the Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust. Our responsibilities include investing the corpus of the trust and disbursing funds for projects requested by the Joint State-Federal Board, providing the projects meet the purpose of the trust. Senator Max Bacus authored legislation in 1999 that allowed 265 cabin owners to purchase their plots at Canyon Ferry Reservoir from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. 90 percent of the proceeds fro the sales of the cabin sites were to be deposited in a permanent perpetual public trust in Montana to be known as the “Montana Fish and Wildlife Conservation Trust.” The purpose of the trust is to provide a permanent source of funding to acquire publicly accessible land and interest in land, including easements and conservation easements, in the state from willing sellers at fair market value to: • Restore and conserve fishe
