One Montana’s Impact: the work we do, the difference we make, and the results we achieve.
We have a responsibility to the individuals and communities we serve to be as effective as possible in meeting our mission and goals, and mobilizing our resources. Solving problems in communities is long-term, complicated work, that is driven by great staff and rooted in our relationships across the state. We hope that the stories shared here will help you to better understand how your donations to One Montana make a difference.
The Master Hunter Program has changed my hunting practice and understanding in too many ways to count; most importantly, though it has introduced me to new friends, as well as changed my thinking with landowner stewardship and their management of wildlife resources.
John How, MHP 2021
Since 1995, the Bozeman Track Club has been introducing hundreds of kids to the freedom and accessibility of running on our local trails. Instilling principles of kindness and inclusivity in our youth is what running as a team is all about. Outside Kind provides us with the ability to expand that team and we welcome everyone to join us as we Run Kind. -Michael McCormick
Stories of Impact
The following stories are are intended to share how your support helps One Montana make a difference across the state. New stories will be added regularly.
Nuturing Montana’s Culture & Character
Helping Communities Find Solutions
Making Connections
Gathering People & Communities
Building Relationships to Create Solutions
Bridging the urban-rural divide by building trust between sportsmen and landowners.
As part of our efforts to bridge the urban-rural divide, we diligently create space for folks to find common ground and foster meaningful relationships. Part of this effort includes working with our landowner partners and developing service opportunities for our Master Hunters to meet and work alongside ranchers and landowners, and learn more about the role of private land stewardship in benefiting public resources such as wildlife.
In 2021 we hosted 13 Service Days on ranches and farms across the state. 50+ Master Hunters provided 482 hours of combined volunteer service. These workdays educate hunters about the important role that landowners play in stewarding wildlife habitat and the challenges of land management.
We spent time out on the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area with The Blackfoot Challenge engaging in a variety of projects to benefit aspens, cattle, hikers, hunters, elk, and grizzly bears alike. Hunters from across the state came to learn how critical private lands and community-owned lands are to the conservation discussion and how important their stewardship is to our public wildlife. As tailgates and tools are shared, common ground is found.
Master Hunters met in Malta to learn about land stewardship from Conni & Craig French and work on wildlife friendly fencing projects with the Ranchers Stewardship Alliance (RSA). We talked about prairie conservation, how good grazing promotes biodiversity, and about how drought is forcing ranchers to think hard about pasture rest and rotation. Volunteers learned about efforts between the US Forest Service, MT Fish Wildlife & Parks and RSA to improve migration corridors for elk and antelope, and the safety of people within these corridors. Working alongside each other, the distance between Bozeman and Malta and Billings felt shorter and more connected than before.
We gathered with AMB West, MT Fish Wildlife & Parks, and Park County Environmental Council in Paradise Valley to remove fencing that was adversely impacting antelope migration. Throughout the day we discussed the complexities of population growth, land use change, policy change, public perception change, geological change, and land stewardship efforts in the region. Creating these connections that allow for such nuanced conversation is key to our work.
“ Community Collaboration requires shared responsibility for achieving results.”
The Montana Way
Nurturing Montana’s Culture & Character
We all have a responsibility to be good citizens as well as sustainable land, water and wildlife stewards. The Montana Way is our strategy to share best practices, stories and successes, and provide resources to enhance enjoyment of our shared public spaces. Our current campaign is Outside Kind.
Our trails and public land saw a sharp increase in use this year. With more and more people are out enjoying the array of outdoor activities, our code of conduct is critical to protect the things that make playing here so special.
Led by 1MT, Outside Kind is an alliance of organizations working to help people understand they have a responsibility to be good stewards of the resources we all enjoy. Together we are creating consistent messaging and education around outdoor ethics and etiquette. The alliance represents diverse perspectives from skiers, bikers, dog owners, hunters, hikers, trail runners, and more, and will amplify and leverage positive messages under different banners such as hike kind, ski kind, ride kind, wag kind, hunt kind, etc.
All Montana communities are seeing some user conflict, damage to important natural resources, and additional financial burdens for maintaining our natural resources. Outside Kind will demonstrate that we can educate and change behaviors. By providing clear, consistent branding and messaging, Outside Kind will help to educate users and establish and peer to peer enforcement of good etiquette in the outdoors. Outside Kind brings to bear the collective voices of multiple organizations simultaneously to spread positive messaging to our communities. We expect Outside Kind to be amplified and carry meaning with it when people see it in other communities.
Learn more at www.outsidekind.org.
Providing Tools and Resources: Helping a community find solutions.
1MT was asked by industry partners to help create solutions to processing needs in Gallatin, Park and Meagher Counties that occurred as a result of COVID. We established the “Meat Meet”, a working group to coordinate dialogue, structure solutions, and help find funding. Members include ranchers, farmers, butchers, processors, retailers, investors, and local representatives. 1MT facilitates these meetings and provides administrative and project management to keep the Meat Meet focused and productive. In 2021, 1MT and the Meat Meet identified an immediate need was paid on-the- job workforce training and initiated a partnership with the Montana Department of Labor, and designed a year-long Registered Apprenticeship Program. Our work with the Meat Meet will bring new businesses and collaborations to the county and help to ease some of the challenges with local processing and food supply chain challenges.
Making Connections
Solving challenges by connecting people and combining resources.
In 2021, we launched the Landowner Education and Research Network (LEARN) to provide tools, resources and case studies to support private landowners to sustain profitable working lands and prepare for succession. LEARN connects information to operations. Our first goal is to aggregate existing content focused on succession planning that is already available, but hard for landowners to locate and use. By aggregating the wide variety of tools that have been created into one interactive digital platform, we will make it easier for landowners to find valuable information. We also believe that by aggregating resources, we will support the organizations who created them to reach a larger segment of their target audience.
Gathering People & Communities
In 2021 One Montana was the recipient of a Wisetail Works grant. This grant has allowed up to build a new Learning Management System. We’ve named it The Roundup to reflect how we gather people and communities together. The Roundup streamlines the administration, tracking, reporting, and delivery for the Master Hunter Program, and is a resource library for Master Hunters. It is also a place where Master Hunters can have discussion and share information with each other. We’re building out a book club and exploring how it may be an educational tool for Outside Kind and LEARN. The possibilities are limitless.