>> male announcer: This is the story of a people's dedication to reestablish Montana's wildlife... [gentle instrumental music] ♪ ♪ The story of how Montana's wildlife was brought back from the brink.

After decades of habitat alteration... [mournful instrumental music] ♪ ♪ And uncontrolled hunting practices, Montana's wildlife situation was bleak.

♪ ♪ Over the years, government- and citizen-based initiatives reversed these damaging trends.

Planting birds in Montana was a huge success, especially for nonnative species.

After years of decline, the grasslands and forests, air and water of Montana were once again alive with birds and waterfowl.

♪ ♪ The most difficult livetrapping and transporting efforts still loomed ahead: big game and furbearers.

These animals were often difficult to handle and control.

♪ ♪ Weather conditions at times were just plain tortuous.

>> You've got to watch your weather.

You've got to--if it's rainy or all muddy or miserable, you've got to hang it up for a while.

Then you climb in your truck and keep from getting hurt.

>> All of a sudden, I hear bang!

And bang!

And the trees were banging.

I thought "My gosh, it must be"-- I don't know how cold it gets when trees start banging, but it would have to be perhaps in the 40s below zero.

We kept going, and the way we had to walk is, we'd walk, and we'd sink about maybe six, eight inches in the snow, and then we'd go bang the snow off our snowshoe.

Bang, bang.

Bang, bang.

And we'd go until one guy got tired, and he'd step aside, and the other guy would break the trail for a while.

And so that's the way it went.

It'd just wear you out.

>> There was a lot of real heavy physical work involved.

Then working in the backcountry, you're using horses, and, of course, horse packing involves a lot of effort.

My typical pattern would be to spend the day alone.

The packer that took care of the horses would be back at camp, but I would usually spend the day alone hiking to get into areas that were not accessible by horses.

And, of course, that meant carrying a lot of equipment with me.

>> I remember, we was in Grizzly Basin there north of Seeley Lake in that country, and the air all of a sudden kind of got soft, and the plane started sinking, and I know the pilot put all three motors full blast and we got out of there, but it was hazardous, and, of course, we only flew when the flying was--the weather was suitable, but then that's mountain flying, you know.

>> narrator: Besides numerous accidents and close calls, three pilots and three biologists lost their lives during Montana's wildlife management efforts.

>> Some of those cliffs and hills in there when you're flying real close and working only with numbers and depending on them, you could look up and see there were cliffs hanging over the airplane when you were back under one of those shoulders in there.

It was a tough, rough bunch of flying.

>> narrator: The everyday hardships of the job not only affected fish and game biologists but their families as well.

>> It seemed to me he was gone all of the time.

He settled me in a motel and took off for ten days.

When he came back, we found an apartment, and he took off for ten days.

And then he came back, and we kind of settled down.

But that was our life in Helena.

He was gone more than he was at home, and weekends didn't really make any difference in those days.

>> And so we went over to Polebridge for the winter.

And, of course, you couldn't get anywhere except on snowshoes and skis and the snowmobile, which we pushed more than we rode on for a while.

I had no electricity, no phone, no water, so I did everything the hard way.

>> I did my laundry in big tubs that I heated water on the old woodstove.

We had a woodstove, a cupboard that had a board that pulled down and made into a table, a couple of chairs and boxes and suitcases, I suppose, we sat on too, and then upstairs was a little loft and just room enough for three little cots, and that's where we slept.

>> narrator: No one had done much large-scale big game and furbearer trapping and transplanting in the past.

The know-how was virtually nonexistent, so new ways of doing things were invented, sometimes on the spot.

>> By and large, we didn't know how to do it and had to invent how to do it, and Vernon Holly had located the source of live traps and invented a cone, a handling cone, to fit over the live trap.

So when we caught something like a pine marten, we could run them directly out of a trap into that cone, and with them in there, hell, then we could weigh them and get them tagged.

>> narrator: Jim McLucas, a Butte native, spearheaded the state's entire big game trapping and transplanting program.

During his long career, he relocated over 16,000 animals throughout Montana.

>> Well, Jim worked for us.

I hired him.

And he was an extremely good hand with animals.

Jim was a wonderful man, strong and interested in wild animals.

The elk got down to pretty small numbers, and we had to work with them to bring them back.

And, of course, Jim McLucas was involved in that.

We took them in various-- put them in new places in Montana.

>> The first elk went wherever the rail went, and then I started.

I trucked--I probably trucked more than anybody.

I probably, when we started moving elk in the early '50s, I trucked them all the way up to '72.

>> narrator: Elk are a gregarious migratory animal.

They gather in small groups in high mountain ranges during summer and congregate in large herds at lower elevations through long winters.

They were widely distributed throughout Montana territory before European immigrants arrived.

But early game surveys in the 1900s found a different story.

The only sizable elk herds in the state were in the Sun River-South Fork of the Flathead region and the Gallatin-Yellowstone Park areas.

Because of hunting and other factors, the Sun River herd was in danger by 1913.

At the time, it was feared the Gallatin herd might go extinct by 1916.

In 1910, sportsmen's clubs in the Butte area, concerned about the scarcity of elk, purchased some unlikely fares from the Northern Pacific Railroad.

25 elk were loaded on railcars near Yellowstone Park and transplanted to the Mount Fleecer area southwest of Butte.

The idea quickly caught on, and soon the number of elk requests from sportsmen's clubs around the state were more than could be trapped by Montana game wardens and crews.

In 1912, 540 elk were transplanted to areas across Montana, including Glacier National Park.

Sportsmen's clubs raised $5 per animal, a couple of days' wages at the time, to transport them.

Ironically, it was the same railroads that had played a part in the buffalo slaughter that were now being used to help restore wildlife.

>> Actually, the railroad-- it was good public relations-- would furnish an engine and just take them up to Bitterroot and right over here to Elliston and all over eastern--or western Montana.

>> narrator: The transplanting of elk required a major team effort by sportsmen, landowners, the U.S. Forest and Park Service, the Montana Fish and Game Department, and its commission.

>> And when they turned them loose, when they dropped the gates and they sort of boiled out of the trucks onto the prairie there, it was interesting because everyone thought they would go directly towards the mountains, and they didn't.

They milled around for a few minutes, and then they headed directly toward the Missouri River Breaks.

>> narrator: When the elk arrived at their destinations, rod and gun club members placed the animals in livestock corrals and fed them before they were released.

Amazingly, mortality rates were under 10%.

So important was this work to some people that it eclipsed other significant events in their lives.

>> And my father was involved in the original introduction of elk from Yellowstone Park into this part of the world.

At the very moment that they were releasing these elk from the trucks just around the corner at the mouth of Sheep Creek, my mother went into labor.

So when the event of the release of elk was over, my dad was informed that he'd better get to Great Falls, and he claims he made my birth, but my mother's not too sure of that.

>> narrator: The elk became so numerous in some parts of Montana that the animals began overgrazing their winter range.

Salting was attempted to lure the elk off these heavily used areas during late spring.

>> Bob Cooney started the program, and when I went to work in '46, well, then I continued the salting.

We would put the salt out in June, and it cost about, oh, about $15,000 a year to buy the salt at that time, way back in the '50s.

We used a Ford trimotor that we rented from Johnson's Flying Service in Missoula for $90 an hour.

And the plane would carry a ton and a half of salt.

And what we found, that elk liked salt, yes, and they licked the salt, yes, but what we found is that the elk didn't leave the game range any sooner, and so we felt that the salting program was not effective.

I think it was discontinued about '57, '56 or '57.

>> narrator: Elk transplanting ended after nearly 8,000 elk had been transplanted during 6 decades of effort.

Most came from the northern Yellowstone herd.

Elk are now well established in Montana.

There has been substantial natural colonization of new areas that continues today.

The opportunity to hunt, view, and hear elk in their natural habitat is a wonder for all who come to Montana's wild country.

[elk bellows] Mule deer are native to Montana, the most common of all deer species under the big sky.

Their distinctive large ears, black-tipped tail, and dark gray coat make them easily recognizable.

Indians and early explorers, trappers, and settlers depended on mule deer as a source of food and clothing.

But from 1915 to the late 1930s, these deer were scarce throughout most of Montana.

They were heavily impacted by the droughts and hunting pressure brought on by economic hard times.

Some locals thought they were gone entirely from their region.

>> Like I said, if you want to get a deer, you didn't go looking for a deer.

When it snowed, you went and looked for a track and see if you can track him down or two.

I can remember walking all the way from Eureka damn near to Barnaby Lake before we ever found a track, that's how scarce they were for a while there in the '30s.

>> I grew up in Lewistown, and I did a lot of hiking and walking in the woods and out all the time, and if we even saw a deer track, we were just amazed.

We'd go home, "Oh, jeez, saw a deer track."

>> And some people who hunted in the Little Belts said that if you went up into Little Belts and looked for deer, you'd be lucky if you saw a deer track in those days.

Deer were scarce in eastern Montana.

>> narrator: By the early 1940s, mule deer had recovered and were generally distributed across the western 1/3 of the state with only a scattered occurrence elsewhere.

Between 1941 and 1956, over 1,300 mule deer were trapped and transplanted by the Fish and Game Department.

Local ranchers like the Mackays of south central Montana often assisted in the relocation effort.

>> So the Mackays had an extra hay sled and lumber, and we built a crate on it.

Fortunately, the guy, Charlie Harkins, was working with me.

He was an old rancher, and he knew how to drive a team of horses, so we'd help them feed in the morning and then take the team and check our traps.

We caught 161 mule deer and hauled them out.

The first trip was with a horse and sled.

>> We made some long hauls, and, of course, when you've got animals in your truck, why, you just keep moving.

And if the distance is so great, just goes right into the night.

Had a fellow with us, and he told us--showed us where to go, and he said, "This is it," and he opened up the back, and the first deer jumped out.

And then pretty quickly, we heard a kerpunk in the water, and another one jumped out.

And about the third one, I said, "We got to move this truck around."

I said, "Those deer are hitting into a pond or something."

And, sure enough, that's what was happening.

They'd run right straight out and run right into this little pond.

>> narrator: Today mule deer are found throughout the state and offer both sportsmen and the general public an opportunity to experience a part of Montana that was nearly lost forever.

Flashing white tails while running quickly identifies Montana's native whitetail deer.

Uncontrolled market and subsistence hunting reduced whitetail populations in eastern Montana from 1850 to 1900.

By the turn of the century, these deer were found mainly in the rugged habitat of northwestern Montana.

>> You know, I knew what they were, but you never, ever saw any whitetail around here.

It was all mule deer.

>> narrator: In 1944, whitetails were trapped in the Thompson River area of northwestern Montana and moved back to areas in the eastern part of the state.

Once again, local ranchers helped the transplanting effort.

>> And a rancher down the road towards Plains, Chaney made arrangements with him, and we made a panel chute and everything on his barn, and we'd haul the deer down.

So we'd set our trap, and they'd sabotage us, and they'd bait ours.

And this was a midnight operation.

We caught 50 that way.

>> narrator: Over the last 50 years, natural colonization from these transplants extended the whitetail population along the Yellowstone River.

Whitetail populations are also common on agricultural land and along most of the tributaries of the Missouri River in Montana.

Their numbers have increased to such an extent that 1996 marked the first year on record that hunters harvested more whitetails than mule deer.

The pronghorn antelope is native to Montana and unique to North America.

They exist nowhere else in the world.

These distinctive creatures are found in the wide-open plains of the West often in herds of 100 or more.

Pronghorns can achieve speeds up to 50 miles per hour in short bursts.

In Montana, antelope were plentiful until 1896, 2 to 3 times more abundant than bison.

But during the early decades of the 20th century, the American pronghorn was in dire straits.

In addition to market and subsistence hunting, large numbers of antelope were lost to habitat alteration by 5 1/2 million sheep and hundreds of thousands of cattle.

The U.S.

Biological Survey estimated there were about 10,000 antelope left in all of America and only 3,000 in Montana.

But the abandonment of dry land homesteads and the return of native vegetation stimulated the distribution and abundance of antelope by the later 1920s.

Trapping and transplanting antelope began in 1911, at first by the Boone & Crockett Club, then by the U.S.

Biological Survey.

Initially, it wasn't known how to trap this elusive and speedy animal, so fawns were captured, pen-raised, transported in crates, and released.

The first aerial trapping effort employed the flying skills of Cliff McBratney of Augusta, Montana, and his two-seat Taylorcraft airplane.

>> We had McBratney, who was a pilot out of Augusta, flying a small two-place airplane, side by side, and was very good at running them into the trap.

And later on, why, I ran a few in, but it was very dangerous work as far as I was concerned, and I wasn't too anxious to do it very often.

>> He'd come down chasing antelope, and he'd say, "I guess we'd better move them a little bit," and he'd bang that rear wheel on the ground.

[laughs] I said, "I guess he has great big mittens on," and he had that plane, and we were chasing antelope.

[laughs] And we were really moving.

It was fun, but I know it was in good hands.

McBratney was a pilot in the world wars.

>> They had attempted to trap antelope in solid corrals.

But that didn't work, because the antelope would hit the fence and dislocate their necks, so they had to figure out something different.

And Rex Smart, with the help of the other people around him, built a portable corral that was flexible out of netting, and it worked.

And grab them around the-- behind the front quarters, raise them off of the ground, and then they'd quit fighting and carry them over and put them in the truck.

>> narrator: After these initial trapping efforts, Jim Stradley of the Gallatin Flying Service joined Don Brown of the Fish and Game Department to help trap and transplant antelope in Montana.

>> They were rounded up with helicopters and chased into nets, loaded on board these ranch trucks.

My father was so interested in witnessing their release that he reassured my stepmother this time that her child was surely not going to be born on this particular day.

But, in fact, while they were releasing the antelope, my stepmother developed labor pains and, again, my father nearly missed the birth of his second son.

The story got so widespread that women in Great Falls used to joke to each other that if their pregnancy was lasting a little too long, all they had to do was get their husbands interested in animal restoration, and it would surely bring on delivery.

>> narrator: Almost 4,000 pronghorns were transplanted in Montana before the program was terminated in 1965.

But it wasn't just Montana that benefited from this transplanting.

A total of 1,500 other antelope were transplanted to other states, including North Dakota, Nevada, Kansas, Utah, Arizona, even Hawaii.

Today antelope continue to expand their range in Montana.

The cooperation and active support of landowners, the Fish and Game Commission, sportsmen's clubs, and other citizens provide a positive environment for the success of this program.

Mountain goats were not affected much by the wildlife tragedies of the late 19th century.

Perhaps it was due to their historic distribution in Montana along the rugged backbone of the Rocky Mountains.

Nevertheless, new herds were established in suitable habitats beginning in the 1940s.

The first transplant of mountain goats began as a request from a rancher in the Crazy Mountains, an area without goats.

He assisted with trapping and transplanting and helped fund the project.

In 1941, 10 goats were trapped in a small corral baited with salt on the cliffs high above Deep Creek in the Sun River area of the Rocky Mountain Front.

>> Actually, our first job was with the mountain goats and trapping and transplanting them.

And Bruce Neal and his son helped us build a big trap up in the Sun River country, and we'd catch the goats in there.

And at that time, we'd put them in crates, the first time that had been done anywhere in the United States, I guess.

>> narrator: They were loaded into crude wooden crates on a two-wheeled horse cart and taken to the nearest road for transfer to a pickup truck.

Then they were hauled 300 miles and released at Sweet Grass Creek in the Crazy Mountains.

A second group of goats was trapped in 1943, but the snow was too deep for the horse cart.

Crates were constructed, and the goats were hauled down from the trap on packhorses.

>> And at that time, we put them in crates, a crate on either side of the packhorse, and away we went with them.

>> narrator: They were released into the Beartooth Mountains of south central Montana.

Jim McLucas continued the goat-trapping program after the war.

>> I put a salt lick-- I blocked the salt up here to establish a lick so we could erect a goat trap.

And a lot of times, we would catch as high as 15 mountain goats in this trap.

We'd come in here and rope a goat and get him from the group and take him out through the entrance gate, and we'd tag him, put the holes over his horns, and put him into the crate on the back of the pickup, which would hold about six or seven mountain goats at one time.

>> narrator: His efforts established populations in many historically unoccupied mountain ranges east of the Continental Divide.

>> Elkhorn Mountains is one.

Tobacco Roots over by Sheridan and alone Pine Creek up above Livingston, like, on your way to the park, and then a variety of places along that Beartooth Mountains.

And we never lost any in moving them, which is pretty remarkable.

So they're a pretty good animal, and you can start a huntable herd from as many as four animals.

>> narrator: Montana fish and game biologist Dwight Stockstad helped McLucas transport the goats.

Stockstad actually floated goats down the south fork of the Flathead River in rubber rafts.

They were then taken to the wilderness airstrip at Black Bear.

Stockstad and McLucas loaded them into a Stinson Station Wagon aircraft.

After these initial efforts, it was decided that for safety reasons, the goats would be given a light sedative to calm them during the flight.

Over the years, goats were introduced to mountainous areas throughout the state.

As goat populations grew, they colonized adjacent areas at an average rate of about a half mile per year.

Bighorn sheep were once widely distributed across Montana.

The Audubon variety occupied country in the Missouri and Yellowstone river drainages of eastern Montana.

The last Audubon was shot in 1916.

By the 1930s, the original range of the Rocky Mountain bighorn had been reduced to 15 small populations in western and south central Montana.

Subsistence hunting, anthrax, and respiratory diseases from domestic sheep had a devastating effect on many populations.

>> They were supposed to be lungworm free.

That was their big word was at that time.

So when we got up to 100 sheep in there, we took the pasture down, rolled it all up, the wire and everything and the pens that we had for about 100 mountain sheep.

And right away, one of the rams got into a guy's domestic sheep, and he had a bunch of wild lambs.

Had two or three short seasons, and in five years, there wasn't any.

>> narrator: Bighorn sheep restoration began with the import of 12 sheep from Banff, Alberta, for release on the National Bison Range at Moiese.

In 1939, a private landowner moved two sheep from the Mission Mountains to Wild Horse Island on Flathead Lake.

But major efforts to restore and improve bighorn populations began in 1942.

Trapping methods included the use of corral traps baited with salt and alfalfa hay.

>> We didn't have too much success with the bighorns.

We transplanted them in several places, but, lo and behold, they'd up and go, and they were back home again.

>> But, you know, sheep are harder to transplant and get a herd established than anything else.

And my theory is, they just have such a strong homing instinct.

>> And we were invited to go along into the Sun River to help transplant bighorn sheep.

We set them in sleds that would pull behind the snow machine and drug them out and loaded them into a stock trailer.

>> narrator: By the 1960s, there were enough sheep on Wild Horse Island to begin trapping and transplanting in earnest.

Helicopters were used to drive sheep into a corral trap.

One of these dramatic roundups was captured by a popular TV series of the time, Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins.

>> There they are.

In seconds, we've caught up with them and are amazed at their speed and agility.

We'll let these rams go and concentrate on locating the females, which ought to be close by.

We've found them.

This seems to be the main body of the Wild Horse Island bighorn sheep herd.

A brief call to the ground on the walkie-talkie alerts the men waiting down at the trap that the main part of the herd has been located and we've begun moving them down the mountain.

We've gotten them down to ground that's level enough for one of the Fish and Game Department trucks to join us in herding the animals.

They're entering the mouth of the trap now.

In just another moment, we'll have driven them past the place where McLucas and his men are hidden in the neck of the trap.

The men running with the burlap strip will keep the sheep running until they're in the enclosure.

We don't have to worry that we might be charged by the ewe, but the game management men must be careful not to allow the animal to accidentally injure herself through fruitless struggling.

Once she's been put into the box and the box is stood upright, then Jim McLucas makes sure that she's properly on her feet and in no sort of discomfort.

The box is taken outside of the enclosure of the trap so it can be properly rigged to be lifted by the helicopter and transported down to where the boat is waiting.

Dick Weckwerth will transport the sheep to the research camp on the mainland shore for a series of measurements and tests.

Then the ewe will be transported by truck to the release point about 100 miles away.

It's a well-coordinated effort by these men of the Montana Fish and Game Department, and I'm glad to have been a participant in this project in helping to save the bighorn.

>> narrator: By 2004, 124 separate bighorn sheep captures from 16 different source areas had been transplanted to 45 locales in Montana.

More than 2,000 sheep were moved.

Efforts to restore this magnificent animal to historic ranges like the Missouri Breaks area continue today.

The Shiras moose is the second largest of Montana's native mammals.

>> In Montana, we have the Shiras moose, and in geologic time, they're a relative newcomer.

They moved into the intermountain west and the Montana and the Yellowstone country in the 1800s, in all probability.

>> narrator: They have never been trapped or transplanted in the state, but Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks conducts aerial surveys and inventories to manage moose abundance and provide hunting opportunities.

>> We've seen a real dramatic change in moose numbers on this landscape in the past 150 years, the moose pioneering as the glaciers retreated, numbers increasing, never being terrifically abundant, nothing like elk numbers, for example.

>> narrator: With conservative population management, there has been natural colonization of new areas by these massive animals.

There are two native species of bear in Montana: black bear and grizzly bear.

There was never a strong emphasis on trapping and transplanting black bear, even though their range was reduced.

These gregarious bruins are trapped and transplanted today mainly for damage control due to conflicts with humans.

>> There's about 20 to 30 bears that have to be killed or moved or dealt with here in Rattlesnake Drainage every year.

That's a lot of bears for a small drainage like this.

And it has to do with the food resource here but also the way the area's built up and all the involvements that come about between bears and people, so the main work really is very, very intense management now.

A lot of the research is done.

>> narrator: Although initially feared and hunted to near extinction by early explorers and settlers, Montana's interest in extending the range of the grizzly bear dates back to the 1930s.

Some of the first scientific studies of these animals were conducted in the early 1940s by one Montana biologist in particular.

>> Yeah, there hadn't been anything much done about the grizzly, but we did, I'm sure, help out in getting them taken care of, just bringing them up from practically nothing to pretty reasonable numbers.

We found they needed quite a bit of care.

>> Back then, they weren't even considered a game management animal, but even as early as, I think, 1941, '42, Bob was talking about how we ought to have a different attitude towards the grizzly bears.

>> We were up in the Choteau country along the Front Range, and we'd been talking grizzly bears, of course, all the time.

And real dark night, awfully dark, and all at once, he-- this Gibbler let a howl out of him, and I thought, "Well, they've got him.

[laughs] The bears have got my partner."

And he said, "Oh, Lord."

He said, "There's a mouse in my sleeping bag, and he's bit," he said, "Hell out of me."

[laughs] >> And they now have a tremendous management and research effort paid to the grizzly bears.

>> narrator: The U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service successfully transplanted four grizzlies from British Columbia to the Cabinet Mountain Wilderness of northwest Montana in 1994.

Today grizzly bears are found in several regions of western Montana, with the heaviest populations in and around Yellowstone Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness complex, and Glacier National Park.

The grizzly bear is Montana's official state mammal and the longtime emblem of the Montana Fish and Game Department.

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks often moves troublesome grizzlies.

With increasing human populations encroaching on grizzly habitat, the incidence of human-grizzly encounters is likely to increase.

Conflict prevention efforts will be important for the future of this great bear.

Mountain lions or cougars were never trapped or transplanted in Montana.

They went from a bounty species early on to a managed species in 1971.

They currently are not threatened or endangered and now occur throughout Montana from Kalispell to Miles City.

>> As far as cougars, I honestly feel that there's more cougars in the three, four northwest Montana counties than any place in the world today.

They're extremely well managed.

>> narrator: Although there are 15 recognized species of furbearers in Montana, only beaver, fisher, and marten were ever trapped and transplanted.

Beaver have been a controversial species because their engineering activities have often interfered with human habitation.

They have been exploited, protected, transplanted, and sometimes even managed.

Beaver were transplanted early in the 20th century.

Wildlife workers in the 1920s took considerable pleasure in the expanding numbers of Montana beaver.

But the drought of the 1930s, the constant trapping by individuals trying to eke out a living during the Depression, and, finally, a widespread tularemia epidemic severely affected beaver populations.

Upon its creation, the Montana Fish and Game Restoration division began a beaver transplanting program in the 1940s.

In the first four years, over 600 beaver were introduced into new habitats in the western half of the state.

By the 1960s, Montana had become one of the largest beaver pelt producers in the United States.

Today beaver populations have almost come full circle since the days of the fur trade.

The fisher is a carnivorous member of the weasel family native to Montana, but they almost disappeared in the 1920s.

>> But there was 20 or 30 years when people were pretty well convinced that there were no fishers.

There were no records.

The trappers didn't see any.

Nobody saw any tracks for a long, long time.

>> narrator: Dick Weckwerth, a game manager out of Kalispell, spearheaded a reintroduction effort in 1959 when fishers were obtained from British Columbia.

The Swan Mountain Range received a plant of 15.

13 were released in Lincoln County.

Eight were released in the Rock Creek Drainage southeast of Missoula.

Fisher were released again in the Cabinet Mountains south of Libby.

Pine marten or Montana sable were once regarded as Montana's most valuable fur animal.

They were heavily trapped.

>> Pine marten was almost the same situation as the fisher.

They were trapped hard.

They were, you know, American sable.

There was a good market.

The dark phase from Missoula area north to the Canadian border was the most prized one.

>> Years ago, you know, marten was worth about 50, 60 bucks, and that was a hell of a lot of money then.

>> narrator: In the 1940s, efforts were made to reestablish depleted populations.

In 1944, 12 pine marten captured in the Whitefish Range of northwest Montana were released in the Anaconda-Pintler Range of southwest Montana.

The north fork of the Flathead River furnished another 21 animals for release in northwestern Montana's Lincoln County in 1955.

Nine more pine marten were transplanted to Meagher County in central Montana in 1956 and 1957.

>> They didn't get to, you know, literally disappear like the fisher had, but they were in low numbers, and with the better protection and the database from that fur division reports, I think they're still being managed pretty much basic to that original work.

>> narrator: Today many more Montana furbearers are managed species.

>> I see wolverine tracks, I see fisher tracks, and I see pine marten tracks, and all that makes me happy when I'm out there in the snow.

I really feel good about that, seeing those tracks of all those animals.

I think, in general, the situation is pretty good these days.

>> narrator: Reintroduction and recovery efforts for other Montana wildlife species such as peregrine falcons and trumpeter swans continues today.

Much of the management of these species is shared between Montana and the federal government working in conjunction with private landowners, a result of the Threatened and Endangered Species Act of 1973.

43 wolves from Canada, Montana, and Idaho were introduced into Yellowstone Park in 1995.

Their rapid recovery was surprising.

Several packs of wolves established themselves outside of the park in Montana, supplementing the natural recolonization occurring in northwestern Montana.

This reintroduction was contentious from the start and remains so today.

>> In the early evolution of wildlife management in this area, wolves were directly targeted for elimination because they did compete with humans for ungulates.

There was a sense that them pursuing their predatory instincts on elk and deer was undesirable.

It was competition for humans that wanted to hunt these animals, so wolves were effectively taken out, and that has taken on its own saga here in Yellowstone country with the awareness that they were important to the landscape and served their role in ungulate population control, and that led us, ultimately, to the reintroduction of wolf to the Yellowstone landscape in 1995 after considerable debate.

>> narrator: Bison were a catalyst for conservation in Theodore Roosevelt's time and are still controversial at the beginning of the 21st century.

Outside of Yellowstone National Park, there are many more bison in commercial herds throughout Montana.

Because of the split jurisdiction between state and federal governments, bison are regarded as both livestock and wildlife.

>> Bison in Yellowstone, great.

That's where they belong.

But you can't have bison out on private property because they just take a dim view of a fence.

>> Take the Missouri Breaks country.

Now, there's private ranching, but there's a lot of BLM land and government land over there, but how are you going to control them and keep them within the boundaries?

There's plenty of habitat there that would support a sizable number of buffalo, but how are you going to keep them on that habitat?

>> narrator: The free-ranging and protected bison herd of Yellowstone Park has increased from a few dozen at the turn of the century to over 4,000 in recent years.

Another wild herd is maintained on the National Bison Range at Moiese.

Since the 1940s, Montana's wildlife management has been based on a fundamental principle of pioneering wildlife researcher Aldo Leopold.

He believed that game management is the art of allowing the land to produce sustained annual harvests of wild game for recreational use.

To accomplish this, the state initially acquired critical winter range areas for elk and nesting and resting areas for waterfowl.

These areas, now called wildlife management areas, or WMAs, have increased in number throughout the state.

Today they provide important habitat for many species of big game, waterfowl, and upland game birds.

The United States government also owns and manages large tracts of land in Montana important to wildlife.

Four separate federal agencies are responsible for this management: Many areas within the jurisdiction of these agencies have been designated wilderness under the National Wilderness Act of 1964 that today serve as key habitat for many wildlife species.

>> The Montana Wilderness Association is the first state level wilderness organization in the U.S. >> narrator: More recently, another innovative way to protect wildlife habitat has proven successful.

A program called Habitat Montana purchases conservation easements from landowners with hunters' dollars.

This helps prevent encroaching development while maintaining viable ranching operations.

It also provides hunting opportunities and maintains open space as it preserves wildlife habitat.

>> One person, one lifetime, is a drop in the bucket to a piece of ground.

So my theory was that if I could get somebody to carry on beyond me, say, 100 years, which would be probably three ownerships, in three ownerships, do you think that the system that you operated would change?

Yes.

And so that's why I went into conservancy.

>> narrator: Montana has always been at the forefront of wildlife research.

The first state wildlife laboratory was established in 1955.

Montana's modern game management ethic stresses scientific investigation, conservation, and habitat.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks is responsible for the development, perpetuation, and proper use of game populations throughout the state.

These responsibilities have been met over the years through wildlife surveys and research, trapping and transplanting, ecological studies, and habitat acquisition and protection.

Almost all of this has been paid for and supported by sportsmen though hunting license fees and Pittman-Robertson taxes on arms and ammunition.

Yet the wildlife resource is not managed just for hunters but for all Montana citizens.

State wildlife management areas are seasonally open to the public.

Many pursue such activities as wildlife viewing, nature photography, hiking, picnicking, and camping.

Even with their historical financial support, sportsmen today are just one group among many in the state who share concerns about Montana wildlife and habitat.

Landowners, industry, and conservation groups are increasingly vocal and often contentious in their views.

Because of this, natural resource management agencies are vitally concerned with the relationships between these divergent groups.

>> The public loves their public lands, and there are diverse interests.

Those interests are often polarized.

>> It's interesting how people perceive wildlife, and I'm not saying one way is right and another way is wrong, but, yes, we used to look at wildlife as that was something to put on the table, to feed the family, and, of course, economic times have changed quite a bit in that respect.

There is a bigger element now that wants to just view wildlife.

>> Well, I think that it's really important, especially from these days on, that people be very ethical about trapping and hunting and very diligent about how it's done and such.

There are a lot of people that are watching the impacts of hunting and trapping, and a lot of people don't agree with those activities.

I think it's an extremely important heritage for a lot of people in Montana.

>> A lot of the present crop of hunters, they're all for hunting, but they can't make the connection between that and the environment.

>> There is no better testimony to the management of our agriculture lands than the wildlife populations that reside here.

And I think agriculture can boast to that with very few exceptions.

>> Certainly, some agricultural operations do provide habitat out here in the Great Plains of Montana.

For example, there's no doubt that some of our large populations of whitetail and some mule deer and, some cases, pronghorn as well benefit from the protection of those lands by the existence of private ranch lands.

>> I had worked for years, 25 or 30 years ago, in the Montana Wildlife Federation because I felt that hunters and landowners had a strong bond and that they should be working together.

>> It's different now.

For some reason, it's just a different climate, and it's really unfortunate.

We haven't had the close working relationship that we used to have with ranchers, and we'd stick with the ranchers on certain issues, and they'd stick with us on issues.

>> So when we took resource protection, "AKA" now environmentalism, when we took it off of Main Street, when we took it out of the rod and gun network, which was Main Street and, you know, it was your community, and we put it into cells of activists within a community rather than the community itself, we've been fighting a defensive political battle ever since.

>> narrator: Despite large rifts between various factions interested in Montana wildlife, there's an underlying consensus that is often not articulated.

>> The hunting organizations are much concerned with preserving habitat for game, and the Sierra Club's also concerned with the preservation of that habitat, so there's a common interest.

>> We have to articulate our problems as landowners, but we have to understand what the public wants and needs, and we have to somehow communicate to them that to get what they want and need, we have to work together on these issues.

There are assets out there: the grass and the brush and the trees and the wildlife and the game, and it takes some sacrifice and some effort to keep that all together.

Those are the important things that bring people here and keep people here, and if we're not willing to work together on that, we're going to lose them.

>> narrator: At the beginning of the 21st century with more than 3 times the number of people in the state than at the start of the 20th century, Montana's wildlife is plentiful.

This abundance exists because of the hard work of many dedicated wildlife workers over the years, both governmental and citizen alike.

They exist because the people of Montana truly care about wildlife and wildlife habitat.

>> Economics of the 19th century brought disaster to our wildlife resource.

Over a century ago, citizens began the great Montana ecological experiment.

Their wildlife restoration efforts continued through six generations, five wars, an economic collapse, and the greatest North American climate disaster of the 20th century.

Citizen leadership arose in generation after generation and melded with the leadership and science furnished by the state and federal agencies and universities to bring about a successful effort.

The wildlife resources that we enjoy today are a gift of the people of the 20th century to the people of the 21st century.

They come with a message to care for and cherish them, to value and maintain them.

Resources which are not valued tend to end up on the trash heaps of human history.

>> It may be the most significant thing we've done as a society to be judged not by what we have invented on conquered but what we have nurtured and preserved.

>> narrator: People come to Montana for the stunning natural beauty... [stirring orchestral music] ♪ ♪ The wide-open spaces... ♪ ♪ Recreational opportunities... ♪ ♪ And abundant wildlife.

♪ ♪ If future generations are to enjoy these resources, we must be ever vigilant to threats against the environment, habitat, and wildlife.

Only through new insights, progressive management, and cooperation between competing groups will Montana's wildlife legacy continue to thrive and never again need to be brought back from the brink.

[folk guitar music] ♪ ♪ >> ♪ Just as the orange sun ♪ ♪ breaks the plane ♪ ♪ between the dawn and day, ♪ ♪ on the Great Plains ♪ ♪ in the last best place ♪ ♪ grow tender shoots of grain.

♪ ♪ The children ♪ ♪ of a thousand years ♪ ♪ are rising once again ♪ ♪ to hunt and fish and harvest ♪ ♪ what the Sun on Earth ♪ ♪ will send.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ From the Ice Age ♪ ♪ to the New Age ♪ ♪ or somewhere in between, ♪ ♪ we were skin-clad, ♪ ♪ silent hunters, ♪ ♪ but now we're living proof ♪ ♪ of dreams.

♪ ♪ The only separation is time.

♪ ♪ The future, ours to find ♪ ♪ in the last best place ♪ ♪ in the universe, ♪ ♪ the last best place ♪ ♪ on Earth.

♪ ♪ The Sun loom of creation ♪ ♪ has spun our heart a home, ♪ ♪ its layers ♪ ♪ intertwined with love.

♪ ♪ The Earth cannot be owned.

♪ ♪ From the basins ♪ ♪ of the big sky ♪ ♪ through her womb, ♪ ♪ her rivers run.

♪ ♪ We're entrusted ♪ ♪ with a legacy ♪ ♪ passed Mother Earth to son.

♪ ♪ The mountain mists ♪ ♪ and the waterfalls ♪ ♪ in pools forever swirl ♪ ♪ in the last best place ♪ ♪ in the universe, ♪ ♪ the last best place ♪ ♪ in the world.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The last best place ♪ ♪ on Earth, ♪ ♪ where the flag ♪ ♪ of freedom shines.

♪ ♪ The last best place ♪ ♪ on Earth ♪ ♪ forever will be mine.

♪ ♪ The last best place ♪ ♪ on Earth.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ The last best place ♪ ♪ on Earth.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> narrator: Back from the Brink: Montana's Wildlife Legacy was made possible by production support from: Additional support for this program was provided by: Back from the Brink: Montana's Wildlife Legacy, a two-part historical documentary, is available on DVD or videocassette through Montana PBS.

Call: 1-800-426-8243 Or send a check to: Montana PBS Or go to our website at: Montanapbs.org