The Council greatly appreciates being included in the CCP Planning Team as it provides an opportunity to provide grassroots input during the early stages of the planning process. Some concerns and ideas that the Council continues to voice at the Planning Team meetings include:

• Proposals to remove interior fences go against years of proven range management science – fencing can and should be used to properly manage grazing and protect certain areas.

• Reductions to livestock grazing would harm the local economies. Livestock grazing within the refuge is a vital part of the area’s economy and must be sustained. Livestock grazing can be used to enhance elk habitat, reduce fuels build-up that leads to catastrophic wildland fires, and control noxious weeds and should therefore be the primary tool for wildlife habitat management. The grazing program at the Wall Creek Wildlife Management Area in southwest Montana could serve as a model for effective grazing management in the Refuge.

• Great caution should be used when proposing prescribed fires as a management tool. It should only be used when and where other, less dangerous management tools cannot be used.

• More water developments in upland areas should be completed and existing water developments should be maintained to benefit both livestock and wildlife. The water developments will also reduce pressure on the riparian areas and protect the river corridor.

• Additional wildlife reintroductions should not be considered until current wildlife depradation issues on adjacent private property are resolved.

• Use of additional or expanded hunting should be used in lieu of introducing or allowing a large predator on the Refuge.

• While the Refuge remains a very unique and special place for all of us, we recognize that some irreversible changes to the landscape have been made since the area was settled. Instead of focusing on returning the area to the pre-European settlement conditions, management efforts would be more efficient and effective if they acknowledged the human uses and dependence on the area and used innovative methods to satisfy those needs while providing prime wildlife habitat. With a refuge as large as the CMR, certainly there is room for antelope and sharptail grouse habitat as well as livestock grazing, all of which are provided for in the Executive Order that established the Refuge in 1936.