Whether you hunt or just enjoy watching or photographing Big Sky Country's incredible wildlife you need to get a copy of Montana's Wildlife Legacy, Decimation to Restoration, by Harold Picton and Terry Lonner, published in 2008 by Media Works Publishing, Bozeman, MT.
I found it difficult to put down. Page after page told the fascinating tale of how this species or that was literally pulled from the ashes and in most cases returned to viable, huntable populations in just a few years. With beginnings way back in the early 1900s all the way to the present we owe a helluva lot to a relative handful, dedicated, hard working folks. Thanks to them and their relentless drive despite being faced with what must have seemed at times daunting, nearly impossible hurdles just about every critter Lewis and Clark stumbled onto remains today--and in decent numbers.
Of all the big game species many of which are so common they've become almost ho-hum only moose and woodland caribou were not physically trapped and widely transplanted; wise, sound wildlife management painted the finishing touches. Elk and antelope are good examples. From the brink of extinction both now occupy nearly every suitable piece of habitat east to west, north to south. As late as the 1940s mule deer were found only in isolated pockets east of the western mountains; today the long-ears are found in huntable numbers in every one of our 56 counties.
Big game, furbearers, predators, upland game birds all with a unique story to tell and the authors have done a thorough job of digging them up and telling in fine fashion.
Get this book, you won't be sorry, guarandamnteed.
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