Hello, everyone. I am excited to open a new field office in Montana for Western Watersheds Project. As a range ecologist, wildlife advocate, hunter and fisherman, I bring more than 20 years of experience and passion to the WWP team.

I have and will continue to serve as volunteer president of the Bozeman-based Gallatin Wildlife Association, which advocates habitat protection and fish and wildlife recovery and conservation at the landscape level. I believe the missions of WWP and GWA match seamlessly, and I am honored to work with such dedicated conservationists.

My focus will remain on restoring, protecting and connecting the habitats of keystone or "indicator" native species such as wild bison, bighorn sheep, sage grouse, grayling, cutthroat trout and beaver. What a wonderful adventure to be involved in, and I have never felt more confident of our opportunities for success.

A bit of background about my work: I have lead the GWA, a small group of anglers, hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts, as a fierce advocate for fish and wildlife habitat protection. We have and will continue to work hard to lay the groundwork for native species recovery and conservation, including the reintroduction of wild bighorn sheep throughout southwestern Montana.

Due largely to GWAs efforts, bighorn sheep were recently released in the Greenhorn Mountains near Alder Montana and in the Muddy Creek watershed near Dell. I see the successful return of wild bighorn sheep to the bunchgrass-covered ridges, canyons and foothills of southwestern Montana as an indicator of ecological restoration and a conservation legacy we can all be proud of.

Under my leadership, the GWA has initiated stream-side fisheries and beaver habitat recovery projects along Brackett Creek in the Bridger Mountains near Bozeman. We have also worked to biologically control noxious weeds along the Madison River in Bear Trap Canyon of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness Area.

Beyond these initiatives, I am most excited about the opportunities to restore wild, free-roaming bison herds in the Greater Yellowstone Area. As Montana director for WWP, I intend to work with others to develop extensive support for the recovery and conservation of wild bison in the area. We will work systematically to secure, protect and connect critical bison habitat throughout the region. We have already begun in the Taylor Fork, Buffalo Horn and Porcupine watersheds of the Gallatin Canyon, where two small cattle allotments are the primary barriers to wild bison accessing a vast landscape of public lands in the area. Stay tuned on this one.

The GWA has also endorsed the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign, an initiative to end abusive livestock grazing on public lands through a voluntary federal buyout plan for public lands grazing permittees. I continue to seek broad based support for this "win-win" concept. The benefits of this voluntary buyout program to improve, restore and protect native fish and wildlife habitat in Montana are immense.

This past summer I worked with Montana State University and University of Montana researchers on a project that investigated the effects of coalbed methane development on sage grouse populations in southeastern Montana and northeastern Wyoming. Sage grouse are the "canary in the mine shaft" for big sagebrush grasslands and interspersed riparian areas. I recently published a peer-reviewed article in the Intermountain Journal of Science on the impacts of livestock grazing on the herbaceous components of sage grouse habitat. I will continue to monitor land-use planning processes that are crucial to the future of sage grouse and other native fish and wildlife.

Currently, forest plan revisions are under way on the Beaverhead Deerlodge National Forest and Gallatin National Forest. The resource management plan for the BLM Dillon Resource Area is being written. And the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks has statewide management plans for elk, sage grouse, grizzly bears and wolves. I also plan to monitor and participate in a proposal by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to develop a habitat conservation plan for all state lands in Montana.

There are many crucial conservation efforts under way in Montana, and I am excited to be a part of them. We could use your help. If you would like to learn more about any of these efforts, give me a call, send an e-mail or stop by sometime if you are in the Bozeman area. I would be happy to show you around. Aren't the opportunities before us exciting? It's going to be wild!

Glenn Hockett is Montana Director of WWP. He lives in Bozeman, Montana. Contact him at glenn@westernwatersheds.org.