Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 87 > Chapter 5 - Wildlife Protection

• Account: means the nongame wildlife account established in 87-5-121. See Montana Code 87-5-102
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Board: means the fish, wildlife, and parks crimestoppers board created in 2-15-3404. See Montana Code 87-5-602
• Commercial purposes: means the collection, harvest, possession, or transportation of a species or subspecies of nongame wildlife from the wild with the intent to barter, offer for sale, ship or transport for eventual sale, or sell the animal or any part of the animal. See Montana Code 87-5-102
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Connectivity area: means an area that provides an important linkage among populations of sage grouse, particularly between core areas or priority populations in adjacent states and across international borders. See Montana Code 87-5-903
• Conservation bank: means a site or group of sites established through an agreement with the United States fish and wildlife service to provide ecological functions and services expressed as credits that are conserved and managed for sage grouse habitat and populations and used to offset debits occurring elsewhere. See Montana Code 87-5-903
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Core area: means an area that has the highest conservation value for sage grouse and has the greatest number of displaying male sage grouse and associated sage grouse habitat. See Montana Code 87-5-903
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Council: means the wildlife habitat improvement advisory council established in 87-5-803. See Montana Code 87-5-802
• Credit: means a defined unit of trade representing the accrual or attainment of resource functions or value at a proposed project site. See Montana Code 87-5-903
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Debit: means a defined unit of trade representing the loss of resource functions or value at an impact or project site. See Montana Code 87-5-903
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of fish, wildlife, and parks established in 2-15-3401. See Montana Code 87-5-802
• Department: means the department of fish, wildlife, and parks. See Montana Code 87-5-602
• Department: means the department of natural resources and conservation. See Montana Code 87-5-903
• Endangered species: means a species or subspecies of wildlife that is actively threatened with extinction due to any of the following factors:

  (a)the destruction, drastic modification, or severe curtailment of its habitat;

  (b)its overutilization for scientific, commercial, or sporting purposes;

  (c)the effect on it of disease, pollution, or predation;

  (d)other natural or artificial factors affecting its prospects of survival or recruitment within the state; or

  (e)any combination of the foregoing factors. See Montana Code 87-5-102

• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• General habitat: means an area providing habitat for sage grouse but not identified as a core area or connectivity area. See Montana Code 87-5-903
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Habitat exchange: means a market-based system that facilitates the exchange of credits and debits between interested parties. See Montana Code 87-5-903
• Habitat quantification tool: means the scientific method used to evaluate vegetation and environmental conditions related to the quality and quantity of sage grouse habitat and to quantify and calculate the value of credits and debits. See Montana Code 87-5-903
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Knowingly: means only a knowledge that the facts exist which bring the act or omission within the provisions of this code. See Montana Code 1-1-204
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Male: means a member of the human species who, under normal development, has XY chromosomes and produces or would produce small, mobile gametes, or sperm, during his life cycle and has a reproductive and endocrine system oriented around the production of those gametes. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Management: means the collection and application of biological information for the purposes of conserving populations of wildlife consistent with other uses of land and habitat. See Montana Code 87-5-102
• Nongame wildlife: means a wild mammal, bird, amphibian, reptile, fish, mollusk, crustacean, or other wild animal not otherwise legally classified by statute or regulation of this state. See Montana Code 87-5-102
• Noxious weed: means a weed defined in 7-22-2101. See Montana Code 87-5-802
• Noxious weed management: means an integrated weed management program for the containment, suppression, and, where possible, eradication of noxious weeds. See Montana Code 87-5-802
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Oversight team: means the Montana sage grouse oversight team established in 2-15-243. See Montana Code 87-5-903
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Peace officer: has the meaning as defined in 46-1-202. See Montana Code 1-1-207
• Person: means an individual, firm, corporation, association, or partnership. See Montana Code 87-5-102
• Person: includes a corporation or other entity as well as a natural person. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
• Program: means the fish, wildlife, and parks crimestoppers program created under 87-5-605. See Montana Code 87-5-602
• Project developer: means an entity proposing an action that will result in a debit. See Montana Code 87-5-903
• Property: means real and personal property. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Raptors: when used in this part, means all birds of the orders falconiformes and strigiformes, commonly called falcons, hawks, eagles, ospreys, and owls. See Montana Code 87-5-202
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Real property: means lands, tenements, hereditaments, and possessory title to public lands. See Montana Code 1-1-205
• Sage grouse: means the greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). See Montana Code 87-5-903
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Take: means to harass, hunt, capture, or kill or attempt to harass, hunt, capture, or kill wildlife. See Montana Code 87-5-102
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Wildlife: means a wild mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, mollusk, crustacean, or other wild animal or any part, product, egg, or offspring or the dead body or parts of the animal. See Montana Code 87-5-102
• Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203