Montana Natural Heritage Program a Free Source For Outdoor Information

Local and customizable field guides are available online through the Natural Heritage Program, allowing hikers, hunters, students and outdoor aficionados of all types the opportunity to learn more about Montana.

The Montana Natural Heritage Program (mtnhp.org ) collects objective data about Montana's species and habitats, providing access to a broad array of information about the state's wildlife.

The Montana Field Guides are a partnership project between the Natural Heritage Program and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks that provide up-to-the-minute reports regarding Montana's plants and animals, ecology, wetlands, and species of concern.

Five broad field guides cover animals, plants, fungi, ecological systems, and invasive and pest species. From there, each field guide drills down through classification from kingdom to species for both native and non-native organisms. Beginning at the class level, images of species are offered to aid in identification.

Species field guides provide general descriptions of the organism, demonstrate species range, both in Montana and beyond, and note the observations of the species in the Natural Heritage Program database, mapping the relative density and recency of the observations. Audio samples of many animals, including mammals and birds, are also often available on the species pages.

Hyperlinking in the guides allows users to jump between species and ecological systems, viewing other plants and animals that can be found in similar regions. Users can find pre-built guides about individual species and habitats, or build their own guides based on location, species, date of observation, and other factors. Full and partial PDFs of the field guides are available for download and access offline.

Although not all information about species is available via the website, the MTNHP does make all their data freely available, and requests can be made to get more in-depth reports.

A map viewer is available on the Natural Heritage Program website that lets users explore Montana's resources through geo-referenced photographs, state park and forest boundaries, named features like cemeteries, glaciers, and oil fields, mountain ranges and more. Users can also submit their own photographs and species observations to be included on the website.

The Natural Heritage Program is a part of the Montana Natural Resource Information System. Established in 1985 by the Montana Legislature, NRIS works to make information about Montana's natural resources readily accessible to citizens and government agencies as well as businesses and industries. This program is housed in the Montana State Library, an agency dedicated to providing access to information without bias.

In addition to the Natural Heritage Program, NRIS projects include the Montana Digital Atlas, Water Information System, Legislative Snapshot, Montana Cadastral, and an aerial photographs database.

You can find the Montana Natural Heritage Program online at mtnhp.org, the Montana Field Guide can be found at fieldguide.mt.gov.; and the Natural Resource Information System is available at nris.msl.mt.gov.