FWP chief takes responsibility for toxic culture at wildlife agency

At a Legislative Audit Committee meeting Thursday, lawmakers had their first chance to address a scathing report that showed more than half of Montana’s game, fish and wildlife wardens fear retaliation and believe the culture in the department is bad, while state auditors found a dearth of required personnel records.

In an audit report released earlier this month, auditors found that since 2020, wardens described eroding trust between the wardens and upper management, centralized in Helena, and when auditors tried to examine the paperwork, most of it was missing or never completed by a succession of five human resources directors within the past decade...