The Montana Wildlife Habitat Improvement Act was passed into law by the 2017 Legislature. The purpose of the act is to make federal funding available to restore priority wildlife habitats by managing noxious weeds. The legislation makes available up to $2M annually in federal Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration funds, which requires a dollar of nonfederal matching funds (cash) for every 3 dollars of federal grant funding.

Projects are intended to be focused on ecologically-important wildlife habitats with landscape-scale benefits. Priorities for funding include: landscape-scale projects lands that are open to public hunting and involve priority wildlife habitats; noxious weed infestations that directly impact habitat functions; broad partnerships involving multiple landowners; proposals with leveraging beyond the minimum match funding requirement; projects that retain or restore native plant communities. Priority habitats can include migration pathways for big game species.