District 339, Montana

The district spans approximately 248 square miles (158,738 acres) with elevations ranging from roughly 3,500 feet in the Yellowstone and Shields River valleys up to 11,214 feet at Crazy Peak, the highest summit in the Crazy Mountains. Lower terrain is gently rolling river-bottom and sage benchland; the mountain fringe rises sharply through steep, rocky ridges and cirques with alpine basins near the divide.

US Highway 89 forms the western boundary of the district, running north from Livingston toward Clyde Park along the Shields River. Gravel county roads provide entry from the highway into side drainages, but the vast majority of the district (approximately 85% private land) requires landowner permission or participation in Montana FWP Block Management Program (Region 3 maintains 93 BMAs covering approximately 495,000 acres of private land). Public land (approximately 12% USFS Custer Gallatin National Forest, 3% State) is concentrated in the mountain fringe. The Cottonwood Lake Trailhead (about 15 miles northwest of Clyde Park via gravel road) is the primary west-side Custer Gallatin entry point. Eastern Crazy Mountains trailheads have been subject to ongoing legal disputes regarding trail access. In January 2025 the Custer Gallatin NF authorized the East Crazy Inspiration Divide Land Exchange, transferring 3,855 acres of federal land to private parties in exchange for 6,110 acres of private land. The Custer Gallatin NF Livingston Ranger District administers public lands in this area.

Valley floors and lower benches support sagebrush-grassland with scattered riparian cottonwood and willow along the Shields River and Cottonwood Creek drainages. Foothill transitions carry ponderosa pine and juniper; mid-elevation slopes are dominated by dense lodgepole pine and Douglas-fir forest with berry shrubs and buckbrush understory. Upper mountain terrain transitions to subalpine spruce-fir, then to alpine meadow and talus above approximately 9,000 feet.

Elk use the district primarily as transitional and winter range, concentrating when pushed off higher-elevation summer range in adjacent units; the Livingston-area elk population is described as robust by FWP Region 3 forecasts, though heavily tied to private land. White-tailed deer and mule deer are present year-round throughout the valley and foothill habitats; mule deer numbers in the broader Livingston area remain below long-term averages (Gardiner and Brackett Creek trend areas), though spring 2025 surveys showed improved fawn-to-adult ratios. Pronghorn antelope occupy the rolling sage-grassland benches of the lower valley; 2025 aerial surveys indicate populations are improving in the Livingston area after several years of decline. Black bears and mountain lions range through the timbered foothill and mountain terrain.